MELBOURNE VICTORY

Lawrence Thomas - 7.5  

It's easy to forget on his quieter nights just how far he's come, such a solid player with the ball at his feet, keeping the Victory defence organised and the ball moving intelligently. No wonder he's talking Socceroos.   

Storm Roux - 7.5

Made fantastic overlapping runs, pegged good passes, tracked back: silent performer.      

Corey Brown - 6.5

Solid defensively, Victory focused their efforts down the right leaving him slightly out of action.  

Thomas Deng - 8

Strong physical presence, predictably dominant in dealing with Adelaide's aerial balls.

Georg Niedermeier - N/A

Replaced injured with the interesting substitution of James Troisi, not exactly like for like. Minutes later Adelaide nearly scored from a corner, but the decision paid off in the second half.    

Carl Valeri - 7

Overall a solid display, but he makes a few interesting captain's contributions. Completely outdone by Michael Jakobsen late in the first half, bewildered by the fellow defender’s movement from a corner, ended up embarrassing himself but Adelaide couldn’t capitalise.

Keisuke Honda - 8  

Like all great marquees, makes some of the players around him look better than they are, getting them out of jail, playing perfectly weighted balls.

Still, tried to do a little too much himself at times and was beaten multiple times by a rampant defensive performance from Craig Goodwin.