So much for that.

It took all of a quarter of an hour for Gamba Osaka to underline their total supremacy in the AFC Champions League final, as the Kansai club romped to a 5-0 aggregate win over Adelaide United.

Questions will now be asked of how a team currently lying seventh in their domestic championship, who were beaten 3-1 away at Shimizu S-Pulse in the match preceding the first leg of the final and 3-1 at home to FC Tokyo in the match sandwiched in between, could prove so technically superior to a team regarded as one of Australia's premier club sides.

That a player like Hayato Sasaki caused so many problems for the Adelaide defence when the Gamba winger has started the total of TWO games in the Japanese top flight, and has played the full ninety minutes in J1 on a total of ZERO occasions, surely speaks volumes for the alarming disparity between the two sides.

The unsubstianted rumours suggesting that Sydney FC are willing to offer Sasaki a reputed $A600,000, three-year contract perhaps says more about the A-League's questionable scouting policy than it does about the financial gulf between the two leagues.

A-League fans who harp on about Brazilian strikers in Japan generally miss two key points.

The first is that, for complex cultural reasons, Japanese strikers are far more reluctant to shoot than their Brazilian counterparts. That's precisely the reason that Brazilian strikers are brought to Japan in the first place. But it's the fact that Brazilian strikers ply their trade in Japan at all that is key. 

If A-League clubs were after a lesson in scouting, they might consider giving Kawasaki Frontale a call. In Carlos Alberto Carvalho dos Anjos Junior, better known in Japan as Juninho, they found a match made in heaven. Converted from an attacking midfielder, Junhino has scored more than 130 goals in a little over 200 league appearances for the Kanagawa side. 

That didn't stop Frontale from recalling Tokyo Verdy's former goal machine Hulk from his loan spell in the capital. It was Kawasaki who originally brought the combustible youngster to Japan, and while things didn't work out for Hulk at Frontale, he now plys his trade for FC Porto, where he featured against Arsenal in this season's UEFA Champions League.

To replace him, Frontale signed Santos midfielder Vitor Junior on loan. Supremely skilled, the tricky midfielder promptly set up one and scored another on debut against Urawa Reds at Saitama Stadium. He joins 21-year-old ex-Santos striker Renatinho in the squad, who scored a goal in his first start for the club, before scoring two more in his next J. League match, nailing down a regular starting role in the process.

Plenty of big name Brazilians have pitched up in the J. League in recent years, including current Urawa Reds midfielder Robson Ponte and Kashiwa Reysol striker França, both once of the German Bundesliga. Yet plenty more Brazilians arrive unheralded.

Omiya Ardija can take credit for attracting two of them, although the Saitama side didn't quite have the foresight or financial clout to keep hold of them. These days bustling striker Leandro plays his football for Vissel Kobe, for whom he's scored seven league goals this season, while laying on several more for team-mates Yoshito Okubo and Takayuki Yoshida.

Baré is a more well-known case. He played much of his club football in Japan in the Second Division - having been lured to the country by Omiya Ardija, before eventually becoming the fulcrum of the Gamba Osaka attack until his departure for the oil-rich Gulf. 

In the A-League, only Melbourne Victory's Fred can be considered an unqualified success, although Adelaide United duo Diego and Cassio are more than useful acquisitions, with the jury still out on striker Cristiano. 

The fact that Fred departed the A-League for Major League Soccer after a solitary championship winning season with Melbourne Victory provides a sobering reality check as to just how much money A-League clubs have to splash. Yet with "marquee dollars" being spent on Socceroos like John Aloisi at Sydney FC, Archie Thompson at Melbourne Victory and now Jade North at the puzzlingly-named North Queensland Fury, it's a wonder that A-League clubs don't look north to try and lure some of the Brazilian talent on offer in the J. League a sunny sea-change Down Under.

That may be easier said than done - money is the first obstacle, but clearly Japanese clubs have spent years building their extensive scouting networks in Brazil, and with Japan and Brazil having forged socio-economic ties long ago, the A-League must also compete with the J. League's long history of signing Brazilians.

Still, with Lucas Severino having scored both goals in Gamba's 2-0 win over Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium, A-League apologists may be quick to jump on the "Brazilians in Japan" bandwagon all over again. They're entitled to do so, but they might also want to consider how the A-League could be improved by signing one or two of the kinds of Brazilians who regularly lob up in Japan in the first place.