The Socceroos’ hero from that unforgettable night in Sydney in 2005 is now staring down the barrel of one of football’s most insane collapses.
John Aloisi’s Chengdu Rongcheng have looked all but certain to win the Chinese Super League title for months.
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But now, with one game left in the season, they are in an incredibly nervy position where a final day loss could see them pipped of a maiden title just eight years after the club was formed.
At the end of August, Aloisi, who scored the penalty against Uruguay that ended the Socceroos’ 32-year World Cup drought, looked a certainty to become the fifth Australian manager to win a league title overseas.
His side were 14 points clear with five games to play.
All they needed was one more win to lift the trophy, but they have not scored a goal since.
Chengdu played out a scoreless draw at third-last Henan in early September in their final game before a more than a month-long international break.
Since players returned from international commitments to the Chinese Super League, Aloisi’s team, nicknamed ‘The Pandas’, have lost three matches in a row.
They were beaten 1-0 at home by Tianjin Jinmen Tiger earlier this month and last week, were thumped 3-0 at Shanghai Port – the two-time defending champions who are managed by Aloisi’s former Socceroos teammate Kevin Muscat.
On Saturday, they were again beaten 1-0 at home title rivals Dalian Yingbo.
The rub salt into their wounds, Aloisi’s men had a 90th minute equaliser disallowed.
They won just two of their last 13 games and have opened the door to final day heartbreak.
Chengdu only needs a draw at fourth-placed Shandong Taishan to clinch the title.
Second-placed Dalian are three points behind and need to win at home to 12th-placed Tianjin Jinmen Tiger.
It most leagues, it would be effectively over with The Pandas boasting a superior goal difference by 13.
But in the Chinese Super League, head-to-head results trump goal difference when it comes to tiebreakers.
Dalian won both meetings with Chengdu during the season, so Dalian will win the title if the two teams finish level on points.
Chengdu’s supporters might have jinxed themselves too.
On Saturday, they unveiled a tifo that said “Champion claimed. Your dream, we march”.
They will certainly have egg on their face if they end up finishing second.
Failing to win the title would be a cruel end to the season for Aloisi.
Earlier in the campaign, he was being compared to fellow Australian manager Ange Postecoglou – given his impact in China drew similarities to the former Tottenham boss’ success in Japan.
The 50-year-old manager came to Chengu at the beginning of the year for his first overseas job and like Postecoglou, implemented an attacking style of play that has had the more than 50,000 seat Phoenix Hill Football Stadium rocking.
Tickets to Chengdu home games have been selling out in four minutes as the club’s 1.5 million members scramble to secure a seat.
The Australian has played club football at the biggest stadiums in Europe and in a World Cup in Germany, and believes the atmosphere is up there with those footballing cathedrals.
“The hardest thing is the players can’t always hear me,” Aloisi told football360.com.au earlier this year.
“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing because I’m trying to yell out instructions they’re not always hearing because it is so loud. The atmosphere is incredible. It’s the best atmosphere I’ve experienced as a coach and as a player.
“It’s incredible how loud (it is). From the start of the game, before the game, the noise. (Assistant coach) Diogo (Ferreira) said they can hardly hear his whistle in the warm-up. That’s how loud it can be.
“You can’t get tired of playing in front of this or coaching in front of this sort of crowd. It’s incredible. It really is. And I’ve obviously played in a lot of places around the world and to say that means that the atmosphere is as good as I’ve ever experienced.”
The first Australian to ever play in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A’s voyage to Chengdu, a city of roughly 21.5 million people in the Sichuan province, came after he was left out in the cold in his home country.
Aloisi was previously the manager of now defunct A-League Western United.
The Victorian-based club’s demise last year due to financial troubles left Aloisi’s coaching future up in the air.
Suddenly in the blink of an eye, he was on a plane to China ahead of the new season kicking off in March.
“I wasn’t sure if anything was going to come up (or) if the Western United situation would be resolved,” Aloisi told football360.com.au.
“I remember speaking quite a few times about wanting to eventually go and try coaching abroad, but I didn’t know if that opportunity would ever happen.”
“It was around Christmas time when I found out I got the job and then in January, I’m here,” he added.
“I know that they interviewed about 20 different candidates. Then it narrowed down. I was in the top three and then eventually I got the job.
“So, it happened quite quickly because they needed to get someone in to organise their pre-season, which happened in January.”
Aloisi sold Chengdu’s hierarchy with his vision for a more attacking brand.
Under Korean manager Seo Jung-won, Chengdu used to play with a back five and Aloisi quickly plotted his overhaul by scrambling to find footage of their games while at home in Australia.
When the job came on his radar, Aloisi watched Chendu’s last three AFC Champions League games of 2025.
He poured over the footage to understand the squad and how they played.
In the space of a few long nights, Aloisi then pieced together his pitch.
“I had to speak about the way that I want my team to play if I got the job and how I’ll change it and what personnel would suit the way that we would want to play,” he told football360.com.au.
“Then also show them footage of training sessions that we used to do at Western United and some match footage of stuff that we used to do at Western United in terms of how we might build up from the back, how we might play through a press or a deep block or also how we like to defend from the front third in terms of pressing, the mid third and then the back third.
“You go into detail about how you manage situations, how you manage teams, how you manage individuals. Because, for instance, here these guys are big stars. We’ve got one of our national team players who’s the captain, he’s a massive, massive star here in China. How do you manage someone like that?
“All these things you have to try and put into a presentation and deliver it through an interpreter and then also on Zoom.”
The challenge did not get easier once Aloisi touched down in Chengdu.
He immediately got to work at the start of this year but did not have the key assets that would be at the heart of the team’s rebirth.
“We had about eight players away because of international duty with the national team and also the under-23 national team,” he recalled.
“We didn’t have much of a squad for that pre-season until right at the end. And then we virtually had to play two Champions League games.”
As he got accustomed to life in the Chinese Super League, Aloisi had no shortage of familiar faces to lean on for advice.
There are a swarm of Australians in key roles in China right now.
Chengdu boasts Aloisi’s old Western United assistant Diogo Ferrerira on their coaching panel, while fitness coach Alex Calder and performance analyst Harry Reading are also Australian.
Plus, Aloisi coaches against his former Socceroos teammate Kevin Muscat (Shanghai Port), ex-Central Coast Mariners boss Nick Montgomery (Beijing Guoan) and his older brother Ross (Zhejiang FC).
Muscat, Montgomery and Ross Aloisi have been chasing their tails this season as each of their clubs were hit with massive corruption sanctions back in January.
Nine clubs began the season with points deductions – ranging from -10 to -5 – and hit with fines for match-fixing, gambling and bribery.
Once the league moved on from that scandal, the meetings of the Aloisi brothers were billed as if they were a title fight in China.
“It was big news in China because I don’t think it’s been done before in the Chinese Super League with brothers coaching against each other, but it was more about the teams than us,” the younger Aloisi said.
John claimed bragging rights over Ross on both occasions this season.
Chengdu prevailed 4-0 at home back in April before coming from 2-0 down to win 3-2 away via a 90th minute winner in August.
Their meetings put the rest of the Aloisi family in an awkward position and John revealed after the earlier match that their father Rocky chose to not see his two sons lock horns on a day that was special off the pitch too.
“He wouldn’t come over. I said you’re going to regret it because it’s a one-off. It’s your birthday and he said, ‘nah, he wouldn’t enjoy the game’”, John said.
The Aloisi clan will certainly be biting their nails this week.
As will many Australian football fans, who are eager to see one of the nation’s finest to pull on the green and gold, enjoy success on foreign soil.
“Winning the championship will never be an easy road. I hope the fans will continue to support us,” Aloisi said after Chengdu’s loss to Shanghai Port last week.
“Right now, we need to summon our courage, maintain our confidence, and cultivate strong mental fortitude. The players need to demonstrate these qualities and bring out their full potential.”