Pim praises players

Qantas Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has praised the efforts of his players after they kept a dominant Netherlands side scoreless in Saturday's hard-fought international friendly at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Qantas Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has praised the efforts of his players after they kept a dominant Netherlands side scoreless in Saturday's hard-fought international friendly at the Sydney Football Stadium.

The clinical Dutch line-up was clearly the dominant outfit firing 21 shots on goal despite the greasy conditions, while Brett Holman's 88th-minute chance was the Qantas Socceroos' only genuine scoring opportunity of the encounter.

But Verbeek, who rotated several of his stars in the second half after losing midfielder Vince Grella in the 16th minute with a thigh injury, was delighted with most aspects of the performance.

"For us of course this was a very good test, the Dutch team made us work very hard, we had to concentrate, we had to do a well organised job and I think we did," he said.

"When we have the ball I think we should control a little bit more, we lost the ball too easily sometimes and didn't create, because of that, enough chances."

"Of course that has also to do especially in the second half where we had to change some players but overall I can say for us this was a very good game."

"We know that we still need to improve because you could see that the Dutch team is more or less in every aspect of football a better team ... so it's a good lesson for us."

The Qantas Socceroos will now turn their attention to Wednesday's crucial World Cup qualifier against Oman.

While happy with the result, Verbeek's mood darkened when asked of Grella's injury, confirming he is almost certain to miss the Oman clash.

"The bad thing from this game is that we lose Grella probably for Wednesday's game," he said.

"We have to wait but it doesn't look good so that's a big loss for us."

"He has a muscle problem not on the quadriceps but on the front side of his leg."

"We are not happy with that, it's very unlucky for him and also for us."

Grella joins Scott McDonald (back) and Mark Bresciano (knee) on the injured list.

In better news, skipper Lucas Neill completed the full 90 minutes after being starved of football in recent months, while Brett Emerton also played strongly after coming on as a replacement at half-time in his comeback from knee surgery.

Meanwhile, Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk said his side deserved to win the game and conceded the conditions didn't help the visitors' cause.

"The only thing that was not so good (about the performance) was that we didn't score a goal, we deserved to score a goal," Van Marwijk said.

"I think Australia didn't have one chance, maybe one half-chance with Holman but I think it was offside."

Asked if he was surprised the Qantas Socceroos focused mainly on defence throughout the game, Van Marwijk said: "No, no be cause we knew the Australian team and I know Pim very, very well and I know how they play."

"They wait for a mistake from our team and play the counter, we have a different way of playing so we knew before what was going to happen."