In round 4 Glory moved clear at the top, a thriller was played out in Mudgee, whilst the Phoenix and Mariners continued to struggle. But who made our team of the week? Time to find out.
GK – Jamie Young
Young features again in our team of the week despite conceding twice in Mudgee, even though there was nothing he could do about either of the goals. The Englishman did very well to save Riera’s initial penalty for the Wanderer’s second but of course the match will be remembered for a nasty incident involving the goalkeeper, where he was inexplicably racially abused by a member of the home crowd. Absolutely intolerable in the modern game and the FFA must hand out an acceptable punishment.
RB – Rhyan Grant
It seems like there is a battle going on between Grant and Ritchie De Laet at the moment for the best right-back in the league as they seem to be interchanging at the position in our team each week. But it’s the Sydney man who gets in this week, capping off his Socceroos call-up by providing a lovely cross to set up Alex Brosque for the Sky Blues opener in Newcastle.
RCB – Dino Djulbic
To say that Perth have options defensively would be an understatement. Tomislav Mrcela goes out, Djulbic comes in and doesn’t put a foot wrong in Adelaide. Tony Popovic may have a tough decision to make on his back three after the international break.
LCB – Shane Lowry
Lowry features for the third straight week after once again completely shutting down his direct opponent. Although he was up against the inexperienced Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Lowry kept with him stride for stride and even when the youngster did get on the ball, it was often in ineffective areas.
LB – Jason Davidson
Another Perth player who keeps coming up trumps for Popovic. Davidson faced another tough test on Sunday against the pacey Ben Halloran, but passed with flying colours whilst once again making an impact the other way. To be honest, he might have been a bit unlucky not to have made Graham Arnold’s squad of 27 for South Korea and Lebanon.
RCM – Nick Cowburn
The award for most unpredictable performance of the week definitely goes to Cowburn, who was immense after coming off the bench against Sydney on Saturday night. Of course it was the 23-year-old who popped up in the 87th minute to draw Ernie Merrick’s team level with a near-post header, but he also brought the sort of energy in midfield which was seriously lacking from Steven Ugarkovic and Ben Kantarovski.
LCM – Alex Lopez
Lopez is slowly making his claim as one of John Aloisi’s most important players. The Spaniard was very good a couple of weeks ago against the Nix, but in Mudgee against the Wanderers he put in his most impressive performance thus far, sparking a comeback for Roar with a sumptuous strike which hit the post before going in just before half-time.
RM – Keisuke Honda
We’ve chosen Honda in the team this week but any of Victory’s front trio of Honda, Troisi or Barbarouses would have sufficed this week. Kevin Muscat’s men completely tore the Mariners to shreds at AAMI Park, with the Japanese star continuing to dominate this season by opening the scoring. Honda robbed Antony Golec of possession before ruthlessly finishing into the bottom left corner. That’s now two goals and three assists in just four games for the 32-year-old.
CAM – Milos Ninkovic
Just like the Sydney team and most A-League fantasy teams, Ninkovic is usually one of the first names on this team sheet each week. It sounds like a broken record when we talk about his ability to dictate the tempo of a match by drawing fouls and possessing the most tantalisingly small, intricate touches in tight areas. If there was one critism, it would be to be more selfish in attacking areas, as he can easily win Steve Corica’s team more points on his own.
LM – Bruce Kamau
It has been a good couple of weeks for Kamau, who was lively last week in Wellington before proving to be a real nuisance against Roar. The former Adelaide United and Melbourne City man was involved in both of Oriol Riera’s strikes, with his strike smashing the crossbar to tee up the Spaniard’s first before drawing a penalty which was eventually tucked away at the second attempt by Riera for the second.
ST – Andy Keogh
The Irishman has been on fire so far this season, and it comes as a real shock that this is the first time he features in our team. On Sunday Keogh netted his fourth from four starts in the new campaign and although he isn’t the type of player who is going to score brilliant long-range strikes or solo efforts, he is always in the right place at the right time. He really is a classic poacher and at this rate a contender for the golden boot.
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