BEST

Guangzhou organisation

Buying up 2000 seats, handing the tickets out among the local Chinese community and giving everyone a free Guangzhou shirt - I mean if that isn't a role model for community engagement, I don't know what is.

Yeah they've got the cash to splash and it probably pales into comparison with how much Fabio Cannavaro's lunch costs, but it's a sign of how positive Chinese investment in football can be. 

Guangzhou's finances still pale in the shadow of football's elite, but you don't see Real Madrid handing out free shirts, do you?

The Chinese specialist

 

Just when you thought we'd lost him to a lucrative fashion modelling career, Jai La Ionica (in tribute to the worst April Fools joke of all time) reminded us all what he does best: score against the Chinese.

You'd think his career might have really taken off if he'd just been able to score against Australians, but Jai's clearly hedging his bets on a Chinese Super League move, y'know, if his deals with Calvin Klein and a fine chicken purveyor fall through.

Terrace Antonis

It's fantastic to see that when given the responsibility to truly strut his stuff among a vastly inexperienced forward line, Terry Antonis' quality shone through. 

His keen distribution, explosiveness in possession and feisty shooting range left him a cut above his fellow Victory midfielders, but to be fair he wasn't the only Big V starlet to shine on the night. 

Even the likes of Storm Roux and Corey Brown, basically anyone who'd been playing regularly this season, broadly rose to the occasion.

WORST

Melbourne crowd

Yes the Big V have made a big mess of this campaign and yes, the Chinese giants padded out the numbers like the Liberal Party at a Tasmanian community forum, but a Tuesday night in the ACL is no excuse for Australia's most supported club to be outnumbered, outsung and outgunned by Guangzhou at home.

That bank of red should have made the atmosphere at AAMI Park electric in a way that Melbourne City could never quite muster (although, come to think of it, can't they afford to pad the numbers as well?) but there was no North Terrace there to make it a fair fight.

And if there are 2,000 Chinese fans chanting but no one there to hear it, do they really make a sound?

Victory youngsters need more games

Kenny Athiu possibly deserves a little more criticism than he gets, substitutions or not, he's played a lot of A-League games for a very strong team for very little result. 

In fact, I think most big men get more credit than they deserve - if you can't put the ball in the back of the net, what's so valuable about all the shoving and knockdowns anyway?

But there is a part of me that thinks if Athiu moved away from Melbourne to a Central Coast Mariners or Adelaide United, he might be able to show his true mettle. I remember watching him every weekend at Heidelberg United and his pace and powerful finishing, even in the NPL, was a sight to behold. 

But he's not the only Victory man that may benefit from a loan move - Josh Hope is also getting to the point where he really needs an extended run of games, but I just can't see it happening in navy blue.

Refereeing

I normally treat criticising referees with the same fearful distance as religion or my girlfriend's cooking, but when Anderson Talisca kicked Corey Brown in the head and had the foul given in his favour, well that's blatant ranga abuse and I simply won't stand for it. 

No matter how ridiculous a hairstyle Talisca has CHOSEN and how little red-hair Brown has on that lunar eclipse of a scalp, the referee still has a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable members of Victory society. 

In truth, it was just one of a number of shocking calls (a nearly comatose throw-in also worth mentioning) that soured otherwise praise-worthy refereeing performances in this year's ACL.