Don't rate the player, rate the game

Had a great time in Portland. Only thing that could have gone better was a better result. I'll probably track down some links to other peoples analysis and take aways as far as the game is concerned. My only thoughts were that we looked like we played poor because we were gassed and Portland played poor because they're just not that good.

It wasn't all that great of a game, though the last 5-10 minutes got to be tense. All in all though I still feel like this is a great team. If we're going to lose 1 game out of 8 and the only goal scored on us in that game is a really crazy own goal, I'll take it every year. Our defense is still playing awesome.

At any rate, here's some player ratings. Since we've never lost before I wasn't sure if I should keep Man of the Match to SKC or whoever played best overall. I guess we'll say overall. In that case, Troy Perkins gets the knod for leading Portland to a clean sheet and a win with a couple of good saves.

For SKC Graham Zusi get's some love, and all in all the defense wasn't too bad, especially Mr. Nielsen, who made some great stops as well.

Player	Rating
Portland Timbers
Troy Perkins	7.1
Eric Brunner	6.7
Lovel Palmer	5.8
Hanyer Mosquera	6.7
Mike Chabla	6.3
Steve Purdy	6.3
Darlington Nagbe	5.4
Eric Alexander	4.1
Jack Jewsbury	5.8
Diego Chara	5.8
Franck Songo'o	4.1
Frederick Braun	4.1
Kris Boyd	3.6
Jorge Perlaza	4.5
Sporting Kansas City
Jimmy Nielsen	4.9
Aurelien Collin	4.5
Matt Besler	4.9
Chance Myers	3.6
Seth Sinovic	4.9
Graham Zusi	5.4
Roger Espinoza	4.5
Bobby Convey	4.5
Julio Cesar	4.5
Paolo Nagamura	4.1
Kei Kamara	4.5
CJ Sapong	4.5
Teal Bunbry	4.1