Doha, November 12 (QNA) – Own goals scored by players against their national teams are rooted in the history of the FIFA World Cup tournaments since the first edition, as a negative phenomenon.
Own goals remained an acceptable part of the game, but things took a different turn after it became, following the 1994 World Cup, the cause of a painful memory when Colombian Andrés Escobar was killed for an own goal he scored during the match against the United States. The player died at the hands of a fan after returning to Bogota. His own goal was the reason for his country’s exit from the group stage, in spite of the predictions of Brazilian football legend Pele who believed that Colombia would win the title due to its amazing performances during the World Cup qualifiers.
This incident caused a trend of analyzing own goals in order to stave off suspicions of collusion, in addition to returning to the history of those goals in various tournaments and examining their impact on results.
Despite the infamy of own goals in World Cup tournaments, numerically they do not live up to the size of the aura that accompanied them, given that they represent a very small percentage of goals scored in the 21 previous editions of the World Cup. The percentage of own goals do not exceed 0.02, as total goals scored by mistakes reached 52 goals of 2548 goals during World Cup tournaments. The 52 goals were scored in 51 matches.
Forty-one own goals were scored in the knockout stages while the group stages only witnessed 11 own goals.
The first own goal in the World Cup was scored in 1st edition in Uruguay 1930 in a match between Chile and Mexico. It was scored by Mexican player Manuel Rosas in the 51st minute. It was the second for Chile out of 3 goals scored.
The World Cup in Russia 2018 recorded the most own goals with a total of 12 goals. It is the first edition to witness own goals in the final match between France and Croatia, when the Croatian Mario Mandzukic scored the first goal in the match against his team.
The match between the US and Portugal in the World Cup in South Korea and Japan 2002 was the only match with two own goals for two competing teams, as the Portuguese Jorge Costa scored for the US and the American Jeffrey Agoos scored for Portugal.
The most late own goal in the history of the World Cup was scored in the match between Morocco and Iran in the World Cup Russia 2018 when Moroccan Aziz Bouhaddouz scored against his team in the 5th minute of the stoppage time.
The fastest own goal was scored in the match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Argentina during the World Cup in Brazil 2014 by Bosnian Sead Kolasinac after only 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
Russian player Sergei Ignashevich is the oldest player to score an own goal in the World Cup. He was 38 years old when he scored for Spain in World Cup Russia 2018.
Meanwhile, Mexican player Edson Alvarez is the youngest to score an own goal in the match against Sweden in World Cup Russia 2018 when he was 20 years old.
France benefited the most from own goals with six goals. It also played the most matches in the World Cup tournaments without scoring own goals. On the other hand, Mexico is the team that has played the most matches without benefiting from own goals.
Cameroon played 23 matches in the World Cup without scoring or benefiting from own goals.
The Bulgarian and Russian teams in 1966 and 2018 respectively were the teams with the most own goals with two goals per team in each edition.
First Arab player to score an own goal was the Moroccan Youssef Chippo during the match against Norway in the 1998 World Cup France. First Asian to score an own goal was Iran’s Andranik Eskandarian during the match against Scotland in the 1978 World Cup Argentina.
First European own goal was Swiss Ernst Lortscher’s goal during the match against Germany in the 1938 World Cup France. First South American own goal was Uruguay’s Luis Cruz’s goal during the match against West Germany in the 1954 World Cup.
There were not own goals in Italy 1934, Brazil 1950, Sweden 1958, Chile 1962, and Italy 1990.
Will the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 join these five editions, or will it break the record for own goals? (QNA)