The Own-Goal

In sports, there are many ways to become a goat.

You can let a grounder run through your legs in the 10th inning in Game 6 of the World Series.

You can throw an interception in the red zone at the end of the fourth quarter.

You can call a timeout when you have none left resulting in a technical foul.

Still, I wonder if there is any individual blunder in a team sport worse than the own-goal in soccer.

In yesterday's Champion's League semifinal, Liverpool had seemingly sealed up a critical victory at home in the first leg of the match up on Dirk Kuyt's first-half strike; it was four minutes into stoppage time and both teams seemed set to head to the locker rooms. However, when a last-second ball was crossed into the box, Liverpool substitute defender John Arne Riise made a critical miscalculation, electing to head the ball away instead of clearing it with his foot. With goalkeeper José Reina standing helplessly by, the ball careened into the back of the net. It was a shocking result and one that left Riise lying inconsolable, face down, on the pitch.

After the game, teammates tried to downplay the error in the press, but they seemed to struggle to find convincing words. At the end of the day, Riise's mistake was pretty damn important.

The own-goal in soccer is the worst individual blunder in team sports for a number of reasons. First, shooting into your own net directly harms your team; when you commit a boneheaded foul in basketball the opposing player still has to sink the shots; when you throw an interception, you or your teammates still have a chance to run the person down before they get in the end zone. In soccer, it's lights out. Second, soccer is extremely low scoring so each goal matters much more than in sports like baseball or hockey. The two sides are often only separated by a single goal. Third, own-goals are hard to blame on anyone but the shooting player. In football, by contrast, it's possible that a receiver didn't run the right route or that the blocking was poor so you got hit right as you released the ball.

With the second leg at Stamford Bridge still to come, Liverpool is certainly not out of it, but whether their Norwegian left-back can recover emotionally in time to assist his team is an open question.