MOM vs Victory

MOM vs Victory

VERY good win. Well everyone played well today hard to choose. For me I thought Muscat had his best game though between him Fred and Paston its hard to choose.wellyphoenixfan2008-11-28 21:31:22

McKain - tired in the last 5 but im not suprised due his controlling of the park. Superb match, look what we are capable of!!!

Everyone played their part

Smeltz and Brown with the goals
Paston with the saves
Muscat was great around the park
Bertos was dangerous despite fluffing a chance
Fred was great in the second-half
Durante made some timely and telling tackles
McKain was everywhere

Only Plodder, who fluffed a 3 on 1 late shduldn't get any votes!  

Again, so hard to pick. I give it to McKain for his consistency over the whole game: defended, distributed, held the ball up. Gutsy stuff. Bertos was fantastic in the 2nd half, Lochhead in the first.

Went for Durante but Muscat, Fred, McKain, Bertos amongst others all had good games as well. Thought Brown was absolutely superb in the 1st half but had a quieter 2nd. Jag2008-11-28 22:29:50

I can't choose.

Lochhead was terrific, especially in the 1st half and I think he had his best game for a while. Skinned the defender on the several occasions and his interplay with Leo was very good. Drifted out of the game slightly in the 2nd half though so for that reason i'll go with McKain.

Everyone played well, though. That isn't just an exaggeration because we won btw.
valeo2008-11-28 21:49:21

Almost unfair to single anyone out as everyone played their part, McKain edges it for me, honourable mentions to Fred, Ferrante, Durante and Bertos.

Can't wait to see what OOE ratings are like surely a few 9s? Can't see Ricki changing the team after that performance.

Has to be McKain

agreed has to be Mckain, he comand3ed that midfeild

Too many had superb knocks. I went for Durante cos he had a couple of weeks off and came back and had to handle Archie, Allsop and Co. From where I was sitting I would say most would have crumbled but he was a rock - ably supported by Siggy and Musat.

It's going to be hard for Ricki to choose between Dodd and Durante next week.

I still think Muscat is a little lightweight in defence but his general play is quite good.
valeo2008-11-28 23:14:46

Muscat is last in line among tonights lot and Dodd. Siggy wll move out wide again and Dodd back in the middle. Really bad luck for Manny but a no brainer.

Too hard to choose. Mckain and Brown were immense but I thought Manny was excellent pushing forward and Bertos is always excellent. Then Smetlz with that goal.

Not sure about that. We saw when Siggy moved from rb to cb he was a bit awkward in his first game after he moved. I think he is probably getting quite used to CB and he is playing very, very well there.

Went for McKain on his consistency all around the park. Though everyone played well and Smeltz' goal was his best in a Phoenix shirt I think.

at half time me and a few i spoke to were raving about siggy's performance - he was having a blinder

Wow this is strange. Sure I think everyone had a cracker yesterday, and McKain was one of the best..but in my view SIGGY was the MoM. So many times he saved our arse. Neither Nay Fabiano nor Thompson ever put him under pressure. A couple of his slides saved the day for us.

Paston 6.5 Great game
Muscat 6.5 Did very well, tireless work and good lots of defending
Siggy 8 I think he was the man yesterday. Did such a good job in keeping those threats out of our box
Durante 6 Did his bit, nothing special though. Congratz on his 50th A-League game
Locky 6.5 Ran up and down the left wing, crossed the ball a lot more than last week
McKain 7 Tireless work in the midfield, he's improving every game. My pick is that if he continues to play like this he'll get a phone call from the Socceroos
Brown 7 Scored a very important goal. Last night he showed why he's often chosen as the AW's playmaker. Well done
Ferrante 7 Had a couple of shots, and generally looked good
Fred 6.5 Have to say, the boy's got talent. He beats his man regularly in the midfield regularly but when it comes to nailing the ball home he seems a bit hesitant. Had an impact on the team's psychology, that's for sure
Bertos 7.5 Had he converted that chance in the 85th minute, I would've given him a nice 8, but that mistake brought his mark down. Regardless of this, Boom Boom is on fire. He's more confident, he's fit, he bloody terrorized the Victory defence, great f**king game
Smeltz 7.5 What should I say? His goal was very "Smeltzy-like". Great turn, great run, awesome finishing. He will be missed.

Ricky H. 6.5 He's done an awesome job and obviously picked the best possible team, since we beat the top of the table Melbourne. the only blemish in my eyes are his late subs. Daniel could've relieved either Fred or Bertos much earlier. And Christie for Ferrante was a bit audacious, but you know what they say Fortuna audaces iuvat

Those are very very harsh ratings NZP, so bloody difficult to choose but voted Ferrante cos he was on 0 votes and ran hard with some great passing

maybe but in my view 6/10 is a good game. you don t really give 9 or 10 usually so 8/8.5 is basically great. maybe i could increase some by 1 point to be fair

Siggy for me.

Muscat has been outstanding since he came back in, he has in my view cemented the right back slot.

As for moving Sigmund there, again in my view is he is now the first choice centre back.

MOM Mckain was the outstanding performance in a great team effort.

McKain

such a good move putting him at DM

So many great performances as everyone has said, Paston had a bunch of great instinctive saves to make and can't really be faulted for the goal conceded.  McKain is a force in midfield and seems to be getting forward more often now as well, really taking the game to them.  Durante was great and made a bunch of saving tackles throughout the game without giving away free kicks/penalties.  Siggy was strong as ever and such a presence back there.  Ferrante was all over the park and operated well as a winger.  Fred showed touches of class throughout the game.

It was Bertos that I voted for though, Melbourne kept Smeltz pretty quiet (bar a few nice runs/shots in the second period) but Bertos they just couldn't handle and he made so many attacking runs, chasing all the long balls forward and both his crosses and set piece deliveries are getting stronger every game.  If only he'd scored that gimme in the second half it would have done his striking confidence a world of good.

Yeah, Leo really needs to finish one of his chances off. Needs the confidence to shoot.

Agreed on Durante. Think he had his best game in a Wellington shirt.
valeo2008-11-29 13:07:13

i'm thinking fred's performances will get even better as our lads work out that when fred  has the ball it's worth making an attacking run, cos he'll probably knock the ball into their path

The biggest problem that we have is that Smeltz is often the lone player in the box. It's pretty hard to pick out one player in the box v 4 or 5 defenders.

Bertos and Fred are both play makers and not target men though Bertos prefers to be wide and Fred prefers to be central.

Ferrante, Brown and McKain are pretty much never in the box after we break - only on set pieces.

While I voted for McKain because he was simply immense and like some others on here feel a socceroos call up cant be far off if he keeps playing like that. But on Siggy, i think he was the catalyst for us turning our season around. As far as player of the year goes so far it is him first and daylight second

Tough call, going with McKain just ahead of Siggy.

Paston had his best game for the Nix.

everyone's got a vote that had substantial game time - that's pretty awesome

McKain has to get a look in if he keeps playing like this for the Asian Cup Socceroos squad. He's just as good as Jedinak (different players, but yeah)

Can I vote for EVERYONE!!!!

There is no way i can single anyone out as MOM after that performance. Was thinking about going for smeltz after that superb goal, but Mckain and brown did a brillant job in midfield together. Paston made brillant saves and hardly put a foot wrong.

I wonder if the departure of Gao has brought them all together that little bit more. This was a team performance unlike anything they've turned on before.

He wouldn't be better then Jedinak not yet anyway.

Jedinak Best DM in the League - Yeah Right

Are you joking? If not whos the best then certainly not McKain.