As the rest of Australia celebrated the 20-year anniversary of John Aloisi’s famous penalty kick against Uruguay over the weekend, the Socceroos refused to look back. But they did go backwards, ever so slightly.

Coach Tony Popovic did not sit his players through a communal re-watch in camp, nor did he ask them to channel the spirit of November 16, 2005, when they took the field against Venezuela in Houston, Texas.

Instead, he watched them produce the worst performance of his year-long tenure as Socceroos coach: a disjointed 1–0 defeat that extended a different South American hoodoo.

“It was a good lesson for us,” Popovic said, chalking it up largely to the inexperience in the experimental starting XI.

“Probably from the 15th minute onwards to the last 15, there wasn’t much good f

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