A month of the A-League Men's season is now in the books and, with just one round of action remaining until Graham Arnold reveals his Socceroos squad for the World Cup, ESPN's Joey Lynch breaks down what did and didn't impress in the fourth week of the campaign.
Round Three Results: Western Sydney Wanderers 2-0 Newcastle Jets | Brisbane Roar 0-0 Melbourne Victory | Central Coast Mariners 4-2 Western United | Macarthur FC 2-3 Sydney FC | Adelaide United 2-1 Perth Glory | Melbourne City 2-2 Wellington Phoenix
Stocks Up
Jason Cummings and Garang Kuol
After "he wasn't at the races," against Perth Glory last week, Cummings was seeking retribution against Western United and, with his World Cup fates perhaps hanging in the balance as well, he needed to deliver. And deliver he did.
After watching two would-be-goals of his be disallowed -- the latter for a multiball situation that raised the ire of Cummings and Mariners coach Nick Montgomery post-game -- and seeing his side fall into a two-goal hole, the Scottish-born Socceroo found another gear against the defending champions on the hour-mark, turning the game.
Reducing his side's deficit to one in the 67th minute, he subsequently played a key role in all three of his side's subsequent goals across the next 20 minutes as the Mariners roared back to secure a 4-2 win -- a performance showing the range of skills he brings to the table.
Thrown on as a second-half substitute, Kuol was likewise needing to impress after a tepid performance against Glory and he, too, boosted his stocks -- albeit not quite at the same level as his teammate. Just minutes after his half-time introduction, the teenager induced a challenge from Nikolai Topor-Stanley that reduced United to 10 men, and then provided the assist for Cummings' first goal.
Given the question marks that exist over so many of Australia's attacking options heading into Qatar -- many of the most obvious names either out of season, injured, struggling for minutes, or some combination of the latter two -- Cummings and Kuol's form will be increasingly hard to ignore for Arnold. The former, especially, can now feel legitimately ruffled should he not be off to Qatar.
How good was Jason Cummings last night! Our main man up front scoring and assisting, contributing towards every goal â½ï¸