Player of the Week
Adrian Caceres has become a real live-wire in the centre of the Mariners attack. With a goal and an assist (although there was shocking marking and positioning by Perth defenders for both goals), he provided a real classy edge in a dominant Mariners performance. When I did the preview for the Mariners, there was concern that the loss of Pondeljak would cause a lack of creativity in the middle. The performances of the Argentinean born Caceres have made this a non-issue. Let’s hope he keeps it going.
Goal of the Week
I’ll go with Tim Brown’s winner against Sydney. It wasn’t the cleanest of strikes and Jedinak’s accurate free-kick against Perth was a better goal but no other goal this round carried more significance. The Phoneix have finally registered a win in a performance that was gritty rather than entertaining. Herbert will no doubt be pleased with the fact that his team didn’t let their heads drop after going behind. They came back and produced some decent football in claiming all three points.
Team of the Week
All the winners have a right to claim this really: Wellington for getting their first win, Central Coast for their dominant performance, Queensland for beating the table toppers away from home. But the team of the week goes to Adelaide who grinded out a win against the injury hit Newcastle after their historic performance midweek in the ACL. It was hardly an inspired performance and both goals came in the last 20 minutes when Newcastle was down to 10 men. Still, given their midweek exertions, any kind of win would have been an accomplishment.
Unsolved mysteries
Melbourne again went down to ten men. Having played pretty poorly until then, they again started to turn on some good football after going a man down. Why?
Ouch!
Red-bearded (or brown) Tiatto is a non-too-subtle footballer and this even applies when his dribbling. The ex-Socceroo clubbed a rather unsuspecting Vargas in the throat with his elbow as he was making a run down the flank.
Pure comedy
After getting the winning goal, Tim Brown put in the weirdest challenge I’ve seen in a while. There were a few Wellington and Sydney players scrapping for the ball in the middle of the park. Brown somehow ended up on the ground before he started to reach out for the ball with his hands. Finding the ball out of reach, he started to grasp for the legs of the opponent. A free-kick was given but how Brown escaped a yellow card for this odd looking challenge I’ll never know.
