Not a single day goes by when John Aloisi doesn’t get stopped and asked about that night, November 16, 2005. Sometimes the older ones just want to talk or pose for pictures, sometimes the younger ones get stopped by their parents and shown clips of the man they’re talking to.
Some recall the happiness it gave them when family members were dying. One father even wanted to name his new-born child ‘destiny’ – after the catch-phrase that was used during one of the most memorable periods in Australian football – before the mother put a stop to it.
Australia had endured heartbreak after heartbreak trying to return to the FIFA World Cup™ following a maiden outing at West Germany 1974. Play-off defeats against Scotland in 1985 and a Diego Maradona-inspired Argentina eight years later were hard to take.
Harder still was the France 1998 play-off against IR Iran that saw a Socceroos side in control halted by a pitch invader who tore the goal net down in Melbourne. Then came the first of two play-off battles with Uruguay when, as Aloisi recalls, the team was defeated before things even started in 2001 as the team was accosted upon arrival in Montevideo by a group of Uruguay supporters.
Four years later, the heartbreak would finally end as Aloisi’s qualification-sealing fifth penalty in the second-leg shootout sent Australia back to Germany to feature at a second World Cup.
Here, in his own words, the man who won the game for the Socceroos shares with FIFA his memories of the campaign, that night, the aftermath and thoughts on the current state of the national team as they prepare to head to a sixth straight global finals in North America next year.
John Aloisi: Even though I’m stopped daily, I never get tired of talking about that day, I was lucky to be part of something that was so special for so many people, so I can’t complain. After so much heartbreak it felt like we would never get there so it wasn’t just the moment, it was the whole occasion.
It was the atmosphere of the night, what it meant to people and then what it still means to people 20 years on. There was a bit of everything and it definitely was because of all the heartache that had come before, we felt that as players, we knew past players felt it and certainly the fans did too.
We knew that was our time to really do something special, we had players that were experienced and at the highest level of the game and then when Guus arrived, we knew that that was our moment, we knew that he would get the best out of us and he definitely did do that.
But before we could get to the play-off match we had to get through Oceania and that wasn’t easy, people sometimes forget that. We came back in the off-season, we were tired and although we beat New Zealand in our first game and then the Solomon Islands comfortably in the first leg of the final, we struggled in the second leg, winning only 2-1.
We were just so poor and that was Guus’s first taste of seeing us, I remember after the game, him losing it with us and saying that he was embarrassed. He said that if we were going to be like that, he doesn’t want to coach us because it’ll be an embarrassment for him.
When we knew we would have to play Uruguay again [in 2005], myself and a lot of the others were happy because we had experience of losing to them in 2001. We weren’t prepared for that game in Montevideo four years before and we lost it, I think, at the airport.
We had flown from Melbourne after winning the first leg 1-0 and then they kept us in the airport for hours, made it so difficult to get through customs and then all of a sudden we had to walk out the airport door.
It was only a 10-metre walk from the door to the bus but we were getting spat on, yelled at and they just put absolute fear into us. As soon as we got to the hotel, it felt like a thousand people were there, they were ringing us during the night, trying to wake us up with drums, fireworks, singing.
We were there for four days and we lost before the game, the 3-0 defeat, had even started. Later I heard from a couple of the Uruguay players that I played with that those at the airport were homeless people who had been paid to cause chaos and if that was the case then it certainly worked!
Knowing all that, four years later we were much better prepared. We went to Buenos Aires and only arrived in Montevideo the day before the game, trained at the stadium, stayed on the 20th floor. There was enough security that we weren’t going to get harassed like we did last time.
Even though we lost the first leg 1-0, we were really confident. We knew how strong they were at home and we felt like it was a good result.
We had a private plane to return to Sydney, with massage tables and everything, while Uruguay had to travel in economy class all the way. We knew the advantages that gave us, even with the players they had.
We weren’t tense or nervous before the second leg because we knew the whole nation was behind us. We did hear though that Alvaro Recoba had said that Uruguay had a “divine right” to qualify for the World Cup and we wanted to prove him wrong.
Before things started, we heard the crowd booing the Uruguayan anthem and that had never happened before in Australian sport, so we felt that.
The start of the game was really intense, a lot of heavy challenges. I remember two moments with Recoba missing from just on the edge of the box and then Chengue Morales, who I played with at Osasuna, missing a header that he would never miss, I thought then maybe it could be our night.
Harry Kewell came on early and we started to dominate them, then Mark Bresciano scored in the 35th minute and the noise. That noise, I hadn’t heard anything like that in Australian football, it was unbelievable.
I came on in extra time and felt we could win it, we knew we were fresher than them and when it came to penalties we were ready. Every single player in the squad had practised the night before in front of Guus. Taking a penalty in front of 83,000 people is nerve-wracking but taking a penalty in front of Guus Hiddink can be just as intimidating!
Walking up to the spot and knowing I could send Australia to the World Cup, I just had a feeling. It’s not a case of me saying I want to be the hero but for years in advance I had a feeling that I would score the goal that would take Australia to the World Cup.
I had taken five penalties the night before at the same end and hit them well, so I just kept saying to myself just do what you did last night in training and we’re going to the World Cup, I just kept repeating that.
I put the ball down, had a quick glance at the referee and then just made sure that I struck it well. I hit it really clean, at a good height and knew it was going in.
Then the euphoria. I’d asked the team manager the night before where our families would be sitting and I just ripped my shirt off and ran to them, ran the length of the field. It was just the raw emotion of all the pain, all those years.
The actor John Travlota came in to the dressing room afterwards and we were all dancing with him, having beers, it was just an amazing time.
Later I heard they dug up the turf from the penalty spot where I took that kick and got the ball I used and it’s in a museum somewhere so that’s also nice.
That time in Germany was the best experience that I ever had as a player. We wanted to make an impact and we did, scoring our first goals and then winning our first match at a World Cup against Japan in a match where I scored.
We ended up losing to Brazil but we were well and truly in the game and then an epic 2-2 against Croatia to reach the next round. Against Italy in the Round of 16, the whole moment with the penalty which we felt was absolutely decisive.
It was so disappointing to get knocked out the way we did with the last kick of the game, a penalty. People still talk about it and the majority of people say it’s not a penalty. It still hurts though and was the moment that got away from us because we felt we could have beaten anyone at that stage in the tournament.
I think they’re progressing really nicely under Popa and qualified really well. The way they’ve been pressing, moving the ball, I think they’re coming along really nicely with a nice mix of some good young players and more experienced ones.
It’s a bit easier to get through the group stage now and when you’re very well structured and hard to beat, which Popa’s teams normally are, then you’ve got every opportunity of winning those games.
John Aloisi will be speaking this Sunday, alongside Mark Schwarzer and Josip Skoko at a 20-year reunion event at Ultra Football Melbourne.
