Own goals

Sorry if there have already been threads on this. I did do a search but it only searched the word "goals", completely ignoring the word "own". As you can imagine, it returned quite a lot of results! If I've angered anyone by starting this thread, we can either choose to move on from that, or we can meet up somewhere in the Midlands and have some kind of fistfight. Up to you.

Anyway, I just wondered if others had noticed how unrealistic own goals often are. I've just had one where my striker took a shot, it was going right down the middle, the keeper gets a slight touch and it goes down as an own goal! Why?! That would never be given as an own goal. Sometimes you get shots that are perfectly on target but take a slight deflection and it gets given as an own goal. Are SI aware of this? It's incredibly annoying when you have a player who you'd love to score and who, to all intents and purposes does, but it gets given as an own goal. Similarly, it's annoying have your goalkeeper's morale crushed by an own goal when it was actually a very good attempt at a save.

Yeah, i've certainly noticed this a few times. My interpretation is that, if a player shoots and it would have gone in regardless of whether it takes a rebound or a keeper fumble etc. then said player should be credited goal. If however that shot was corner flag bound and luckily hits the defender and goes in, then that's an unfortunate own goal.

Obviously there can be many instances where the attacking team have had little influence on the own goal, instead it was simply the defending teams errors.

I agree though, it can be very annoying when your player is not credited with a goal, not even sure if they get the assist!? I'll have to look closer next time, i'm sure I won't have long to wait!

I agree though, it can be very annoying when your player is not credited with a goal, not even sure if they get the assist!? I'll have to look closer next time, i'm sure I won't have long to wait!

Just as I was reading this I conceded 2 own goals in one game. The opposition did get credited with the assists. They were both what I would call 'realistic own goals' though. 1 was a cross that was deflected in and the 2nd was when one of my defenders thought it would be a good idea to try and clear the ball via the keeper's back. Unsurprisingly the ball ended up in the back of the net!

I played a save with Gloucester a while back and no matter what I did the team had a hard time scoring but the defense was very good. There was a stretch of six games where we won two, drew three and lost one with both of the wins being 1-0 games coming by virtue of own goals. A couple of the draws were due to the same thing - it does seem to happen too frequently and a lot of the tallies should be chalked up to the stat sheet.

Yeah, the majority of own goals are fine. But the rule is that, if it's on target, it's given to the attacker, no matter how heavy the deflection. I've just noticed that, quite often, a defending player or the 'keeper will get the tiniest touch on a shot that's going in anyway, and yet it gets credited as an own goal. This shouldn't happen.

Also, goalkeepers score too many own goals.

I have an own goal for you all...I agree with the sentiment of this thread, if it is going in anyway it should be credited as such. This goal though is a spectacular goal by my former player Ruiz...

[video=youtube;LKOWFE8ku4g]

I think the game has always had problems of when it awards an own goal, or when it credits the goal to a particular player. It probably has more to do with how the match engine is displayed to us viewing the match, but I can say I've certainly seen some strange ones in my time. A common one is when a shot flies in, it's going on target, and the keeper gets something onto it and goes in anyway. Most of the time in FM that shooter is given the goal, but sometimes seemingly for no reason, it's given as an OG to the keeper. Then I've seen another situation where a shot that looked like it was going wide deflected off a defender, then hit the post, and bounced out, then hit the keeper and went in the net, but the guy that shot was awarded the goal. So there appears to be something very inconsistent there which I can't figure out. I'm guessing it all has to do with 'intentions' of the players in the game. If a keeper intents to catch a ball and it goes in, then I'm guessing it lists it as an own goal, but he's trying to parry a shot, and does so but the power carries the shot in, then the striker is given the goal.

Agree with the above, it's very inconsistent. I've seen a few shots going wide and getting a huge deflection to turn it in and the goal given to the attacking player, with slight deflections to shots on target given as own goals.

Assists are wrong as well sometimes. I've seen a few cases where somebody gets to the byline and puts in a cross, a defender clears, then another player whips in a cross and a third player taps it home. Assist is given to the first player, not the second.

Yeah, I had one the other day where the defender makes a last ditch attempt to head the ball clear while standing on the goal line with the ball heading straight into the top corner. He makes minimal contact, it bounces off the top of his head and goes in anyway. Never an own goal. Ditto for keepers getting a touch and then being credited with an OG.