JOHN Aloisi has added yet another iconic image to Australian football, but this one won’t be hanging on his pool room wall.
Three years ago, he was ripping off his shirt and racing the length of Stadium Australia to the deafening screams of 80,000.
This weekend he was a picture of despair on his hands and knees inside Perth Glory’s goal, with 12,000 boos ringing in his ears.
He’s gone from hero to zero in spectacular fashion, and dragging his club down with him.
At the beginning of the season, Aloisi was unavailable through injury and Sydney played well and got their results.
As he came back from injury, with the exception of the match against Melbourne Victory, his game time increased and results worsened.
This weekend, they hit a new low. Aloisi embarrassingly missed two clear sitters, Sydney scored two humiliating own goals and they got hammered 4-1 by the second worst team in the competition.
Sydney fans booed Aloisi, booed Kosmina and booed the team off, both at half-time and full-time.
Aloisi was replaced even before the hour mark, and cut a dejected figure, isolated on the end of the bench, the sound of those boos still echoing around his head.
For all that David Zdrilic was the previous anti-hero of Sydney fans, for all his front-of-goal impotence, for all the salary cap he swallowed up, I still don't remember him being booed off the field. Insulting songs, yes – boos, no.
For Aloisi, a man who has relished being the player who took Australia to their first World Cup in 32 years, those boos would have been crushing.
And while it’s tempting to tell him to hang up his boots now, to do the decent thing and rip up his million-dollar-plus contract and just walk away, could you really do that to anyone?
Could you make that match against Glory be potentially their last ever top flight game of footy? To have that picture of Aloisi’s goal-line agony be his legacy?
Aloisi’s importance may have been over-rated in the past – but no-one deserves that as the epitaph on their career.
Some Sydney fans may be baying for his blood immediately but they should wait a while at least.
Coach John Kosmina was making no promises on Aloisi’s starting place next game against Victory, but it’s almost infeasible he will be allowed to start.
That million dollar salary is meaningless now.
If playing Aloisi is a liability – as he was against Glory – it’s potentially worth more than a million to leave him out of the side...and give Sydney a chance of making the finals and then potentially the Asian Champions League (and Club World Cup) again.
Aloisi should be benched from here on in. If he can come off the pine and make an impact, all good and well. If he can’t, well, at least he’s less likely to get booed off again if he was only a sub.
And if Aloisi still can’t put anything but himself in the back of the net by the middle of January, he can then do the decent thing and go out with his head held at least a bit higher than it would have been this weekend.
But it almost certainly won't happen. Aloisi proved at Central Coast Mariners he was capable at this level. He'll still believe he can be again...even if it takes until next season - and another million dollars - to prove that right or wrong.
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Kossie might not be so keen to lose Aloisi however – and not because he believes in his star striker.
But so long as Aloisi is mis-firing, it takes the focus off Kosmina and the problems elsewhere in the side.
Aloisi was just the joke attack in a Sydney side that also boasted some joke defending and joke goalkeeping with only a passable midfield that kept Sydney in the game and won them the impressive stats that Kossie called upon in the post-match press conference.
For all the balls into the penalty area, they still only had as many shots on goal as Glory. For all the domination of possession, they still shipped four goals. For all the corners and free kicks, they could only finish one of them.
When Kossie used the stats to claim Sydney battered Glory, he was brazenly having a laugh. Unfortunately Sydney were the joke and the punchline was the score.
This was Sydney's Nightmare Before Christmas.
Three years ago, he was ripping off his shirt and racing the length of Stadium Australia to the deafening screams of 80,000.
This weekend he was a picture of despair on his hands and knees inside Perth Glory’s goal, with 12,000 boos ringing in his ears.
He’s gone from hero to zero in spectacular fashion, and dragging his club down with him.
At the beginning of the season, Aloisi was unavailable through injury and Sydney played well and got their results.
As he came back from injury, with the exception of the match against Melbourne Victory, his game time increased and results worsened.
This weekend, they hit a new low. Aloisi embarrassingly missed two clear sitters, Sydney scored two humiliating own goals and they got hammered 4-1 by the second worst team in the competition.
Sydney fans booed Aloisi, booed Kosmina and booed the team off, both at half-time and full-time.
Aloisi was replaced even before the hour mark, and cut a dejected figure, isolated on the end of the bench, the sound of those boos still echoing around his head.
For all that David Zdrilic was the previous anti-hero of Sydney fans, for all his front-of-goal impotence, for all the salary cap he swallowed up, I still don't remember him being booed off the field. Insulting songs, yes – boos, no.
For Aloisi, a man who has relished being the player who took Australia to their first World Cup in 32 years, those boos would have been crushing.
And while it’s tempting to tell him to hang up his boots now, to do the decent thing and rip up his million-dollar-plus contract and just walk away, could you really do that to anyone?
Could you make that match against Glory be potentially their last ever top flight game of footy? To have that picture of Aloisi’s goal-line agony be his legacy?
Aloisi’s importance may have been over-rated in the past – but no-one deserves that as the epitaph on their career.
Some Sydney fans may be baying for his blood immediately but they should wait a while at least.
Coach John Kosmina was making no promises on Aloisi’s starting place next game against Victory, but it’s almost infeasible he will be allowed to start.
That million dollar salary is meaningless now.
If playing Aloisi is a liability – as he was against Glory – it’s potentially worth more than a million to leave him out of the side...and give Sydney a chance of making the finals and then potentially the Asian Champions League (and Club World Cup) again.
Aloisi should be benched from here on in. If he can come off the pine and make an impact, all good and well. If he can’t, well, at least he’s less likely to get booed off again if he was only a sub.
And if Aloisi still can’t put anything but himself in the back of the net by the middle of January, he can then do the decent thing and go out with his head held at least a bit higher than it would have been this weekend.
But it almost certainly won't happen. Aloisi proved at Central Coast Mariners he was capable at this level. He'll still believe he can be again...even if it takes until next season - and another million dollars - to prove that right or wrong.
++++
Kossie might not be so keen to lose Aloisi however – and not because he believes in his star striker.
But so long as Aloisi is mis-firing, it takes the focus off Kosmina and the problems elsewhere in the side.
Aloisi was just the joke attack in a Sydney side that also boasted some joke defending and joke goalkeeping with only a passable midfield that kept Sydney in the game and won them the impressive stats that Kossie called upon in the post-match press conference.
For all the balls into the penalty area, they still only had as many shots on goal as Glory. For all the domination of possession, they still shipped four goals. For all the corners and free kicks, they could only finish one of them.
When Kossie used the stats to claim Sydney battered Glory, he was brazenly having a laugh. Unfortunately Sydney were the joke and the punchline was the score.
This was Sydney's Nightmare Before Christmas.
