How does this happen?
Felipe Melo evidently got confused-and sent the ball into the Brazilian goal net.
I was reminded about the Columbian player who did the same thing-three world cups ago? He was murdered-will such a fate await Mr. Melo?
I just saw the replay. Sneijder floated a great ball into the Brazilian penalty box and it happened to just graze the top of Melo’s head on it’s way in. It would have gone in anyway.
Seriously?
I’ve moved this to The Game Room (where sports threads go) from Cafe Society.
He didn’t “get confused.” He and the goalie both went up to make a play on the ball, and with the goalie out of the net, it went in off Melo.
No. Not unless Brazil has been taken over by drug lords and I didn’t hear about it. ESPN films did a documentary about this recently, and according to his teammates, Andres Escobar was shot for talking back to gangsters who were giving him shit about his own goal. I’m guessing that isn’t about to happen here.
Like most own goals, both Escobar and Melo were the victims of bad luck. They didn’t mistake their goal for the opposition’s and try to score; they were trying to clear the ball out of the area, and their timing, the trajectory of the ball, etc. combined to steer the ball into their own net instead. In Escobar’s case, the ball was crossed into his area, and he had to get a foot in to stop it from getting to the opposing player, who otherwise would have had the simplest of tasks to tap the ball into the net (well, he still had the keeper to get around, but it should have been an easy goal to score). Escobar was probably hoping that he could either trap the ball, or send it behind the goal line for a corner. Unfortunately, as you can see in the video, the ball came in with such pace that he only managed to deflect it into his own net.
In Melo’s case, the deflection isn’t very apparent, but it was a similar situation–the ball was crossed into the box, and he leapt up to head it out of danger. Unlike Escobar, though, Melo didn’t get much of a touch on it, not enough to change the path of the ball (which is why some would say the goal should have been credited to Sneijder). If anyone on the Brazilian squad should be blamed for allowing the goal, it’s the goalkeeper Julio Cesar–he came off his line to punch the ball away, but completely missed it. It looks like he was hindered by his own defenders, which suggests that either he didn’t shout for it or they didn’t hear his call. Really a terrible goalkeeping error more than anything else.
Yeah, this wasn’t an own goal and should not have been listed as such. Melo jumped to head it away, but only got high enough for the ball to graze off the top of his head. It didn’t change the flight of the ball more than an inch; it was going in whether he touched it or not.
Didn’t affect me, but you shouldn’t put spoilers in the titles.
Own-goals happen all the time. Most of the time it’s not really the defender’s fault.
They decided to reward the goal to Snijder today. Good call in my opinion, as it hardly changed direction by Melo’s touch.