Australia's Socceroos face World Cup warning after ugly tackles
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Australia's Socceroos saved face by a last-minute goal on Monday night's match against New Zealand's All Whites. However, their ugly tackles marred the friendly match before the World Cup and spell warning for the Roos.
In what was supposed to be a farewell celebration, the world's 20th rated team Socceroos laboured from a goal down to snatch an unconvincing 2-1 win over 78th-ranked New Zealand with the last kick of the match.
The Socceroos exposed some soft underbelly in the friendly win at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) on Monday night. Obviously, they need some heavy lifting to get in shape for the World Cup in the following three weeks.
Within 5 minutes, two players of the All Whites were hit heavily first by Australia's no. 13 Vincenzo Grella and then no. 4 Tim Cahill, after the New Zealand team opened the scoring in the first half of the match.
New Zealand's Leo Bertos was hit by a shocking tackle from Australia's Tim Cahill. Bertos was sent flying in the air and had to be stretchered off.
"It's a lesson for us," conceded Socceroos captain Lucas Neill. "Our passion and commitment is great, but we've got to be very careful because we might find ourselves without key players in key periods of a game and for the rest of the tournament.
"We've got to make sure we are fully disciplined going into the World Cup." Neill told reporters Monday night after the match.
Grella admitted he went in "a little bit too hard" after New Zealand took a deserved 1-0 lead in Monday night's World Cup farewell match at the MCG. "It was probably not needed in a friendly game," he said.
Socceroo coach Pim Verbeek said Monday night to reporters "I'm going to tell them it's unacceptable," "You cannot afford to go into any game and make tackles like that. In the World Cup, it's probably two red cards.
"I can only give compliments to New Zealand that they behaved themselves.
"They were very professional. My players were not."
It seemed everyone in Australia had expected an easy win against the old foe New Zealand, given Australia's world ranking being over 50 places higher than the New Zealand's. But Monday night's match showed that Australia had to use ugly tackles to win which spell some real concerning warning for the team's coming World Cup trip.
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