Portland Timbers @ San Jose Earthquakes Player Ratings: The Verdict

While this shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise, the Portland Timbers trended downward for this week's player ratings. Obviously a disheartening loss will do that to something like performance ratings. All in all, only a fewplayers total got a score of 6+, something that's happened only a few times so far.

Anyway, here are the results:

Starting XI

Donovan Ricketts - 7

Will: Ricketts put up a fairly average shift for himself against San Jose. He made some good saves, distributed fairly well, and was effective at controlling the box. He could be faulted for not keeping the defense organized on the second Earthquakes goal, but that is a bit of a stretch.

Jack Jewsbury - 4

Jewsbury really struggled this game. Bad giveaways and SJ exploited his lack of speed a number of times.
- SEDave

Geoff: Not a great night for Jewsbury as he was constantly burned by San Jose's speedy and physical wingers. I hate to say it, but it appears to become more and more evident that Jewsbury might not have the speed anymore to be a right back.

Andrew Jean-Baptiste - 5

The call against AJB was crap (any more obvious a dive, and it would have been assigned a degree of difficulty), but he should never have allowed the opportunity for the ref to screw it up. They guy gets better all the time, but his brain farts tend to cost us points. - David K

Geoff: Overall, AJB had a solid night. That said, he did something that he's done before and should never do in the first place: give a defender a chance to go down for an easy PK. AJB has lots of talent, but eventually he's gotta stop making these kinds of mistakes. Without that goal, this game is looking much different.

Pa Modou Kah - 5.5

Kah did a great job on the defensive side of the board, as he is expected to do. But what made him stand out was his presence in the attack and overall intensity during the game. If the rest of the Timbers played with as much heart as Kah, the outcome would have been very different. - Anonymous

Stacey: Kah is one of a handful of players standing right near Steven Lenhart on San Jose's second goal, all of whom are at fault, because seriously, how do you not having anyone marking Steven Lenhart on a set piece? Aside from that huge defensive lapse, Kah handled Lenhart's physicality and general obnoxiousness fairly well.

Michael Harrington - 6

Stacey: It was a good outing for Harrington, who had a number of really great crosses, including the one to Frederic Piquionne that was so frustratingly, tantalizingly close to resulting in the equalizer.

Will Johnson - 5.5

Will: W. Johnson found himself in scoring positions all evening but just could not apply the finishing touch that was with him throughout the first half of the season. Hopefully the Canadian National Team curse has not fallen on the Timbers' captain. Other than the team's scoring woes, though, Will was generally in the right place at the right time, something doubly necessary without Diego Chara in the lineup.

Diego Valeri - 5.5

Geoff: Valeri was a bit ephemeral against San Jose. At certain points, he was practically invisible, nowhere to be seen. But then he would crop up every now and then with something brilliant like the pass to Will Johnson which very nearly turned into a goal. Overall, he didn't have a bad game, but he just wasn't as present as was needed.

Ben Zemanski - 4.5

Andy: He didn't look like much against San Jose, committing three fouls and very nearly getting his fifth yellow card of the season. But he gave up possession just five times, and his defensive work freed up Will Johnson to get forward and involved in the attack. So that's something.

Darlington Nagbe - 6.5

Stacey: The Earthquakes are the type of team that always give guys like Nagbe a hard time, but he played hard and stayed composed to get the goal, sparing us all the indignity of not only losing to San Jose, but getting shut out by them.

Ryan Johnson - 4.5

Andy: While the stat sheet shows he only had one off-target shot on the night, he did well to move the attack forward quickly and got himself into some awfully dangerous positions. But then again, on a day when his team took 20 shots, only one of them was his.

Rodney Wallace - 5.5

Rodney Wallace looked like a man who had been over-performing all year and let it get to his head. Took a few bad shots (the one from outside the 18 with a streaking Will Johnson to his left comes to mind) and had a few times where he tried to do it on his own. - DaCouve12

Andy: RodWall's presence on the flank makes a big difference in how the Timbers play, but overall it wasn't one of his better matches, as he coughed up possession far too often and didn't have the shot accuracy that we had been accustomed to seeing.

Subs

Frederic Piquionne - 7

Will: Piquionne had his one moment of genius as he played Darlington Nagbe in behind the Quakes' defense with a fantastic back-heeled pass. Beyond that he was active, contributed on defense, and was generally a pain for San Jose to deal with. The only downside to his play was that he did not bury his chances.

Jose Adolfo Valencia - 5.5

Valencia disappeared for long stretches (even during a short time on the field), but, man, he can be dangerous when he gets the ball with room to turn. - Westcoast Ape

Geoff: You can see why Valencia is so popular with Timbers fans despite getting minimal minutes. San Jose almost learned the hard way that if you give him the space he's going to make you pay. A shame he wasn't able to get on the scoreboard, but he's definitely improving.

Kalif Alhassasn - N/A

Geoff: Kalif did not play long enough to get properly scored.

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A total of 91 people voted and participated in this week's player ratings. A bit down from last week's, but that seems to be the case with losses.

What do you think of the Timbers' performance against San Jose? Any surprises in the ratings?