Oita Trinita sits dead-last in Japan’s J-League because of plays like this.
On Sunday, Oita’s starting goalkeeper, Keisuke Shimizu, scored a hilariously strange own goal, which contributed to his team’s 3-1 loss to Albirex Niigata.
The sequence started in the 12th minute when Shimizu made a good goalkeeping play by catching the opponents’ cross into his penalty area. He was easy to start the counter-attack, so he tried to kick the ball upfield as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, Niigata striker Tatsuya Tanaka was only a few yards away. The ball hit Tanaka’s rear end and ricocheted straight into Oita’s goal to open the scoring. Oita went on to lose 3-1, and relegation from the Japanese top flight is a mere formality.
See the own goal below (Try not to laugh too hard. These are professional playing in competitive games, after all).
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GIF via Reddit/Soccer
