The World Is a Ball: New Zealander scores three goals in half an hour, but all against

To score three goals in the same match is a considerable feat.

The so-called hat-trick is not seen every day, and the footballer who performs it usually takes the game ball home as a souvenir.

In Brazil, the fame of this scorer even gets a spot on prime-time television: he can ask for music on the Sunday Fantástico, on TV Globo.

The reference to three goals in a match is for goals scored in favour. After all, it’s not believable for someone to score a hat-trick against.

Well now it is.

And the unhappiness belongs to Meikayla Moore, the New Zealand defender from Liverpool who lived through this disgraceful experience in the USA vs New Zealand, this Sunday (20), at the SheBelieves Cup.

The stage for Moore’s nightmare was Dignity Health Sports Park, an arena located in Carson, California.

She scored the first three goals for the USA in the 5-0 rout, that is, she scored more goals on her teammate Erin Nayler, the goalkeeper, than her opponents.

The hat-trick came all in the first half, spanning a 31-minute break — arguably the worst half hour of the professional life for Moore, who is 25 and has played for adult teams since 2017.

After all, very quickly she unfortunately equaled the same three goals scored in favor of her selection, all in 2018 (one in June, one in November, one in December). She has 50 appearances for her country’s first team.

Moore’s own goals in the match for the tournament that is also played by Iceland and the Czech Republic always came after crosses in the area.

The first two occurred in consecutive attacks, in a space of just one minute and 21 seconds. Moore scored with a right foot at 4min10s, as he tried to deflect it to a corner, and with a header at 5min31s, when the ball hit his face without her expecting it.

The goal was missing with his left foot… And he left, at 35min10s, in a new technical error of shirt 5, which after this move didn’t know where to hide, such a shame.

She didn’t even finish the first half, being substituted in the 40th minute. As she sat down on the bench, her face was flushed.

“It’s been a hard day for her at work and obviously she’s disappointed,” New Zealand coach Jitka Klimkova said of Moore’s disastrous performance. “But we are with her, supporting her in this difficult time.”

The question a lot of people have to ask is: is what Moore did, a hat-trick against, something unheard of in football? The answer is: no and yes.

What do you mean, no and yes?

There is only one other known case, recorded by the sports media, of a hat-trick against.

In 1995, in Belgium, Anderlecht defeated Germinal Ekeren 3-2. And the visiting team’s three goals were credited to Stan van den Buijs.

In fact, Germinal Ekeren’s shirt 3 sent the ball to the net twice, once with his left foot, in the first half, and another with his head, in the second, in a match on a field punished by rain.

The third goal, however, was clearly not by Van den Buijs, as can be seen on video.

He headed back and the ball, which covered goalkeeper Vande Walle, would enter the goal. Before that, however, Degryse dove in and played headfirst into the net. It was clearly the Anderlecht striker’s goal.

Thus, although written records account for three own goals for Van den Buijs in this fight, the image proves that one was not his.

Which leaves the New Zealander at an advantage (although in this case the most appropriate is “at a disadvantage”) in comparison with the Belgian.

​Hat-trick against, that is known and proven in football, there is only one, and it is hers: Meikayla Moore.