A-League Team of the Week led by admirable effort from losing captain

[p]Here are the eleven top performers (by position) from the Elimination Finals of the A-League, according to Flashscore's in-house player rating system.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/soccer/australia/a-league/"]Catch up on all A-League results and statistics on Flashscore.com.au here.[/a][/b][/p][image alt="Elimination Finals Team of the Week" id="a8b69d48-19d0-41c9-848f-3efdd36df67e" credit-line="Flashscore / Enetpulse" guid="a8be3feb-09d4-4359-ab7c-0a8e617fc4d6" original-width="1080" original-height="1350" /][h2]GK: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/devenish-meares-harrison/Ot6dzeGD/"]Harrison Devenish-Meares[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sydney-fc/6JsBlXVI/"]Sydney FC[/a] (8.2)[/h2][p]The only goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet this weekend is a natural fit for our Team of the Week, particularly when Harrison Devenish-Meares faced six shots on target, some of them particularly impressive.[/p][p]It's the third time in his last five games that the 29-year-old was our Player of the Match, rating in the 8s on all three occasions, and it's little wonder he was hanging around with the Socceroos squad during their last international window at home. [/p][embed guid="80630e8d-12cc-4acb-9b5b-39a881d71070" url="https://x.com/aleaguemen/status/2050719737899065692" social-type="twitter" /][h2]LB: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/behich-aziz/pnjldJ6K/"]Aziz Behich[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/melbourne-city/OKfoGJBe/"]Melbourne City[/a] (9.2*)[/h2][p]The Melbourne City captain wore his heart on his sleeve, got himself into a couple of skirmishes with opponent and referee along the way, and left nothing out on the pitch.[/p][p]Over the course of 120 minutes, Behich touched the ball a game-high 130 times, completed more accurate passes (62 at 75%) than any other player, made more successful dribbles (five out of seven) than anyone else, and won eight of the 11 individual duels in which he engaged. [/p][p]Add to that one assist - the set piece that led to City's equaliser - and another 'big chance' created, and it's about as good a game a full back can have in a final. [/p][embed guid="7e09ed81-9946-4eff-abe6-ff2ef2a692bf" url="https://x.com/Elfvandel20/status/2050469933470151144" social-type="twitter" /][h2]CB: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/delbridge-harrison/ptL2ezQp/"]Harrison Delbridge[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/melbourne-city/OKfoGJBe/"]Melbourne City[/a] (7.4)[/h2][p]Delbridge registered the most clearances (14) of any player across the weekend and won the equal-most individual duels (11 out of 14) of the weekend. [/p][p]Between that and a passing accuracy of 80% (56/70), there was little that he did wrong in City's penalty shootout win. [/p][h2]CB: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/popovic-alexandar/KhZetBfH/"]Alex Popovic[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sydney-fc/6JsBlXVI/"]Sydney FC[/a] (7.2)[/h2][p]Popovic was instrumental in the Sky Blues registering their clean sheet at AAMI Park with eight clearances, two tackles, five out of seven duels won and an 85% passing accuracy including five out of nine 'long passes'. [/p][h2]RB: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/grant-rhyan/0ljLrCei/"]Rhyan Grant[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sydney-fc/6JsBlXVI/"]Sydney FC[/a] (7.5)[/h2][p]Sydney's long-time right-back engaged in more individual duels (16) than any other player at AAMI Park, albeit winning only six. But he had a 100% success rate for tackling (4/4) and made five accurate passes in the final third when pushing forward. [/p][h2]LM: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/memeti-medin/G86Yibti/"]Medin Memeti[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/melbourne-city/OKfoGJBe/"]Melbourne City[/a] (8.1)[/h2][p]The third-best rating of the weekend comes from Melbourne City substitute Medin Memeti, who took over from Elbasan Rashani after half-time and posted two shots, two successful dribbles and five accurate passes in the final third. [/p][embed guid="e89bf1a0-ff10-4ae8-b185-a18f116eee9e" url="https://x.com/i/status/2050472943550169485" social-type="twitter" /][h2]CM: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/may-guillermo/vuxqdx52/"]Guillermo May[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/auckland-fc/2J7jacL6/"]Auckland FC[/a] (7.7)[/h2][p]Guillermo May was the first of the three goalscorers during eliminations final weekend, so it only makes sense that he features in the Team of the Week.[/p][p]He recorded more shots (seven) than any other player across the entire weekend, albeit with four of them off target and one blocked, which goes some way to explaining why his rating wasn't pushed up into the 8s. [/p][embed guid="83fbe32d-d012-41ed-b9c2-29eec95290fa" url="https://x.com/aleaguemen/status/2050456493435261146" social-type="twitter" /][h2]CM: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/kamijo-wataru/8AHWv1U7/"]Wataru Kamijō[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sydney-fc/6JsBlXVI/"]Sydney FC[/a] (7.6)[/h2][p]Sydney's 20-year-old Japanese defensive midfielder may have finished with a rating in the 8s were it not for his second half booking and three fouls against, but nonetheless he and fellow DM Paul Okon-Engstler were excellent in absorbing the pressure applied by the Victory. [/p][p]Kamijo recorded a game-best four interceptions in addition to five clearances as well as 35 accurate passes, seven of them in the final third. [/p][h2]RM: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/brook-lachlan/6DM96zbF/"]Lachlan Brook[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/auckland-fc/2J7jacL6/"]Auckland FC[/a] (6.5)[/h2][p]It was a poor weekend for right midfielders in the competition, so Auckland's Lachlan Brook comes out on top because of even poorer ratings from Nishan Velupillay (6.1), Marcus Younis (6.1) and Akol Akon (6.3). [/p][p]Brook passed with only 58% accuracy (0% in the final third), failed both his dribble attempts and won only one of his four individual duels. It was sadly not a performance of note. [/p][h2]FW: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/wood-patrick/z3phQ0al/"]Pat Wood[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sydney-fc/6JsBlXVI/"]Sydney FC[/a] (7.4)[/h2][p]The final of the three goalscorers at the weekend was the most impactful of the lot, finding the back of the net just three minutes after coming off the bench to replace Apostolos Stamatelopoulos. [/p][p]That goal was obviously immensely influential on his final rating, whilst he didn't do much wrong on the pitch either, registering a 100% accuracy for his five passes. [/p][embed guid="574890fe-ee70-413f-833a-718575422d4b" url="https://x.com/aleaguemen/status/2050540260413858099" social-type="twitter" /][h2]FW: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/nduka-charles/KloWSp4I/"]Charles Nduka[/a] - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/melbourne-victory/Qql6CzOP/"]Melbourne Victory[/a] (7.1)[/h2][p]Unable to break through for a second game after his heroic double against Newcastle, Nduka nonetheless recorded a very good rating of 7.1 out of 10 by creating 0.87 expected goals (xG) with his five shots and nine touches in the opposition box. It just wasn't to be.[/p]