Sounders at Portland, community player ratings

Obafemi Martins received the highest rating of the year from Sounder at Heart readers following the Seattle Sounders' 4-2 win at Portland Aug. 24. Martins two-goal, one-assist performance received a 9.08 from readers, the first average score to top 9 for any player this season. About 125 people gave Oba a perfect 10 for his efforts.

The 9.08 average rating tops the 8.96 Chad Marshall earned in a home game against Philadelphia in May as the best score from the community this season so far. Ten of the 11 Sounders starters earned average scores above a 6 in the victory in Portland. Zach Scott finished just slightly below at 5.91. Substitute goal-scorer Chad Barrett also finished above a 6, earning a 6.89 from readers. Clint Dempsey, 7.68, and Brad Evans, 7.10, were the two players other than Martins who received higher than a 7.

Oba's performance, the big win, and the rivalry, all contributed to more readers taking part in the ratings this week, with more than 450 folks submitting ballots.

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 6.42 (7) -0.58

DeAndre Yedlin: 6.90 (7) -0.10

Chad Marshall: 6.99 (6) +0.99

Zach Scott: 5.91 (5) +0.91

Leo Gonzalez: 6.21 (5) +1.21 Leo struggled with his passing in this game. But based on the comments in the balloting thread it sounds like many of you thought his defense more than made up for that.

Osvaldo Alonso: 6.72 (6) +0.72

Gonzalo Pineda: 6.61 (7) -0.39 I'm surprised that Gonzalo ended up with a slightly lower score than Alonso in this one. I thought they played pretty similar games, but that Gonzalo moved ahead with his deft feed on Martins' goal-of-the-week run and finish. Love to hear from folks who scored Ozzie a little higher. I know you are out there.

Brad Evans: 7.10 (6) +1.10 Obviously people really liked Brad's killer move that led to the first goal, when he pushed the ball past a defender, ran past like the defender was standing still and executed a perfect cross on the ground for Martins' easy tap-in. Still, Brad himself said he didn't think he played all that well, and the stats seemed to back up that contention. I'd guess this rating will open up the discussion about "results oriented" ratings again, as it seems like one play had a heavy influence on how the community saw Brad in this game.

Marco Pappa: 6.45 (6) +0.45

Clint Dempsey: 7.68 (8) -0.32

Obafemi Martins: 9.08 (9) +0.08 About 125 people gave Oba a perfect 10 for this game. A smaller number gave him an 8. And a couple folks who rated everyone relatively lower even gave him a 7. But the majority of readers gave Oba a 9 for this one, which I still think is the right rating. As good as he was, I personally wouldn't rank Oba's performance here ahead of the three performance for which I gave Dempsey a 9 this year, and would rank Clint's performances in Portland and at home against Colorado in April as slightly better. Clint earned an 8.71 and an 8.84 from the community in those two games. But that's all just picking nits, really. All of those performances, plus Clint's 8.61 in Dallas and Marshall's 8.96 against Philadelphia, were outstanding performances that I would put up against anything anyone has accomplished in MLS this year. Oba was obviously amazing in this game and deserves all the accolades we can throw at him.

Subs

Chad Barrett: (63rd minute) 6.89 (7) -0.11

Lamar Neagle: (78th minute) 5.71 (6) -0.29

Andy Rose (80th minute): 5.60 (5) +0.60

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