This English article is the translation of my Japanese article dated October 29, 2020.
The original article is here.
– – –
An unexpected event, which occurred in the 5th division in the football league,
caught the media’s attention in Germany.
It happened during a home game of Stuttgarter Kickers on October 17, 2020.
The match started at 14:00 against FC Nöttingen with a cloudy sky and the chance
of showers. It was around 7 degrees.
Due to the Covid-19, the spectators were limited to 500 people.
Kickers struggled a lot in the first half, but they scored a goal and made it
1-0 on 35 minutes.
Just before the half-time, they made the score 2-0.
I was jumping and excited about the second goal of Stuttgarter Kickers.
It was perfect timing.
We heard ‘Goooooooal!’ from the loudspeaker, and we were delighted.
At that moment, the announcement snapped suddenly.
The stadium went quiet.
What has happened?
I got nervous.
It didn’t look like it was offside. Then, was there a foul and no goal?
I had no idea what was going on, but the referee was pointing at the centre circle,
which meant it was indeed a goal.
However, the players were arguing.
Kickers’ coach got closer to the referee to talk.
‘What was that?’ I thought.
The game resumed.
A player from Nöttingen passed the ball to Lukas Kling, Kickers’ player,
then Kling kicked the ball to the Kickers’ goal.
Kickers’ goalkeeper didn’t even try to catch the ball.
It was an own goal.
The score became 2 to 1.
Eh?
Sorry?
I couldn’t understand it.
I had to clear it up.
① Kickers’ player scored the goal.
② The referee admitted the goal.
③ The goal announcement snapped in the middle.
④ The match resumed.
⑤ Kickers’ player scored the own goal on purpose.
Although I tried to follow it, what was left for me was sheer confusion and
the half-time.
During the half-time, we tried to understand the situation again.
According to one of our friends, who collected some information, it was as below.
Nöttingen’s player kicked the ball out, for his teammate lay on the ground.
Kickers’ players didn’t recognise the action.
They thought that it was just a miss- kick and the ball went out of the pitch.
They resumed the game, and Kickers scored the goal.
Coach of Kickers, Ramon Gehrmann, asked the referee.
Gehrmann understood that it was not a miss- kick but an intentional kick.
To make it fair, Gehrmann asked his team to score the own goal.
Even our friends and my husband, who have watched hundreds of football matches,
had never seen this kind of play in the stadiums before.
They said that they saw something similar on TV once.
I understood the reason for the own goal, yet I was still not at peace.
When just after the second half started, Kickers’ player, Cristian Gilés, scored
a goal and made it 3-1 on 47 minutes.
Kickers won the game with 4-1 in the end.
This match was one of the league fixtures.
Stuttgarter Kickers was on the 2nd, and Nöttingen was on the 3rd in the table
with only 1 point difference before this game.
Both teams wanted the 3 points from this game.
Besides, the score was not like 4-0 when Kickers scored the own goal.
In contrast to me, who was thinking, ‘It was too generous to give away the goal…’
I was very proud of the coach and the players of Stuttgarter Kickers.
Stuttgarter Kickers isn’t a big club, but it has a long history.
This event attracted massive attention from the German media and
shed light on the club.
