Chengdu needed only a draw at home to direct title challengers Dalian Yingbo on the penultimate matchday and, after missing the opportunity to go 1-0 up before half-time from the penalty spot, failed to convert any of their 12 shot attempts and ultimately lost 1-0.
A 3-2 loss away to Shandong Taishan on Sunday’s final matchday condemned them to a fate that appeared both impossible and yet imminent on the basis of their dreadful on-field end to the campaign.
Aloisi’s side exploded out of the blocks with an historic 12-game unbeaten run (W11, D1) to establish themselves as early title favourites, turning that into near-certain championship victory when they took a 12-point lead into the final four rounds.
A five-game winless run to close out the season opened the door for Dalian, who are employing former A-League head coach Marko Rudan as an assistant, to storm home with five consecutive wins to steal the title.
Dalian ultimately prevailed on the head-to-head tiebreaker, having defeated Chengdu twice during the season – including in that five-game winning streak.
It was a fitting end to what started out as the most dramatic season in CSL history, with nine of the 16 clubs beginning the season with points deductions of various sizes following an unprecedented crackdown on corruption in the league.
Two of them, Wuhan Three Towns and Qingdao Hainiu, couldn’t overcome their deductions to avoid relegation, whilst CSL powerhouses Shanghai Shenhua and defending champions Shanghai Port recorded midtable finishes despite theirs.
The curse that befelled Chengdu ultimately began four rounds back when a second half stoppage time goal to lower table club Tianjin Jinmen Tiger stripped them of what appeared to be a certain draw, saw defender Wang Dongsheng inadvertently open the scoring for Shanghai Port with an unfortunate own goal, and even produced heartbreak in the matchday 29 loss to Dalian when a hopeful 90th-minute equaliser from Hetao Hu was disallowed by VAR.
It also means that Aloisi’s team missed direct qualification for the league phase of the 2027/28 AFC Champion League Elite and will instead have to settle for the group stage of the second-tier AFC Champions League 2.
That was not where the Aussie flavour in the CSL ends, however, with former Central Coast Mariners captain Nick Montgomery leading Beijing Guoan to a third-place finish, Kevin Muscat’s Shanghai Port finishing fifth and Ross Aloisi’s Zheijang Professional ninth.
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