Oba wins another MOTM in Chivas USA victory

Obafemi Martins continues his torrid pace over the past month and Sounder at Heart readers are noticing. Martins received the highest rating to earn yet another man of the match honor from the Seattle Sounders 4-2 victory over Chivas USA in Seattle last week.

Martins received an 8.16 average rating from readers, the only Sounders player to earn more than an 8 in the victory.

Read on to see the full set of scores from the community for the game. Reader scores follow the player's name, followed by my ratings in parenthesis and then the difference between those two numbers in italics.

Player: Average Fan Rating (Author Rating) Difference

Stefan Frei 4.97 (5) -0.03

DeAndre Yedlin: 5.53 (5) +0.53

Chad Marshall: 5.51 (5) +0.51

Jalil Anibaba: 3.66 (5) -1.34 With all the games recently we haven't had as much opportunity to discuss ratings. During that time, there seems to be a general consensus that Jalil has struggled and is a big liability. I have to say that I don't agree that he has been that bad. Yes, he was particularly to blame for the first goal in this one, but even when I add in the negative rating I gave him for that he still ended up at an even 0 in my impact plays notebook. Love to discuss this more, but one thing I always emphasize in my rating of the game is that one play does not equal 90 minutes, good or bad. I don't reduce the game to just the scoring plays. Love to hear more of what y'all think about how to weigh the goals scored and given up against the rest of the flow of the game.

Brad Evans: 5.39 (5) +0.39 To follow up my comment about Anibaba, I want to say that I scored Brad a plus-1 in my notebook for this game, just one point higher than Anibaba, which earns them both fives from me. What did those of you who gave Jalil a 3 and Brad a 6 see that I didn't?

Osvaldo Alonso: 6.38 (8) -1.62 I scored Ozzie an 8 here after giving him a plus-8 in my notebook. I did read where some felt he was partly to blame on the first goal, but I didn't see that and didn't have him marked down for any negative impact plays in my notebook. I particularly liked how many slicing passes straight up the middle he was getting against Chivas' soft midfield. Ozzie often is the guy who switches the play and widens the attack; I think in this game he may have been more direct than I have ever seen him.

Micheal Azira: 6.50 (7) -0.50 Quite a performance by Micheal in this one. He stayed home and defended more in the middle than Andy Rose does in this position, but his one-touch passing was a revelation. I don't recall ever seeing him do that before. A very pleasant surprise.

Macro Pappa: 6.08 (6) +0.08

Lamar Neagle: 6.62 (6) +0.62

Clint Dempsey: 7.26 (9) -1.74

Obafemi Martins: 8.16 (9) -0.84 I wonder if people perhaps didn't score Oba and Dempsey as highly as they might have given that Chivas USA was the opponent. In my notebook, Oba scored a plus-12, equal to what Dempsey earned in his stellar game in Portland earlier in the year. If he had scored a hat-trick like Dempsey did in Portland I would have given Oba a 10 in this game, the first of the year. He was consistently incredible here, with precise passing and finishing and a working motor like we often attribute to players way below his talent level. Every time I thought of marking him down for a turnover he ran back and forced the player who got the ball to turn it back to the Sounders. Every mistake I saw Oba made up for immediately. He was as close to World Class as I've ever seen in an MLS game in this one.

Subs

Andy Rose: (69th minute) 5.30 (5) +0.30

Sean Okoli: (91st minute) 5.07 (incomplete) ~

Dylan Remick (91st minute): 4.88 (incomplete) ~

The key to the 1-10 scale:
1. Horrible
2. Awful
3. Poor
4. Flawed
5. Adequate
6. Good
7. Very good
8. Great
9. Superb
10. World Class