Wow, looks that it's also my first memorable game in Utopia, I didn't watch it though, I rarely do. Anyway, that is amazing, I usually lose in such situations, I remember like one win of this kind (not in Utopia naturally). ;)
That key player you're talking about appears to be pretty injury prone. It's the second time he's out and I bought him at the beginning of the season. Hope I will be able to use him during play-offs.
I took a quick look at World Wanderers. It seems he has 6 "inside" trainees and tries to regularly train all of them. So, he rotates his Cs and PFs and the duo may not be that good in every game.
The other thing is his tactics choice, which actually probably has more impact on his results (which aren't ofc bad, they're really good, you, him and Monstars are like the "big three" of the conference). I see he uses Inside Isolation and Patient. As far as I know, they are not considered to be the most efficient tactics.