China v Australia 25/03/25

Using the football manager rating system, each player starts at 6, a positive contribution eg goal, assist, preassist, or overall good play pushes the player up 1 point, and a negative contribution eg mistake leading to goal, missed pen, pen conceded, overall bad play pushes the player down 1.


Ryan 8 - shot stopping was largely untested but commanded his box well from several crosses especially as many Chinese players were crowding him out.
Geria 8 - dominated his opponent both in the air and on the ground in strength and speed wise dispossessing him throughout. Played several line breaking passes forward that generally stuck.
Degenek 6 - played as the sweeper, was fairly solid throughout except for 2 simultaneous brain fades in 2nd half.
Burgess 7 - largely solid as usual.
Miller 8 - thought his best roos performance. Got up and down very well, generally dominated his opponent off the ball and on the ball drove past him on several occasions and delivered a couple of nice balls. Could have even bumped up to a 9, my BOG
Irvine 8 - great finish for his goal after dogged determination to drive into the box and keep the ball from his opponent. Solid throughout and his leadership shines through. Gets better with age.
Teague 7 - great debut, very classy on the ball and effective at breaking up opposition attacks. If anything the step up in level suited him with better players around him.
Behich 7 - was solid, made great decisions as he always does, was tidy with the ball and a mongruel off it.
Boyle 7 - drove at the opponent well, after a couple of sloppy touches early on. Seems to have regained his pace and sharpness a little. Put in a few good crosses including the one that lead to Nishans goal.
Nishan 8 - one of Popa's favourites, seems at home in this system, presses exceptionally well off the ball especially in tandem with borrelo and is effective with it always making an option for Behich out wide and coming into the box when the ball comes in the right flank. Not a sweetly struck shot, but kept the ball down well for the goal.
Borello 7 - pressed very well together with nish and made good early runs off the ball whenever we regained possession. Solid whilst not spectacular.

Subs -
Duke 6 - little involvement
Arzani 6 - ditto
Karacic 6 - locked things down well but generally ineffectual when we had the ball.
Caceres 5 - anonymous whilst he was out there

Popa 8 - typical Popa performance.. Picked an underwhelming team on paper but made it function well. Managed the game out very well.