Colorado Rapids vs. New England Revolution - Player Ratings

We've seen that sort of game before this season, the old 'tale of two halves' archetype. Colorado had a pretty mediocre first half performance and had a 1-0 deficit at the half to go with it, but turned up the juice in the second half and earned a 2-1 victory, only the fourth game in Oscar Pareja's managerial tenure that the Rapids have won with the other team scoring a goal and only the second time that they've come from behind to earn such a win after the other team scored first.

With that sort of game, it's mostly middling numbers in my player ratings. There were a few standouts, though:

DEFENSE

Clint Irwin - 5
Honestly, there wasn't much he could do about the goal that Juan Toja put in on that free kick. He was effectively screened by the wall and by the time he saw the ball, several New England players were already buzzing in front of him. That's never an easy decision for a goalie to make and had it hit Jerry Bengston, he likely would have been in close to the right position. Past the goal he didn't have all that much work to do.

Marvell Wynne - 5
Not the greatest performance on the field, but still a much needed decent performance after his awful string of games a few weeks back. Getting benched for a game or two seemed to light his fire, and he defended well in the back. Going forward he also looked quite impressive, making some great cutback moves to try and feed the ball into the area.

Shane O'Neill - 6.5
Another solid showing from Shane, who always seems to make everyone around him play better. That's a rare trait for a 19-year-old, but we're certainly not complaining.

Drew Moor - 5.5
That little flub he made right in front of Clint Irwin was a bit frightening, but past that he was his usual solid self in the back.

Chris Klute - 6
How about Klute trying to get himself on the scoreboard with that cheeky little run in the second half? His service was mostly wasted thanks to a very fundamentally sound Revs defense, but it was certainly not a bad performance at all from the kid.

MIDFIELD

Hendry Thomas - 5
Only lasted a half, but wasn't removed for anything he did wrong, in particular. His passing was fantastic as usual and he played his usual strong defense, though he did have the foul called on him that led to the goal.

Nathan Sturgis - 7
With Thomas out of the picture, we knew that the onus would be on Sturgis to lock things down in the midfield in the second half. Lock them down he did, another signature performance for a guy who has to be the most surprising breakout player of the season in MLS.

Dillon Powers - 7
On the offense he was clearly at the top of his game, assisting on Labrocca's goal and forcing the own goal with a good run and a good cross. He was moved into a more holding position in the second half, and excelled in the passing game when placed there. Personally, he was my Man of the Match for playing a complete 90 minutes.

FORWARDS

Nick Labrocca - 6
I'll admit that I was among the biggest detractors of Labrocca's during the first half, but he more than made up for it with a super second. He was very strong on the ball and found the shooting ability again that got him accolades with Chivas USA a few years back.

Deshorn Brown - 5
The kid still just really needs to figure out his finishing, because it's almost unbelievable how many times a game he gets himself into great positions. Likely would have scored if not for Bobby Shuttleworth at times, but had his fair share of misses too.

Edson Buddle - 4
Probably the worst game that Buddle has played in burgundy. He usually does the little things right, but seemed like he was swamped when surrounded by Revs players, and was playing even further back on the field than usual so he was having trouble getting the ball up to Labrocca, Brown and Harris.

SUBS

Atiba Harris - 5
Nothing too great and nothing too bad from the first sub of the game, who put in a very workmanlike shift as he usually does. Had one soft shot that caught Shuttleworth by surprise that almost turned into an Edson Buddle goal, but not too much else.

Jaime Castrillon - 5
Didn't have much time to make a difference, but had two or three fantastic sequences up top that nearly led to chances.

German Mera - N/A
Came in to shore up the size of the team near the end of the game, but didn't really get to do anything in the three minutes he was allotted.

---

More from Burgundy Wave:

• Colorado Rapids vs. New England Revolution: Oh Hello, Bad Stat!
• Colorado Rapids Thugcast, Episode 42: Dumb Luck, Doyle And Dread
• Colorado Rapids vs. New England Revolution: Man Of The Match