Well, it was an improvement for the Socceroos against Denmark. But anything would have been after last week’s miserable effort in Melbourne against New Zealand.

Again, a victory barely deserved. But we’re getting used to that under Pim Verbeek, a man with a horseshoe bigger than Guus Hiddink’s.

I will be flogged for saying this from the TWG patriot militia but other than from poor mistakes from our opposition – like Denmark’s failure to handle a simple bouncing cross into the box that saw Australia score the game’s only goal in the 71st minute – I still can’t see where goals are going to come from during the World Cup.

It’s unfailingly route-one football – get the ball to Jesus’s head – and the man pulling the strings, the one who looks most dangerous in an attacking sense, is Luke Wilkshire.

His crosses are very good, nicely weighted and, aside from a robust contribution from Scott Chipperfield (how we’ve missed him), just about the only positive thing I can bring up about Tuesday's soporific performance in Ruimsig.

That Andy Harper could say with a straight face that Australia had “refound its mojo” is beyond the pale. (I saw more mojo under Frank Farina.) Or do they give commentators happy gas before they go on-air at Fox? Believe it if you wish, Harps.

I prefer to call it another worrying and lucky performance.

Though he made an excellent save in the second half, Mark Schwarzer had an unusually bad time of it, his clearances appalling.

But every player’s allowed an ordinary day and there is a serious question mark over the Jabulani match balls, which have been likened to beach balls. So let’s give him and the rest of the team the benefit of the doubt over their distribution.

Vince Grella is my key concern. His tackles are rash, dangerously timed and he seems more hot-blooded than at any time I’ve seen him in his career. Aggression is a key part of Grella’s game but he’s taking it way too far.

It’s been a week since he nearly tore off Leo Bertos’s leg with a two-footed flying lunge but what’s he learned?

We were told by Verbeek that such tackles were unacceptable.

Grella even admitted: “I think maybe a little bit too hard in the tackle.” Yet the studs were up again in Ruimsig.

Verbeek needs to pull him into line – properly – and give him a Fergie-style blow dry.

Otherwise, the way he’s going, Grella will be sent off at the World Cup and Australia cannot afford to lose any of its fit players.

The upcoming hit-out against USA is his last chance to correct his timing and technique and Verbeek should and will start him.

But if he doesn’t change his ways Grella is going to be a massive risk going into the game against the Nationalmannschaft in Durban, where his lack of pace and hair-trigger temper will be tested to their limits.

There’s no question that, like Craig Moore, Grella is not the player he used to be. It appears he’s compensating for his lack of speed by ratcheting up the physical element of his game but he needs to be smarter and less obvious about it.

Even Kevin Muscat plays a smarter physical game.

Grella is not always going to be the beneficiary of a referee’s discretion. Sooner or later, his number will be up.

Frankly – again like Moore – I think it was up long ago.

But Verbeek clearly thinks he’s the best man for the job. Let’s hope he’s right.