Scary. Very scary.
Kevin Muscat was asked earlier in the week how long it might be before his new-look Melbourne Victory team, chock full of talented new faces, really hits its stride.
Keisuke Honda opens the scoring for Melbourne Victory.Credit:AAP
The coach grinned and shrugged his shoulders in the classic "who knows?" gesture. His remark that they were still "a work in progress" drew muffled guffaws from his interlocutors.
For this Melbourne Victory is very much in the groove, as its ritual dismantling of Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night illustrated.
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The scoreline was 4-0 but it could have been more had Victory converted all the chances that came their way.
Sure, this group of players, spearheaded by two vastly experienced foreign internationals in Keisuke Honda and Ola Toivonen, has only been together for a few weeks and it surely will get better the more it plays together.
But its current levels are probably good enough to strike fear into the hearts of any opponents they come up against in the next few weeks.
It's hard to imagine, having watched Muscat's men put on a clinic against their outclassed visitors, that Victory was pointless after the first two games of the season having contrived to lose to Melbourne City and Perth Glory, the latter in front of their own fans at AAMI Park.
On this occasion they were simply outstanding, especially in a dominant first half when they played at a level rarely matched in the A-League.
Kosta Barbarouses is brought down and receives a penalty.Credit:AAP
Their passing and movement, close control and link up play was exemplary, while they offered Wanderers few opportunities to strike back on the relatively rare occasions the Sydney side managed to get the ball anywhere near the Victory goal.
Victory were fast, fluent and full of flair, and Wanderers had no answer to their slick passing and pace in forward areas, where Toivonen and the exceptional Honda were always a threat.
This game was all but over after half an hour, when Victory had stamped its authority on proceedings by taking a 2-0 lead through Honda and Spanish midfielder Raul Baena, netting for his new club for the first time.
It was certainly put to bed six minutes before the interval when Kosta Barbarouses, another of the potent attacking force at Muscat's disposal, converted a penalty he had himself won.
Toivonen started for the first time in front of his new fans, while James Troisi, who has been a key player in earlier games, missed out with illness.
But Victory didn't miss a beat due to the Socceroo attacker's absence, nor was it pining for German central defender Georg Niedermeier, ruled out because of a concussion suffered in the 2-1 win over Sydney last weekend. Nick Ansell came in alongside Thomas Deng at the heart of defence and Vicctory carried on as though nothing was any different.
Muscat pushed Terry Antonis further forward to cover for Troisi, and found a place at the base of midfield for Carl Valeri.
Toivonen really should have opened the floodgates as early as the third minute when the Swedish international played a one-two with Barbarouses, who sent him through on goal with just Vedran Janjetovic to beat. But the big goalkeeper stood tall and beat Toivonen's shot away.
It was merely a reprieve. A quickly released pass from Honda put Toivonen through again only for the lanky frontman to be brought down by Tarek Elrich, earning the Wanderers defender a booking.
Honda (centre) was electric for the winners.Credit:AAP
Victory took the lead their pressure deserved in the eleventh minute through an exquisitely worked move.
Toivonen picked up possession wide on the left, looked up and cut a pass back to Antonis, who controlled the ball deftly and in one movement spun round and flighted a perfectly weighted cross to the far post for Honda. The Japanese superstar needed little invitation to thump a header home.
Baena doubled the advantage in the 31st minute when he controlled a Barbarouses cross, swivelled, sold Elrich a dummy and then placed a shot wide of Janjetovic from inside the area.
In between times Honda had several shots saved while the Wanderers only meaningful effort on goal, a free kick from distance, dipped over the bar.
Barbarouses reinforced Victory's domination in he 39th minute when he fastened onto a lofted through ball and chipped over Elrich's head only to be brought down by the defender. The Kiwi international picked himself up and fired home from the spot.
Barbarouses then linked up with Toivonen to set up Antonis with eight minutes remaining, and the midfielder smashed home to complete the rout.
In post-match comments, coach Kevin Muscat praised his side's ability to sustain their run of form: "I was pleased with a lot of aspects of our game tonight off the back of a very good performance on the back of a six day turnround.
"The preparation from the playing group was outstanding. There was a lot of pleasing stuff … collectively as a group I thought it was excellent."
Michael Lynch, The Age's expert on soccer, has had extensive experience of high level journalism in the UK and Australia. Michael has covered the Socceroos through Asia, Europe and South America in their past three World Cup campaigns. He has also reported on Grands Prix and top class motor sport from Asia and Europe. He has won several national media awards for both sports and industry journalism.
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Scary. Very scary.
Kevin Muscat was asked earlier in the week how long it might be before his new-look Melbourne Victory team, chock full of talented new faces, really hits its stride.
Keisuke Honda opens the scoring for Melbourne Victory.Credit:AAP
The coach grinned and shrugged his shoulders in the classic "who knows?" gesture. His remark that they were still "a work in progress" drew muffled guffaws from his interlocutors.
For this Melbourne Victory is very much in the groove, as its ritual dismantling of Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night illustrated.
Advertisement
The scoreline was 4-0 but it could have been more had Victory converted all the chances that came their way.
Sure, this group of players, spearheaded by two vastly experienced foreign internationals in Keisuke Honda and Ola Toivonen, has only been together for a few weeks and it surely will get better the more it plays together.
But its current levels are probably good enough to strike fear into the hearts of any opponents they come up against in the next few weeks.
It's hard to imagine, having watched Muscat's men put on a clinic against their outclassed visitors, that Victory was pointless after the first two games of the season having contrived to lose to Melbourne City and Perth Glory, the latter in front of their own fans at AAMI Park.
On this occasion they were simply outstanding, especially in a dominant first half when they played at a level rarely matched in the A-League.
Kosta Barbarouses is brought down and receives a penalty.Credit:AAP
Their passing and movement, close control and link up play was exemplary, while they offered Wanderers few opportunities to strike back on the relatively rare occasions the Sydney side managed to get the ball anywhere near the Victory goal.
Victory were fast, fluent and full of flair, and Wanderers had no answer to their slick passing and pace in forward areas, where Toivonen and the exceptional Honda were always a threat.
This game was all but over after half an hour, when Victory had stamped its authority on proceedings by taking a 2-0 lead through Honda and Spanish midfielder Raul Baena, netting for his new club for the first time.
It was certainly put to bed six minutes before the interval when Kosta Barbarouses, another of the potent attacking force at Muscat's disposal, converted a penalty he had himself won.
Toivonen started for the first time in front of his new fans, while James Troisi, who has been a key player in earlier games, missed out with illness.
But Victory didn't miss a beat due to the Socceroo attacker's absence, nor was it pining for German central defender Georg Niedermeier, ruled out because of a concussion suffered in the 2-1 win over Sydney last weekend. Nick Ansell came in alongside Thomas Deng at the heart of defence and Vicctory carried on as though nothing was any different.
Muscat pushed Terry Antonis further forward to cover for Troisi, and found a place at the base of midfield for Carl Valeri.
Toivonen really should have opened the floodgates as early as the third minute when the Swedish international played a one-two with Barbarouses, who sent him through on goal with just Vedran Janjetovic to beat. But the big goalkeeper stood tall and beat Toivonen's shot away.
It was merely a reprieve. A quickly released pass from Honda put Toivonen through again only for the lanky frontman to be brought down by Tarek Elrich, earning the Wanderers defender a booking.
Honda (centre) was electric for the winners.Credit:AAP
Victory took the lead their pressure deserved in the eleventh minute through an exquisitely worked move.
Toivonen picked up possession wide on the left, looked up and cut a pass back to Antonis, who controlled the ball deftly and in one movement spun round and flighted a perfectly weighted cross to the far post for Honda. The Japanese superstar needed little invitation to thump a header home.
Baena doubled the advantage in the 31st minute when he controlled a Barbarouses cross, swivelled, sold Elrich a dummy and then placed a shot wide of Janjetovic from inside the area.
In between times Honda had several shots saved while the Wanderers only meaningful effort on goal, a free kick from distance, dipped over the bar.
Barbarouses reinforced Victory's domination in he 39th minute when he fastened onto a lofted through ball and chipped over Elrich's head only to be brought down by the defender. The Kiwi international picked himself up and fired home from the spot.
Barbarouses then linked up with Toivonen to set up Antonis with eight minutes remaining, and the midfielder smashed home to complete the rout.
In post-match comments, coach Kevin Muscat praised his side's ability to sustain their run of form: "I was pleased with a lot of aspects of our game tonight off the back of a very good performance on the back of a six day turnround.
"The preparation from the playing group was outstanding. There was a lot of pleasing stuff … collectively as a group I thought it was excellent."
Michael Lynch, The Age's expert on soccer, has had extensive experience of high level journalism in the UK and Australia. Michael has covered the Socceroos through Asia, Europe and South America in their past three World Cup campaigns. He has also reported on Grands Prix and top class motor sport from Asia and Europe. He has won several national media awards for both sports and industry journalism.
