Some football moments live in the history books. Others live in your chest.
November 16, 2005 wasn’t just a match. It was a release. It was thirty-one years of heartbreak, frustration, and missed chances turned into one perfect, glorious, shirtless sprint.
We were in the stands that night. And we’ll never forget it.
Outside of having kids, it was the best day of my life.
The 2005 World Cup Qualifier against Uruguay was everything — the culmination of decades of struggle, the rebirth of belief, and the moment that Australian football finally came home.
And right at the heart of it all, guiding millions of people through it, was Simon Hill — the Voice of Australian Football. His call, burned into our collective memory:
“Here’s Aloisi… for a place in the World Cup. He scores! Australia has done it!”
At Strip Tees, we teamed up with Simon to create something permanent. Something wearable. Something that could carry that energy into the future.
We call it the Simon Says Collection — a tribute to the most iconic calls in Australian football history, created with the man who made them.
That Night Against Uruguay
We’d been here before. Too many times.
Argentina in 1993. Iran in 1997. Uruguay in 2001. Close. Brave. But not enough.
This time, it had to be different.
Stadium Australia was heaving. 82,000 fans screaming, praying, barely breathing. We had the away goal disadvantage. Bresciano equalised. Then the game stalled. Extra time. Penalties.
Every second felt like a lifetime.
Then came the moment.
“That means that if John Aloisi can score this goal…”
Simon Hill paused. Just long enough to let the weight of the country settle into the silence.
“Australia will be there.”
Aloisi ran. We held our breath.
“Here’s Aloisi… for a place in the World Cup. He scores!”
And just like that — everything changed.
We screamed. We hugged strangers. People cried. Shirts came off. Beers went flying. Thirty-one years of almost, wiped away in one kick.
And we’ve never looked back.
For a Place in the World Cup — The Artwork
That call became the foundation of the first piece in the Simon Says collection:
Words stacked like stairs. A silhouette of Aloisi frozen mid-kick. The sentence bends forward — pushing, just like we did for three decades. This piece captures the moment right before eruption.
You can hear the scream in the silence.
31 Years, 4 Months, 24 Days
This wasn’t just a win. It was a resurrection.
Simon Hill’s line was perfect:
“At last. At long last… 31 years, four months and 24 days have passed since Australia ended its campaign in the ‘74 World Cup…”
Our design is cold. Stark. A scoreboard that never changed — until it did. Just blocks of time, stacked in mustard and teal, like a timeline holding its breath.
And finally… letting go.
From Kaiserslautern, With Chaos
Six months later, the Socceroos would write a new chapter — Japan vs Australia, our first World Cup win.
We trailed 1–0 with 10 minutes left. Then Cahill scored. Then Cahill scored again. Then Aloisi sealed it.
Three goals. Nine minutes. Mayhem.
Simon Hill, again, made it immortal:
“Cahill. C-A-H-I-L-L! Tim Cahill has done it again! What a goal by Tim Cahill! 2–1 Australia. Oh, it’s a wonderful moment in Kaiserslautern!”
We knew we had to capture that too.
Simon Hill’s Matchday Notes
We recreated the handwritten notes Simon made that day — raw, messy, honest. Lineups. Arrows. Crossed-out names. Substitutions. Final scores scribbled in the margins.
This is football felt, not filtered.
To commemorate the Socceroos’ first-ever win at a World Cup, we created a line of merchandise based on Simon Hill’s actual handwritten notes. These scrawls perfectly capture the breathless energy of the day. So just as America has the Constitution and Britain has the Magna Carta… Australia has Simon Hill’s Notes from Kaiserslautern.
Cahill. Cahill. Aloisi.
Three goals. Three names. Three moments that turned the world upside down.
84' — Cahill
89' — Cahill
90' — Aloisi
We printed them just as Simon wrote them — like a beat poem for believers. No graphics. Just scrawled words, alive with adrenaline.
It’s more than a shirt. It’s testimony.
A Wonderful Moment in Kaiserslautern
To finish the story, we created a design that captures the joy in Simon’s voice during Cahill’s second goal.
“Oh, it’s a wonderful moment in Kaiserslautern!”
A stylised sardine — playful, gritty, proud — sits inside a retro football crest, a nod to both Cahill’s Samoan heritage and the underdog joy of the match.
This tee is for every fan who danced in their living room that night.
Why This Matters
This isn’t just about nostalgia. It’s about memory. About ownership.
The Simon Says Collection is football history you can wear. Every piece is made in collaboration with Simon Hill himself — shaped by his actual notes, inspired by his words, designed to give form to the moments we still talk about 20 years later.
And most importantly:
All proceeds from the Kaiserslautern Notes and Cahill-Aloisi tees go to the Moriarty Foundation, which uses football and education to empower Indigenous kids in remote communities.
Because when football gives us everything, we give something back.