Player rating results: New England, Toronto, Columbus and Sporting Kansas City

Thanks for keeping the faith and voting without seeing results for a few games. I was away on vacation but am back and ready to catch up. Since we’ve looked at results the Union have won three and lost one, integrated Alejandro Bedoya and benched Ken Tribbett. Here’s what the fans have to say about those games.

We start with the satisfying drubbing of New England, a US Open Cup exorcism of sorts, and one that had to be a confidence builder for a club that had lost its way this summer.

As always the fan ratings are compared with those from Philly Soccer Page, Philly Voice and our favorite algorithm from Whoscored.

Tranquillo Barnetta was far and away the fan MVP earning his fifth such honor this season. Chris Pontius won the overall vote while Warren Creavalle was almost unanimously the least valuable player. The computer was unimpressed with Alejandro Bedoya’s debut and even though a 6.85 score is decent, it was not good enough on this solid night for the Union.

Now to the only loss of the games reviewed today. Toronto FC put on a goal scoring clinic in the first half against the Union and cruised to victory. Here how the pundits voted.

Ken Tribbett had a half to forget and fans laid it on thick with a 3.3 rating. PSP doled out 2s for this performance, but not just for Tribbett. Ilshino and Warren Creavalle were also given lashings for their performance and ultimately Creavalle was the LVP because Whoscored didn't really kill Tribbett for his performance. As we've seen, artificial intelligence has a long way to go.

Andre Blake and Barnetta were tied for best player but a 6.8 rating is no vote of confidence. Keegan Rosenberry won best overall player of the match.

Rosenberry made a terrific impact in the next match, scoring the game winner against Columbus. He was voted best player by the fans for the second time this season and was overall MVP as well.

Kevin Kinkead of the Philly Voice was downright giddy grading this game, handing out five A-‘s. No grading on the curve there. It’s worth noting that Josh Yaro received a strong vote of confidence from everyone in his first game back as a starter. CJ Sapong earned his first LVP of the season against Columbus.

Sapong unfortunately earned that same award against Sporting Kansas City. Let’s discuss.

It’s worth following this Sapong trend as those results came at the same time that Fabian Herbers replaced Ilshino on the right wing. Perhaps Herber’s pinching in to the middle is rendering Sapong less effective in his target role.

Roland Alberg won the fan vote despite playing just one-third of the match. He terrific strike from outside the box broke a 0-0 deadlock and he also drew a red card and added a nice assist with the clock winding down. It’s Alberg’s fifth MVP of the season.

And now we're all caught up. Barnetta, Alberg and Rosenberry and rotated being the heroes while Tribbett, Creavalle and Sapong have been dubbed the zeroes. For my money I think Creavalle is working nicely with Bedoya so far and the defensive shape is improved with that combination and the link to the attacking midfielders has been more consistent. Creavalle is now in that under appreciated role of destroyer where usually only mistakes are exposed. Give him another look against Chicago.