Player Ratings: Poor showings all around as RSL falls 2-0 to Seattle

Rimando ... 8 ... But for Nick Rimando, this one's a totally different game. Obviously. He made some stops to keep it 1-0 and to keep it 2-0 (against us, sadly) and wasn't much at fault for either goal. His defense let him down in very significant ways.

Beltran ... 5 ... Let's be clear about this one: Tony Beltran wasn't good enough on the day. He looked lost, uncertain, and unready for the match - so, about the same as his teammates.

Salcedo ... 6.5 ... In one-on-one situations with dangerous strikers, Carlos Salcedo was fantastic. He and Borchers, though, seem to lack communication, and that's worrying. Salcedo may have been caught out a bit on the first goal, as was Borchers, and as was the entire midfield, but he had a good game aside from that.

Borchers ... 5.5 ... He was the second-best of the defensive pairing, being caught out several times while trying to cover simply too much ground for the players around him. This was surely not his best game.

Wingert ... 5.5 ... It's hard to really remember what Chris Wingert did well or what he did particularly poorly; this was a subpar showing, but discouragingly, he played to the level of those around him.

Beckerman ... 5 ... We all know Kyle Beckerman plays a markedly different role for the national team - one where he's tasked with sitting back and central more - so one would be excused for thinking it was a different dreadlocked midfielder out there on Friday. He gets into the attack better than he has in the past, but there were swathes of space in the midfield that Seattle capitalized on time and time again - spots where Beckerman should have been. I'll be damned if Beckerman didn't look fatigued, and that's a worrying thing.

Grabavoy ... 7 ... Ned Grabavoy relies on the players around him to be effective - he's not a solo midfielder. He can keep the ball, he can score from great positions, and he can make perfect runs. But when he's not with a midfield that's doing that, he can look a little lost. Remarkably, Ned was perhaps the best midfielder out there.

Gil ... 4.5 ... Some players struggled, and others struggled more. Luis Gil was one of the latter category. His passing was poor, his movement was poorer. He seemed unsure and unable to build on strong weeks of play.

Morales ... 5.5 ... It was strange, but Javier Morales played a more connective role to my eye than he did a creative one. Considering our inability to really build anything, he's at some fault here, as is the rest of the midfield. This was not the immense Morales we've come to expect in recent weeks.

Findley ... 5.5 ... At no point did Robbie Findley impress particularly, but the amount of service he got was woefully approaching zero. The Findley-Plata combination relies on a midfield that can produce service to wide positions and continue runs through the center; that was gone, and Findley had little chance to make his mark on the match.

Plata ... 6 ... Marginally better than Robbie Findley on the night, Joao Plata was fine on the ball but didn't provide much in the way of genuine spark. He had perhaps our best shot of the night - a low, driven strike from outside the box - but, like Findley, relies on quality service and runs.

Substitutes

Garcia ... 5.5 ... Coming in at the half as part of a formational switch is a difficult ask, and Olmes Garcia managed that as well as he could. But he wasn't a panacea, despite his sometimes-magical ways.

Sandoval ... 5.5 ... Like Garcia before him, Devon Sandoval had nary a chance to impact the game, in part because he simply came into the match late in a high-pressure situation.

Stephenson: 5.5 ... The lanky midfielder didn't have a chance to really make an impact, and he took a couple long, extremely optimistic shots. That's not so bad, I suppose.

The 4-3-3 reappearing ... 5 ... On the surface, it seemed a chance to widen play and fix some worrying aspects of the first half, but it was too little, too late, really. Seattle had figured us out - not tactically but as personnel goes - and beat us to important possession opportunities in the midfield. By cutting Gil from the midfield, it wasn't a case of addition by subtraction - it was subtraction, plain and simple. While it was encouraging to see Jason Kreis willing to tinker, this didn't solve our problems, which, by and large, weren't down to formation, but down to an inability to cope with a high pressure midfield.