THE Socceroos will head into Wednesday's Asian Cup qualifier with Oman full of optimism after preserving their unbeaten record against the Netherlands in a scoreless draw at the Sydney Football Stadium last night.
But they are set to be without Vince Grella after the midfielder injured his thigh just 15 minutes into the rain-sodden match played in front of more than 40,000 fans.
Pim Verbeek's side was mostly outplayed against the world's third ranked side but got just the sort of hit out he was after ahead of this week's crucial game in Melbourne.
Australia badly needs a win after picking up only a point from its opening two qualifiers for the 2011 tournament.
''It was a very good test,'' Verbeek said. ''Overall we can say this was a very good game, we know that we still have to improve, because you could see the Dutch team, more or less on every aspect of football, is a better team ... so it's a good lesson for us.
''I think it's a very useful game, but it's all about Wednesday, that's what we're going to focus on now.''
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