Alex Neil praised his “exciting” Stoke side as they demolished 10-man Rotherham with a 4-1 Championship win.
Maritimo recruit Andre Vidigal was the highlight of the Potters’ six debutants as he capped an impressive display with a brace.
“I thought we looked like an exciting team,” Neil said. “We wanted to start the season well because there’s been a lot of optimism and a lot of talk.
“But the talk was always going to stop, so to win in the manner in which we did was very pleasing.”
Ki-Jana Hoever, returning for a second loan spell at the club, emphatically volleyed in the opener inside five minutes, while Vidigal’s quickfire double in first-half added time then handed Stoke a comfortable lead.
The Millers threatened a comeback when substitute Lee Peltier scored with his first touch straight after the restart.
However, Cafu’s red card ended any hope of a Rotherham reprieve and Jacob Brown capitalised to add the hosts’ fourth late on.
Neil added: “I thought the first goal was excellent and that set the tone, so to go on and score four goals was something we didn’t do very often last season.
“And to do it with six debutants in the team and a few more new players who came on, that speaks volumes for where the lads are.
“To get some of the new guys to score and get some of the performances we got – and to win at home so emphatically – was very pleasing.”
Neil singled out new addition Vidigal for individual praise, with the winger becoming the first Stoke player to net a brace on his debut since John Tudor in 1976.
He added: “It’s hard not to pick him (as man of the match) because he scored two goals and he had a header in the second half which their keeper made a wonderful save.
“He was really effective in the game. You can see his hunger to get into the middle of the box and get a goal and that’s going to be vitally important for us this season.”
Rotherham boss Matt Taylor expressed his frustration in a difficult afternoon for his visiting side.
“It was a tough afternoon for us,” he said.
“They’re a good team and they got on the front foot and we struggled to get any aspect of control.
“We did well to keep it at 1-0 for a large period of the first half and I was pleased that we showed enough character to stay in the game.
“But then (conceding) two goals in quick succession is really frustrating and it looked like a mountain to climb.
“There’s lots to take from it in terms of where we have to improve, but character and personality-wise, we were better in the second half.
“A lot of teams go two or three behind and almost when you’ve got nothing to lose, you play differently when the pressure’s off.
“Mentally we had nothing to lose and we asked them to show a little bit more belief; they started to show it but when Cafu got sent off, it was a difficult one for us.
“We weren’t sharp enough, bright enough or good enough in that first half and we know we can be better.
“We’ve caught a good team on a very good day and a poor day for ourselves, but we know we can improve in certain areas.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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