A Ryan renaissance to remember
Socceroos and Lens goalkeeper Mat Ryan had what could only be described as a 'mare in Lens' embarrassing 4-3 loss at home to Le Havre two starts ago, but he bounced back in style on Sunday morning to save six out of six shots on target as his side kept their Ligue 1 top-six ambitions back on track by defeating second-placed Marseille 1-0.
Irvine sets up opening goal in surprise away draw
Jackson Irvine is one of a very small handful of players in Europe's top-five leagues to have not missed a single minute of club football in 2024/25, and with very good reason.
The St. Pauli captain continues to fight hard to secure their Bundesliga survival and they picked up a very crucial point in a 1-1 draw at Wolfsburg, where he received a corner and nodded it across the box to teammate Siebe van der Heyden to put the team ahead.
Former Olyroo scores second goal of his season
Caleb Watts may not be a name too many are familiar with, but the eight-cap Olyroo certainly won a new legion of fans at the weekend when he opened the scoring in a goalmouth scramble on the way to Exeter City defeating Shrewsbury Town 2-0 at home to move further away from League One's relegation zone.
A first top-flight double for Adelaide-born prospect
Mohamed Touré made headlines with his brother Al Hassan Toure several years ago when both players made their Adelaide United debuts as teenagers, and his new career in Denmark took another step forward at the weekend when he recorded the first and third of Randers FC's four goals to leapfrog both Brøndby IF and Nordsjælland to fourth on the Danish Superliga table.
Jamie Maclaren wins Player of the Month award
It seems that he scores bulk goals wherever he goes in the world these days.
In a voting system where 50% of voting is done by the public and 50% by a panel of experts, former Melbourne City stalwart Jamie Maclaren came out on top with 32.4% of the votes after he scored back-to-back braces in a pair of 3-0 wins for League Shield champions Mohun Bagan Super Giant.
Maclaren finished the regular season joint-third on the golden boot table with 11 goals from his 22 appearances.
Mohun Bagan qualified for the group stage of the next AFC Champions League Two as a result and will be favourites to lift the trophy at the end of the impending playoffs.
A debut MLS goal for Macarthur Bulls academy product
This is not a bad way to start an overseas career!
In his first overseas sojourn, Adelaide-born Ariath Piol needed a total of just 85 minutes on the pitch to find the back of the net for new club Real Salt Lake to open the scoring in front of his home fans.
RSL would go on to lose the game 3-1 to stay close to the bottom of the Western Conference, but it's early days and hopefully the start of a breakout 2025 for a potential future Socceroo.
O'Neill sees red, and feels the wrath of disgruntled supporters
Ending our journey around the world on a sour note, two sloppy challenges just a few minutes apart from former Melbourne City player Aiden O'Neill saw the Standard Liege captain sent off shortly after half-time in a 3-0 loss away to Royale Union SG.
Standard fell further away from the top six (Championship Group) as a result and he was blasted by one Belgian publication as a man who "does not have the makings of a captain", whilst there were other calls on social media for him to be stripped of his leadership role as a result of the red card.