Australia 2
New Zealand 1
The friendly with fire turned ugly at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in last night's World Cup warm-up match between the All Whites and Socceroos.
Australia snatched a 2-1 victory through an injury-time Brett Holman goal from a superb Carl Valeri chip.
The scrappy match did nothing to suggest the two Australasian teams will make many waves in South Africa next month, but Rory Fallon certainly did last night, with a brilliant aerial performance.
If Fallon reached heights, the game was lowered by one mad act that led to All Whites playmaker Leo Bertos being taken off the famous ground on a stretcher in the 30th minute.
Veteran hard man Vince Grella won himself life membership of the Hall of Shame with his 26th-minute tackle on Bertos, a flying two-footed lunge, with sprigs up, that left the skilful Phoenix midfielder on the deck.
American referee Ricardo Salazar inexplicably allowed Grella to remain, a yellow card appropriate in colour but not sufficient for such a cowardly act.
Four minutes later, striker Tim Cahill, the Everton star, went in foot up on Bertos, leaving him in a heap.
Bertos was carried off the ground, although fortunate that Cahill's tackle had left him with just a deep cut, his World Cup still on. Combined with Grella's earlier attack, it could have been worse.
If a rekindling of the transtasman rivalry was the name of the game, then call this mission accomplished. But at a steep price.
Grella may have revealed Australia's frustration. The Aussies (ranked 20th in the world) could not cope with NZ (60 places below) working them over with undervalued resources before a moderate crowd at the 90,000-plus-capacity stadium.
If anyone was in any doubt about how the All Whites will approach the World Cup, this would have been removed last night as the aerial assault in the first half left the hosts' defence in a mess.
New Zealand does not have enough midfield quality to threaten on the ground, but they are a big side and with Fallon leading the line, they can threaten if the delivery is good enough.
The All Whites' big boppers had been banging giant holes in Australia's reputation, with Fallon particularly dominant in the air and Simon Elliott supplying the killer crosses.
This brought an early chance to Tim Brown, Bertos supplying the ball for Fallon.
In the 16th minute, Shane Smeltz flicked on an Elliott delivery, and Chris Killen made sharp work of the chance, beating keeper Adam Federici at the back post.
Elliott created another chance for Killen, with Ivan Vicelich the aerial intermediary, and then one for Fallon.
It was bombs away for the All Whites, while Australia's first half will be remembered for the two violent explosions. The Bertos departure saw Winston Reid make his NZ debut, the right-sided defender operating out of position on Ryan Nelsen's left.
Australia levelled in the 56th minute when Dario Vidosic expertly turned the ball past Mark Paston from a fortunate bounce against hesitant defending.
An unmarked Fallon missed a late header that could have got the win.
With the violent heat thankfully out of the game, All Whites coach Ricki Herbert revealed the shape of things to come, sending defender Tommy Smith into the game in the 60th minute in a swap for Tony Lochhead.
Jeremy Brockie and Chris Wood played the last 25 minutes for Smeltz and Killen.
