Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has promised to give star midfielders Tim Cahill and Vince Grella a dressing-down over the X-rated challenges which marred Australia's 2-1 friendly victory over New Zealand at the MCG on Monday night.

Cahill and Grella were lucky to remain on the park after rash, ugly tackles on New Zealand winger Leo Bertos which may have put the Wellington Phoenix player's World Cup hopes in jeopardy.

Grella launched a horrible two-footed lunge at Bertos midway through the first half.

Then Cahill followed up with a less vicious, but no less illegal challenge which led to Bertos being stretchered off with a leg injury.

Both received only yellow cards.

Verbeek labelled the challenges unprofessional following a win even he called fortunate - sealed by a last-kick winner from Brett Holman after the Socceroos had been played off the park by New Zealand in the first half.

"They know it was not good what they did. I don't have to tell them, but I'm going to tell them it's unacceptable," Verbeek said.

"I can only give the compliments to New Zealand that they behaved themselves.

"They were very professional. My players were not.

"You cannot afford to go into any game and make tackles like that. In the World Cup, it's probably two red cards."

New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert felt the Socceroos were lucky to keep all 11 men on the park and admitted Bertos' condition would be assessed on Tuesday to see if he was fit enough to continue on to the World Cup.

Defensive midfielder Tim Brown also popped a shoulder and was taken to hospital for scans.

The Socceroos showed they have three weeks of heavy lifting to get in World Cup shape as some soft underbelly was exposed by the spirited All Whites.

Australia's best available 11 struggled badly in a poor first half, as New Zealand dominated and exposed some defensive rust.

But the Socceroos looked far more lively in the second half, with Dario Vidosic's 57th minute equaliser and Holman's late winner striking out Chris Killen's 16th minute goal for New Zealand.

The All Whites, ranked more than 50 places below the Australians, showed they could create some problems for the unprepared in South Africa as they outplayed the Socceroos in the first 45 minutes.

Despite Australia being without five first-choice players, including Harry Kewell, the New Zealanders caused plenty of uncertainty in an Australian defence lying far too deep.

New Zealand midfielder Simon Elliott was outstanding in pulling the strings.

And Killen stunned the 55,000-strong crowd when he ghosted behind the Socceroos defence to latch on to neat lead-up from Elliott and Shane Smeltz's flicked header to give the All Whites a deserved lead.

New Zealand could easily have been two goals up by halftime, with Killen hitting the post in the 24th minute with a swinging volley.

Verbeek swung the changes in the second half, injecting five substitutes keen to show they are worthy of places in the 27-man provisional squad leaving for South Africa for a pre-World Cup training camp on Wednesday.

After Vidosic equalised, New Zealand could have taken the lead again on 70 minutes, but goalkeeper Brad Jones made an outstanding save to deny Rory Fallon.

Then Holman, who had been busy, was put behind the New Zealand defence by Carl Valeri's neat lofted pass and slotted home to seal victory.

Kewell, Mark Schwarzer, Brett Emerton, Luke Wilkshire, Scott Chipperfield and Josh Kennedy were all missing from the line-up because of injury concerns, or being rested.

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