The 10 Most Devastating Own Goals of All Time

The own goal has transcended soccer. It's become an accepted term for a mistake—doing something wrong when it was easier to do it right. In soccer, though, own goals can be the end of cup runs or league charges, they can consign a team to relegation and they can make a player a national joke (sorry, Richard Dunne).

In the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup semifinal, with more than 90 minutes played, England's Laura Bassett put the ball into her own net, meaning Japan were going through to the final. There was something quite reassuring about the way that her teammates tried to console her and, since then, most football fans have seemed to offer her sympathy. It's not always like that. Sometimes an own goal can lead to the player being called a "wanker" by a fan on the pitch; on one occasion, it even led to the player's death.

We trawled the history books to find the 10 most devastating own goals of all time.

Date: June 22, 1994

Match: USA vs. Colombia, World Cup group stage

It was an honest mistake. Desperate to intercept an American cross, Andres Escobar, a Colombian center half, slid in at full stretch. Instead of just intercepting it though, he put the ball past his own keeper and into his own net. It was the first of the USA's two goals as they went on to win 2-1 and Colombia were knocked out of the World Cup.

That should have been that. Escobar was devastated and decided to fly back to Colombia. At 3 a.m. on the July 2, ten days after the own goal, Andres Escobar was murdered in the car park of a nightclub in his hometown of Medellin. News reports have said that the murder was a punishment by local gangsters for the own goal, with some reports even saying that the murderer shouted "own goal" as he pulled the trigger.

Date: September 7, 1991

Match: Arsenal vs. Coventry City, Division One

Arsenal's early-'90s defense was known for being one of the best. They were a team built on defensive stability and the fact that they hardly let in any goals. Early in the 1991 season, though, one of them got a bit cocky. A long ball over the top from Coventry went straight to Lee Dixon, who decided to pass the ball back to big David Seaman in goal. This was a frequent Arsenal technique, so frequent in fact that Dixon didn't even need to look at what he was doing. When he did look back, he saw his perfect chip flying over Seaman's head and into the net. Not a bad finish, to be honest.

Date: October 28, 2012

Match: Bayern Munich vs. Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga

2012/13 was a pretty big year for Bayern Munich. They won every single competition they entered. It wasn't quite perfect though. Technically, Jerome Boateng putting the ball into his own net against Bayer Leverkusen didn't really affect Bayern's season in any way. They might have lost the match but they would still go on to win the league by a pretty impressive 25 points.

It was to be the only game Bayern would lose all season in the Bundesliga (although they also lost two unimportant matches in the Champions League), meaning that it was Jerome Boateng's own goal on that late October day that denied Bayern a record-breaking unbeaten Bundesliga season.

Date: May 24, 2009

Match: Aston Villa vs. Newcastle, Premier League

There is almost nothing special about Damien Duff's own goal that day. It was a deflection on a shot from Gareth Barry seven minutes before half time. Duff was, understandably, gutted, but it was nothing spectacular. Its ramifications would be felt all the way across North East England, though.

If Newcastle had drawn the match, they would have stayed up and sent Hull City down on goal difference. But it was Duff's own goal that did it for Newcastle, which was pretty devastating. Duff, ever the honorable man, promised to stay and help Newcastle get back into the Premier League. He lasted one game in the Championship before he was sold to Fulham.

Date: September 11, 2004

Match: Portsmouth vs. Crystal Palace, Premier League

2-1 down with five minutes to go, Crystal Palace were chasing some much-needed points in their fifth game since promotion to the Premier League. As the game drew to an end, though, the match would go to 3-1 and the chance of a draw would be too far out of reach. Portsmouth's third goal was a skillful back-heeled volley after a well-worked cross. Sadly, it was scored by Palace's reliable Australian center half, Tony Popovic.

The importance of the goal wouldn't be felt until the end of the season, when Palace finished 17th and were relegated back to where they'd come from just a year early. They were only one point off West Brom, who stayed up. Who knows? If Popovic could volley like that at the other end, maybe they would have made it.

Date: May 15, 2011

Match: Bari vs. Lecce, Serie A

In the 70th minute of the "Derby of Puglia," Bari's Andrea Masiello deflected a shot from a Lecce striker into his own net. This goal was pretty important in allowing Lecce to stay in Serie A and fight off relegation. It's also always pretty bad to lose, never mind score an own goal, in a derby against your nearest rivals.

One reason that Masiello might not have been too gutted, though, is that he was apparently paid around €50,000 for the own goal as part of a match-fixing racket. Unsurprisingly, when news of this and his other match-fixing exploits came out, Masiello was banned from all soccer for 26 months.

Date: September 22, 2005

Match: Real Madrid vs. Atletico Bilbao, La Liga 

It's easy to forget that Jonathan Woodgate ever played for Real Madrid. Sometimes, watching him in the Championship for Middlesbrough, it looks like he's forgotten about it as well. Madrid signed Woodgate for a surprisingly high £13.4 million in August 2004. After a year of injuries, he finally made his debut in late September 2005, and what a debut it was.

25 minutes into his long awaited debut, Woodgate was flying through the air and heading the ball into the goal. Sadly, it was his own goal. Just 40 minutes later, poor Jonny Woodgate had been shown his second yellow card and was off the pitch again. Unsurprisingly, he only played eight more times for Real.

Date: September 16, 2002

Match: Birmingham City vs. Aston Villa, Premier League

It all seemed so simple. A throw-in from Olof Mellberg back to the keeper, loads of time, maybe a big punt up field and the chance of an equalizer. But the keeper in question, Peter Enckleman, quite literally took his eye off the ball. He tried to control it but it skimmed his foot and rolled slowly and just out of his reach into the far corner.

If the ball hadn't have touched him at all and gone in, it wouldn't have even counted. Added to that the fact that it was against Villa's biggest local rival and it's a pretty embarrassing own goal, as was made clear to Enckleman by the Birmingham fan who ran onto the pitch to call him a wanker.

Date: May 16, 2001

Match: Liverpool vs. Alaves, UEFA Cup final

The 2001 UEFA Cup final was pretty sick. Alaves equalized in the 88th minute to make the match 4-4 after Liverpool had, at one point, led 3-1. But the bit that most people remember will be the 116th minute winner. The final was back in the halcyon days of "golden goal," so the first goal in extra time would be the end of the match. That goal would be scored by Delfi Geli, who rose imperiously to head a Gary McAllister free kick past his own keeper. That would be the last moment of the match and Liverpool would complete their budget version of the treble.

Date: July 1, 2015

Match: Japan vs. England, Women's World Cup

When England's women reached the World Cup semifinal, a reluctant nation finally took an interest in the women's version of the sport. Hopes were high and a rarely seen optimism was gripping England during a major international tournament. For almost the entire semifinal, England were doing well against the world champions. Then, at the end of injury time, Laura Bassett sliced the ball past her own keeper, giving Japan a 2-1 lead and, eventually, a place in the final.

Despite this, women's football in England has attracted a new audience and the women's team seem to have won over thousands of new fans. That's probably not much consolation for Laura, though.