I have a confession to make: I love post-game player ratings. For any site that puts them together, I'll be there -- comparing, agreeing, disagreeing...
And I love them even though (or perhaps because) I could never put them together myself, given that my maternal area is far too sensitive to ever give any player I like less than a 7. And if I had to give anybody under a 5, I'd feel compelled to then wrap him up in a homemade quilt and give him chicken soup to make up for it.
And not that cheapo Campbell's stuff, either. We're talking...like...Progresso!
(You were thinking I was going to say "homemade," weren't you? And my family is collectively saying: "Ha!")
But at any rate, player ratings are up over at ProstAmerika. And given that five of the players got 8/10, they're opening it up to the fans to deliver the award to the Most Deserving Sounder. Your voting options are: Osvaldo Alonso, Nate Jaqua, Freddie Ljungberg, James Riley, Steve Zakuani.
My vote went to Osvaldo Alonso. Partly because he was fantastic yesterday, and partly because it's just so much fun to see a DM get accolades. As Zidane said when DM Claude Makelele left Real Madrid because they wanted to buy glamour-boy and attacking player David Beckham rather than pay Maka more money: "Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?"
I like seeing our engine get some recognition.
But don't let me influence you. A case could be made for each of these players. So click on the above link and make up your own mind as to who should be Man of the Match.