Macarthur put on a show under the watchful eyes of Socceroos coach Tony Popovic, obliterating Perth Glory 6-1 to claim the biggest win in the club’s A-League Men history.
The Bulls moved to the top of the table with a victory at Campbelltown Sports Stadium on Sunday that condemned David Zdrilic to a horrifying debut outing as Glory coach.
His side were directionless and made Macarthur look like world-beaters as the Bulls surged to a 5-0 lead at halftime.
And the thing Popovic will have loved the most ahead of next month’s World Cup qualifiers with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain was that all bar one of Macarthur’s goals were scored or set up by Australia-eligible players.
Creative playmaker Jake Hollman scored one and laid on two more, Croatian-born left winger Marin Jakolis hit the net twice, and right winger Jed Drew also registered a goal and an assist.
"The understanding they (our attacking players) have with with each other, I think it's really coming along," said Macarthur coach Mile Sterjovski.
"We saw glimpses of it in the Australia Cup this year so I'm pleased with the way we started.
"I'm hoping it continues. We have quality players to come into the squad as well."
Drew has had his challenges with his end product in his blossoming career but in the opening 10 minutes he had set up Hollman after scoring the opener.
"We always said he's got the potential," Sterjovski said, "but he showed the qualities he has today."
But the pain didn't stop there for Glory.
Jakolis made a slaloming run through the Perth box, beating three motionless defenders to unleash on Oli Sail in the 21st minute.
The Perth goalkeeper was up to the task, but the deflection fell into the path of Macarthur defender Tomi Uskok who hit home.
Hollman then showed his class by playing Jakolis in behind and the winger let fly from the edge of the box, past Sail and into the back of the net.
Jakolis added a second just on halftime, and the closest Perth could get was when Socceroos forward Adam Taggart hit the back of the net, only to have his strike ruled out for offside.
Zdrilic made three half-time changes but despite brief flashes of hope, normal service resumed pretty quickly.
Jakolis teed up Frenchman Valere Germain, who tapped in Macarthur’s sixth from close range.
Adam Bugarija hit back late on for Perth, but the damage was done and Zdrilic was handed a true baptism of fire.
"We had a decent pre-season and played some good games," a shell-shocked Zdrilic said.
"This is the first time we've travelled like this and there was a culmination of a lot of things that just went (against us) in that first 45 minutes.
"At no point in the pre-season did we have issues like that. In the first 10 minutes they just went bang, bang and then there's a bit of nervousness that creeps.
"The second half, it's not easy to come back from 5-0 down and to show something positive. But in general our young boys who came on handled it perfectly."
