Soccer: Verbeek criticises his own players for assault on Bertos

All Whites midfielder Leo Bertos hits the deck after being fouled by Socceroo Tim Cahill. Photo / Getty Images

Australia's coach, Pim Verbeek, salvaged that nation's soccer pride last night by slamming the actions of his two veterans, Vince Grella and Tim Cahill, while lauding the All Whites' response to the vicious tackles that marred the World Cup warm-up in Melbourne.

All White midfielder Leo Bertos, the target of thuggish hits from Grella and Cahill, survived the assaults and the All Whites' medics believe he will be fit for the next warm-up matches in Europe, starting with Serbia on Saturday.

Bertos suffered tissue damage after Grella smashed him with a two-footed lunge in the first half, and Cahill repeated the dose with a one-footed tackle minutes later which saw Bertos carried by stretcher from the MCG.

All Whites coach Ricki Herbert said that had it been a normal match rather than a friendly, Australia would have been down to nine men.

And Verbeek agreed, even adding that Australia had not deserved the 2-1 victory. The Socceroos' Dutch coach said a 1-1 draw would have been the fair result.

Verbeek pulled the pair off at halftime in punishment for the tackles, and to defuse any chance of retaliation from the New Zealanders.

"Vince's tackle was worse than Timmy's ... I can't find any reason why they should do what they did," Verbeek said.

"I wanted to take them off immediately but you have to be a bit careful in a game like that.

"If I was the other side, I would have been a little bit mad and might have done something [retaliation]," the Australia coach said. "But New Zealand were very professional and I applaud them - my players were not professional.

"It was a good lesson and I cannot accept what [Grella and Cahill] did. This is not how you should play the game.

"If it had been a World Cup game there would have been two red cards."

Verbeek described New Zealand as very dangerous in the first 25 minutes of the match and said he would be a worried man if the World Cup was only a few days away, given his team's form last night.

Herbert applauded his players' efforts. "I was a bit disappointed with what happened [the tackles], but we can move on."

He believed New Zealand could have led by 3-0 at halftime, a not totally unreasonable evaluation given the effectiveness of their aerial attack.

Meanwhile, midfielder Tim Brown had an x-ray on a shoulder injury last night, but is also expected to be fit for the European camps.