Best of Round Seven:
Player: Rodrigo Vargas, Melbourne - he's been large in every match this season, but against Newcastle in particular really stood up to demonstrate the strength of Victory's defensive backbone
U-20 Player: Nathan Burns, Adelaide - with Rech and Qu on the sidelines, stepping up remarkably well
Coach: Ernie Merrick, Melbourne - man of the moment after defeating all seven other teams one by one
Match: Sydney FC vs Queensland Roar
Goal: Alvin Ceccoli - a screamer, of course, but earns major kudos as a slamming response to Terry Butcher leaving him out of the squad for a couple of weeks ago
4-4-2 Team of the Week:
Bobby Despotovski - Daniel Allsopp
Adrian Caceres - Matt McKay - Carl Veart - Jason Spagnuolo
Paul Kohler - Rodrigo Vargas - Neil Emblen - Alex Wilkinson
Danny Vukovic
Subs: Michael Theoklitos, David Tarka, Alvin Ceccoli, Nathan Burns
Team of the Year - Until Now:
Archie Thompson - Daniel Allsopp
Matt McKay - Simon Colosimo - Kevin Muscat - Leo Bertos
Alvin Ceccoli - Rodrigo Vargas - Sasa Ognenovski - Greg Owens
Danny Vukovic
Subs: Michael Theoklitos, David Tarka, Grant Brebner, Simon Lynch
Coach: Ernie Merrick
Vukovic comes into the starting line-up following his recent brilliant displays. Theoklitos continues to do well, but he has Vargas marshalling the troops in front of him. Somewhat surprisingly, neither Ognenovski nor Muscat -- probably the player of the year so far -- have been sent off yet. Tarka creeps onto the bench ahead of Neil Emblen, Daniel Piorkowski, Adrian Leijer, Alex Wilkinson and the perhaps somewhat over-hyped Nikolai Topor-Stanley (playing well, but it's not like he's the second coming of Tony Vidmar just yet). Ceccoli keeps his spot, with Gregory Duruz a distant challenger. On the right, it's again hard to look past Owens who deserves a spot somewhere, and Bertos, who has been brilliant with only daylight behind him until Dave Carney returns from injury and Travis Dodd rediscovers his magic hat (okay, and maybe Ruben Zadkovich). Colosimo edges out Brebner, who has missed time, while Matt McKay slips in on the left midfield again ahead of Stan Lazaridis and Malik Buari. Up front, Thompson and Allsopp have been an absolute menace, while Lynch's consistency earns him a spot on the bench ahead of Reinaldo.
Others on the cusp (not exhaustive): Robert Bajic, Clint Bolton, Josh McCloughan, Angelo Costanzo, Mark Milligan, Carl Veart, Joel Griffiths, David Zdrilic (blimey!), Milton Rodriguez.
4 comments:
Hi James
You seem light on Roar players this week? Matt's in but no Spase Dilevski? Both starved Carbone and what about that goal? I thought the man of the match was Josh McCloughan (which may make it hard for Chad to get back). Josh took Carbone out of the game.
I think we will see Carbone will rip into Central Coast this week. He will have an eye making his stay permanent.
Newcastle will have Joel Griffiths back. But he maybe a bit cagey. Newcastle v NZ could be a humdinger in several ways.
John, I wish I felt qualified to even say so, but for loyalty's sake I agree with you!
Dilevski certainly stood out in the Roar, but I'm not familiar enough with the other players in comparable position to make the judgement properly.
I remain envious of James and Tony that they can even put these teams together with apparent confidence (still waiting on Tony's 'Team of the Week' though - always full of insight).
Mind you, I maintain the suspicion that when I do develop enough familiarity with all the players, I'll be spotting the bias toward the southern teams. So I won't apologise for my bias toward the Roar!
Cheers.
In my opinion, an excellent team of the year James.
Mine varies just slightly, both in formation and personnel...
I'll try to pop it up on the weekend.
I don't worry about bias or qualifications Hamish - just try to stick my foot in there and push the ball towards goal. (it works for Timmy two yards ;) )
But I am making a point of watching every game. Simon Przydacz won another game refing for central coast last night. Clearly Alex Brosque was pulled down on the way to making it 2-2 (well given Simon didn't see it - not making it 2-2) - and as the last defender Central Coast should have been down to 10. Plus it had to happen, Carbone was taken out of the game with a Central Coast head rammed into his leg.
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