It’s the debate that so often rages after a sublime Craig Goodwin showing in the Isuzu UTE A-League: is the Adelaide United winger the best player in the competition?
On this week’s episode of The Official Isuzu UTE A-League Podcast, brought to you by neds, our experts discuss Goodwin’s claim for that title, and pinpoint his importance to the Socceroos’ World Cup hopes after his best performance for Adelaide United this season in Round 3.
KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies is joined by Daniel Garb and Vince Rugari to dissect all the action from Round 3 – including Luis Nani’s subdued start to life at Melbourne Victory, Brisbane Roar’s response to the scrutiny of A-Leagues All Access, and what Central Coast Mariners are missing after the off-season departure of an attacking star.
Listen below, or via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you consume your podcasts.
‘There’s a strong argument he’s the best player in the league’
Heading into Round 3, Craig Goodwin outlined his intention to put together his first 90-minute display of the season when Adelaide United travelled to take on Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium.
It was mission accomplished for the Reds winger, who ticked off a major milestone on his road to recovery from an off-season groin injury by playing a hand in both of his side’s goals in a 2-2 draw with the Sky Blues on Sunday.
Daniel Garb: “Goodwin looked really good – and that was an important performance for him just to remind Graham Arnold that he offers a point of difference.
“There isn’t anyone in the team that gives you the width and that left-foot wizardry. His cross for Harry Van der Saag’s (equalising goal) was a pearler.
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Vince Rugari: “As someone who comes from South Australia, I feel like in this part of the country we gloss over what goes on down there. We’re very focussed on the clubs here (in Sydney) and in Melbourne. But in Adelaide if you ask anyone about whether Craig Goodwin should be in the Socceroos squad, for them it’s a no brainer.
“They see this guy week in week out. Yesterday we saw, he didn’t have millions of touches, but the ones he had were excellent, and as Carl Veart said in the post-match: he makes great decisions almost all the time.”
Garb: “There’s a strong argument he’s the best player in the league.”
Rugari: “He’s pretty close I reckon. And he’s a pretty unique kind of winger too. This is what Arnie needs to think about with the mix of players he brings to Qatar, he’s not a huge dribbler Craig Goodwin, and he doesn’t have a whole lot of pace – but he’s a bit like a wide playmaker, isn’t he?
“You wonder whether that’s what we need off the bench sometimes. We have campaigns for people like Cummings, Garang Kuol, Daniel Arzani as I’m saying in this part of the country, there’s not really a campaign going for Craig Goodwin – maybe there should be.”
Tom Smithies: “He’s a natural leader as well, or he’s grown into a natural leader.
“I was watching him on the pitch doing an awful lot of discussion, pointing, cajoling – particularly with the younger players, moving them around. From a left wing position he’s a very central influential player.”
‘He’s building his way into it’: No need to rush Nani to produce his brilliant best at Victory
His A-League Men debut began with a bang – but Luis Nani has struggled to replicate his performance in Victory’s Round 1 Big Blue triumph across his side’s following two games – both ending in defeat.
Nani conceded a penalty and earned a yellow card in 10-man Victory’s deflating 2-0 Melbourne Derby loss to Melbourne City in Round 3.
Garb: “Where’s Nani at for you?”
Rugari: “I think he’s building his way into it. I guess we all want to see more from him…but he’s shown it already in glimpses.
“I’ve still got that pass for (Chris Ikonomidis’) goal against Sydney in the first round in my mind. It’s still there, he’s got it, but this is a funny league sometimes for foreigners to come in and adjust to, it takes time, there’s so many unique factors to it that history has shown repeatedly: foreign players, even the best of them take time to adjust.
Smithies: “Also, where’s the best place for him? I’m still not convinced playing him out wide when at his age – and this is nothing personal against him – he simply doesn’t have the legs. I’d love to see him playing a narrower role.”
Rugari: “More central, off the striker – or maybe him next to (Nick) D’Agostino is something I like the idea of.”
Victory’s collective output has followed the individual form of Nani throughout the opening three rounds of the season – stellar away from home in Round 1 but below their best in consecutive defeats at AAMI Park.
Smithies: “I always think still after all these years, Tony Popovic’s teams are always slightly more comfortable away from home, when they don’t have to make the running. This is two games in a row where they’ve failed to do so against teams they need to be beating if they’re going to win the title.
“Away from home against Sydney FC, where all the attention was on Sydney, they picked them off. I still think that’s the most comfortable way they have of playing.”
“It’s awesome – it’s stuff I don’t think we’ve ever seen week to week”
The first two episodes of A-Leagues All Access have provided groundbreaking, behind-the-scenes coverage of the opening two rounds of the season, airing just days after the game central to the action of each episode has taken place.
In Round 2 it was Brisbane Roar’s clash with Melbourne City – and star Roar marquee Charlie Austin – providing the focal point of episode two, titled The Pantomime Villain. Combustive scenes in the Roar change room at half-time made gripping viewing in midweek – but it also provided context to what was to come in Round 3: Brisbane’s gutsy 1-1 draw on the road to Western Sydney Wanderers, in which Austin scored and celebrated with teammate Connor Chapman, the victim of Austin’s half-time tirade on A-Leagues All Access.
Rugari: “Good effort from Brisbane Roar. I mean, I have a lot of feelings about Brisbane Roar at the moment both on and off the field at the moment, but hats off to the fightback in a situation where it could have easily gone the other way.
“Particularly after, and I’m (a) massive fan of A-Leagues All Access so far, I’m really fascinated though to see week-to-week what that looks like. We’ve just had a peek inside (Brisbane’s) dressing room, it didn’t look great, we just saw all that argument between Charlie Austin and Connor Chapman. It is awesome, and it’s stuff I don’t think we’ve ever seen week to week, insights like this.
“So to watch that, and then watch what the team does next I think is going to be a really interesting thing for people to follow. Just hats off to them. I think the celebration, Connor Chapman with Charlie Austin, it’s obviously been smoothed over there.”
‘It speaks volumes of the character that is there and building’
Perth Glory arrived at Round 3 winless after two games and under the pump to scrounge together their first points of the campaign, on game three of a five-game road trip to start the season.
The development of HBF Park for next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup has seen Perth’s regular home ground become unavailable until March – and whilst NPL venue Macedonia Park is refitted for temporary use, the club is once again displaced and playing a series of games on the road.
Perth headed to Gosford to take on Central Coast Mariners on Saturday with an overhauled squad, and the context of their displacement giving Ruben Zadkovich’s side little hope of a result.
What made matters worse was a pre-game altercation on social media between star man Bruno Fornaroli and the club, in which Fornaroli announced he was “100% fit and ready” despite Zadkovich leaving him in Perth due to an apparent injury.
The understrength and under fire Glory went on to notch comeback 2-1 win over the Mariners on the road.
Rugari: “They hung on brilliantly towards the end there.
“Full credit to Perth Glory here, coming off an off-season of upheaval and pre-match you find out one of your main stars is obviously at loggerheads with the club over something – we don’t know exactly what and I’m sure it will come out sooner or later.
“But when something like that happens before the game, it speaks volumes of the charatcter that is there and building. It’s a massive defensive effort to hold out the Mariners, who were coming hard – but Perth had bodies back and blocked, frustrated and got the reward.
“I mean, they don’t have many wins in the last year or so, so that’s a pretty important moment for them and hopefully something they can build on.”
Smithies: “I still think (the Mariners) are missing Marco Ureña, his intelligence and ability to create space. The game was so packed narrowly down the middle, and even when the Mariners go wide to cross there’s so many bodies in the middle. Ureña had the ability a number of times with an angled run along the backline to find space, create space and pull players out of position. I think they’re missing that, and I don’t think they’ve quite worked out how to replace that.
“As for Perth, from the beginning they’ve looked like a team trying to be hard to beat. I’m not as optimistic as you guys about them going forward, I don’t think they have a huge amount to offer yet – but it’s understandable Zadkovich would be concentrating on literally trying to make them hard to beat because of such an upheaval of a pre-season.”