Sporting memories: Scoring an own goal in football/soccer

I think that is soccer (football) that there are two things that can happen that are really embarrassing and make you feel like a numb nuts when you are playing. One is getting nutmegged by an opponent (where they kick the ball between your legs to get it past you) or when you make a bad touch and accidentally score on your own team.

I was quite good at soccer and ended up getting a scholarship to go to college for free because I was so good at it. For the most part I was considered the best player on the team or one of the best players on every team I played on from the ages of 10 until around 18 years of age. That doesn't mean that I never had any bad days or mishaps though and the day that I OG'd my own team was a pretty low point for me.


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I wasn't playing in front of thousands of people like the fella above was. I only had my teammates and coaches to feel bad about having witnessed it and honestly, it wasn't entirely my fault because your teammates need to be able to make up for this sort of thing. I am not trying to pass blame though, it was a bad touch on my part and I was off my form that day entirely.

What happened was that we were playing a team that was offensively very aggressive and they would press forward hard on counter-attacks. We knew this about this team as we had faced them before in the past. The strategy against a team like this is to give them space and run them ragged in the first half. You gas them out at this point and the 2nd half, especially the 2nd half of the 2nd half, they have no energy left and it becomes relatively easy to score on them.

That was the plan anyway, but it all kind of fell apart. They scored a goal on us early using this very strategy and no, we didn't LET them score the goal, there were just one of the better teams in our league. We were using a ball control strategy playing the ball backwards and forwards like I think a team should. They were playing "American style" soccer by almost always pressing forwards even if there wasn't an opening or anyone to pass to up there. This strategy is what almost all youth teams use in the USA and we were proud - and successful - being one of the only teams that played the way that we did.

We would toss the ball back even in our own half of the field in order to lure their midfielders into striking position and then move it past them faster than they could run back, this didn't always work out for us of course.

In this particular situation I was playing the position of "sweeper" where I was the center midfielder but the coach expected me to play the entire length of the field. This can be a rather exhausting job but it is an important one and a position that everyone aspired to on our team. It was an honor to be given such a position.

About midway through the second half we were playing in our own half of the field when one of their strikers made a dash for me as I was in a defensive position with the ball. My team had already moved into a counter-strike position and we were going to go for a long-ball lob over the top after we lured their offense forward. We had planned this almost like an American football "hail mary." The midfielders, forwards, and even some of the defense had planned to wait until they lunged forward like the predictable machine the other team was and then either I or the goal keeper were to lob it with no concern for accuracy, over their heads.

Unfortunately I made one of the worst touches of my entire soccer career on one of these moves. I was playing arrogantly and didn't even check the keeper's position when I passed the ball back to him too quickly and too strongly and the ball sailed right past him and into the back of the net.

The keeper was just as confused as the other team was because I passed it back like it was a shot on goal and I am making no excuses, I definitely passed the ball way too hard. I went down to my knees after the ball hit the back of the net and this put the other team up 2-1. There was only about 10 minutes left in the game and this team was not a team that was expected to have a chance at beating us. It wasn't a clutch part of the season or anything but all games matter and this was really bad.

Thankfully we got our shit together even though we were kind of demoralized by this own goal and the team's spirits were down. I guess you could say that we rallied because even though in 80 minutes we had only scored a single goal I guess we realized that it was now or never if we were going to salvage this game.

We no longer had time to play a passive offense and changed up our formation to have 3 forwards and I was moved into one of those positions. We were able to score an equalizer with MAYBE 1 minute left in play.

This was back in a time when in USA games were not allowed to end in a tie so the game went on to two overtimes as we were playing for the now non-existent "golden goal" which thankfully, we eventually got near the end of the 2nd extra period.

I have played sports most of my life and did well in most of them but this failure on my part - and it was a pretty terrible failure - is something that I can still see in my head as though it happened yesterday. Sure I was in high school and the stakes were not very high but you always remember the really good, as well as the really bad moments.



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9 comments
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I've always imagined how players feel when they score an own goal. It must be a terrible feeling to know you let your team down and I'm sure the team understands because mistakes happen and being one of their best performer, they would understand. Glad your team managed to rally around and save it...

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it might have been a different scene if we hadn't won but yeah, me being one of the better players on the team meant that they were going to take it easy on me. I can't imagine how devastating it would be to a kid that is one of the lessor players on the team particularly at a younger age. It might make them quit the sport.

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This is so true...being a footballer requires mental strength.

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These are the moments we never forget and also learn so much from. We have all done mistakes and even though not intentional it does happen to everyone at some point.

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absolutely. If you are young and have good parents and a good supporting group of people around you these blunders can make you a better competitor.... or if you have a toxic environment it can make someone quit forever. Thankfully, I had a strong supporting cast in my life at the time.

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This was back in a time when in USA games were not allowed to end in a tie so the game went on to two overtimes

haha, this made me smile. I can't think of anything more American sporting than that. Fair play though.

Very interesting post and reminds me of a conversation I had with my mum yesterday. I could recollect and reminisce funny moments of misfortune as a kid. She asked, "don't you have any good memories". I had a tonne, but the ones I remember the most were the unfortunate moments of misfortune!

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I do the same thing when I am around my parents. I think it is more interesting because during the time that these "bad" things happened it might have been too sensitive to talk about but now that we are older we can laugh about it and they can be fun. Care to share one of your moments of misfortune?

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haha, would love to my guy. One of my "memorable" moments was playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Sega. We stayed up late and had "bonus time" as me and my brother (who played as Tales) got the furthest we've ever got. Anyway, my mum bumps the Sega and knocked the power cord out by accident and the game turned off. I remember the pure outrage I had as a five year old and going into a tantrum and thinking just how unfair life was.

There was another moment when I was about five and I always snuck drinking my mums pepsi from a glass behind her back and thought she never knew. Anyway one day she had it with scotch and I spat it back in the glass and pretended like nothing happen. She knew what I did and she questioned me on it. I preceded to lie and had a tantrum that I wasn't lying as she kept pressing me whether I tried to drink the coke behind her back. She knew what I was doing and still drank from the glass 😂 at the time I thought I got away with murder, but as I got older, I realised that she knew all along.

Such random memories but they're the ones that stick.

How about you bud? Got any random highlights?

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I would regularly get busted for staying up past my bedtime as well to play videogames with my brother. That must be a common occurrence.

I thought I was getting away with smoking cigarettes when I was in high school and would go to great lengths to conceal it including having a bottle of listerine and some body spray stashed outside the house. I thought my parents had no idea but it was revealed to me many years later that they were extremely aware of the fact that I was smoking but just left me to it because they realized that there was nothing they could do to stop me. I quit smoking many years ago and now we just laugh about all the things I thought I had pulled over on them only to realize that they knew all along, just like your Pepsi :)

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