Wow. I've searched long and hard to find a better word, but I keep coming back to it.

Last Saturday was just a great performance. Better than the 3-0 in Melbourne, because Fury typically kept coming at us; they fought hard, caused us some problems and didn't actually play all that badly. Nevertheless, you can use all of the superlatives you can find to describe Sydney's performance and they all work. I'm just going to stick with wow.

Ultimately, I think the difference between that performance and the last three games was determination. From the stands to the pitch, everyone involved with Sydney FC wanted that win and the team delivered it in spades. You saw it in Brosque's first goal where he fought through a likely penalty to strike the ball whilst prone in a crowded six yard box. You saw it in Corica outjumping (!) the Fury defenders to head his goal home. You saw it in Aloisi's celebration and Kisel's running and Stephan Kellar and Simon Colosimo's determined defending and... and... and...

But, the best moment for me was one of pure finesse - Brosque's second goal should go straight into the coaching manuals. Five seconds before the free kick is taken, Brosque is loitering off-side as laconically as you like. Then its an arcing run onside and around the defence to meet the ball in a clean, free header past the helpless Pasfield who can only look on at his former teammate's genius and say... wow.

As good as we were though, Sydney may have to do even better, to take the points off a Nix team that is as hard to beat at home as any team in the league. The fact that the Nix are playing the game in Palmerston, rather than Wellington might provide the distraction that Sydney need to take the points, however with the Kiwis enjoying their own World Cup-related football resurgance and the Socceroos snub of the All-Whites (ixpict the rabid Skysperts' communtaters to mintion thet won all naight, eh bro!) Wellington will expect a lot of vocal support and will be keen to make an impression on some new fans, who will be turning up to see a fair proportion of their heroic World Cup team.

Sydney will need to pick up from where they left off against Fury, if they are going to take the points. I think both sets of fans can look forward to a a high tempo and high quality game - even if you have to turn the sound down to sit through it!