Rate the U: Miro Magic

Jamiro Monteiro continued his early strong run of form showing how valuable he is to the team, scoring the Philadelphia Union’s first MLS goal of 2021 and menacing Inter Miami on both sides of the ball.

His performance in a match that ended in a disappointing 2-1 loss — the first regular season home loss since 2019 — earned him the highest marks in our Community Player Rating poll.

The Cape Verde international had an average rating of 4 out of 5 for the match. This is the fourth time he’s finished with the top rating. He finished first twice in 2019 and once in 2020.

Midfielders Leon Flach and Jose Martinez tied for second with a 3.33 average rating and Andre Blake (3.31) and Kai Wagner (3.10) rounded out the top five.

Set piece defending, Leon Flach’s foul that set up the first goal-producing set piece, Robbie Robinson’s miss off a poor giveaway from Jakob Glesnes, Federico Higuain subbing into the game, Cory Burke missing a sitter and Kacper misfiring on a couple free headers were all mentioned as important plays in the match.

Fatigue, the decision to sit Anthony Fontana, defending and the small number of chances the offense created were all mentioned as surprises about the game.

Some other comments: “What was that?,” “Play the kids,” “Curtin’s subs were garbage,” “Yuck we didn’t get the job done,” “Not sure why the Miami supporters sat behind the goal in our stadium?!?,” “Miro was getting hacked all game long,” “Monteiro is trying to do way too much.”

More than half of respondents to the poll said they think the referee neither positively or negatively impacted the match though there was a sizable number of people who felt negatively.