In a simply breath-taking 20 minutes of football, Brisbane Roar dismissed the challenge of Perth Glory with some disdain, recording a 4-0 home win at Suncorp Stadium last night.
The win extended Brisbane's current unbeaten run in the A-League to 36 games. But that's a statistic that will change from week to week.
What will be remembered by those present at this game (just a few less than 20,000) was the quality of the goals.
All four came from swift inter-play, from pass-and-move football, from quality and quanitity possession turned into intense pressure that Perth Gory could not handle.
Brisbane's patient possession football, which has such an obvious method to it, such a mechanical basic structure, that it can sometimes hide the very real flair and creativity that this side has.
The first goal showed that in spades. Matt Smith surged forward into space left for him by Perth, and spotted a diagonal pass to Henrique on the edge of the box. Here's where the goal was made: Henrique's flick to a flying Thomas Broich, who gathered the ball and surged past the Perth fullback, before delivering a perfectly weighted low cross to the far post.
Besart Berisha was perfectly positioned there to sweep the ball into the net pat a despairing Vukovic.
The second also involved Broich. This one was a bit more direct, with a chipped pass that took all defenders out of play and landed not by chance in the path of Issey Nakajima-Farran. The Canadian's first touch was good enough to control it, and he dinked it over the advancing Vukovic. Two superb pieces of skill, and Perth were once again undone.
The third goal showcased Issey's reflexes. He swapped passes with Ivan Franjic down the right hand side. Franjic's return ball took a small deflection of the defender, but Nakajima-Farran was good enough to control a hard-hit cross, and once again dink it over Vukovic.
And the final goal of the first half was a champagne moment. Brisbane knocked the ball around, probing for the weakness. First out to the left, then the right.
Suddenly, with Franjic and Nakajima-Farran surging into space in front of him, Broich decided to cut back into the middle of the pitch. The movement in front of him opened up the defence. He passed to Henrique, who fed it on again to Berisha in plenty of space inside the box to pick his spot and smash it past poor Danny Vukovic.
It was simply irresistible football.
Perth were trying hard in the first half, being disciplined and keeping their defensive shape. But they just could not get the ball, and when they did get it they could not keep it.
Brisbane place a high value on winning the ball back quickly, and they hustle very hard to make that happen. The creative players like Broich and Berisha work just as hard as the rest to make this happen, and its an area of the team's performance that you can see that Postecoglu is very proud of.
The second half of this match faded. Brisbane were still on top for most of it, and made a couple of good chances, but failed to add to the scoreline. It was a warm night in Brisbane, and both teams were tired in the second half.
Ferguson introduced Andrezinho at the break, and he was lively for the first 15 minutes of the half. This was the only bright point in Perth's contribution to this game, so it is utterly mystifying why the Brazilian was not in Perth's starting line-up, that is if Ferguson was trying to win. If Perth came to get a draw, it was an insufficient plan.
Perth missed Chris Coyne in this game. Despite being on the wrong end of a 4-0 scoreline, Bas Van Den Brink didn't have a bad game. But his fullbacks were getting pulled out of position by the pace and movement of the Brisbane attack.
Next up for Brisbane is an away trip to Sydney. This team should be drawing record crowds, not just here in Brisbane, but wherever they play. They are that good.