The Own Goal of the Century: The Story of Nobuhiro Sugawara at the 2004 World Cup

No one would have expected such an event even at the lowest levels of the world championship in ice hockey, let alone at the elite one. The Japanese Nobuhiro Sugawara scored an incredible own goal at the 2004 World Cup in the Czech Republic, which is remembered even after many years. Here it is part of the series “When Prague wrote hockey stories”.

At the outset, it should be mentioned that in this particular case the setting of the story was not Prague, the main venue of the championship, but Ostrava.

It was an extremely important tournament for the Japanese. Since 1998, they regularly went to the WC of the first category as an Asian qualifier. But that was the last time in Ostrava. The friendly format towards Asia rang a bell.

The Japanese therefore knew that to stay among the elite they had to finish outside the last two places overall.

They had their first chance to save in the basic group with Russia, Sweden and Denmark. To avoid the relegation group (and advance to the round of 16) they needed to finish third at worst.

Of course, their fight with the Danes was decisive.

About four and a half thousand spectators came to the not very attractive match in Ostrava, who could hardly have guessed that they would see one of the most incredible goals in hockey history.

In the third period, with the score 3:3, Danish forward Bo Nordby flew in front of the goal and sent the puck into the circle with the hope that one of his teammates would take it.

But instead he found only Sugawara, then a 28-year-old Japanese defender playing in his second World Cup.

“Too bad,” Nordby might have thought.

However, the relatively experienced Japanese fired the disc into his own goal, as if he thought he was standing in front of the Danish one. He then threw his hands in the air and jumped towards the ice. To this day, it is a mystery what he was up to in front of the gate and whether he raised his hands in celebration or in despair. But he decided to lose 3:4.

“Crazy goal, but the most important one I’ve ever scored. I’ll never forget it,” Nordby then shook his head, whose goal tally was boosted by the fact that he was the last Danish hockey player to touch the puck.

“When I saw how their player slapped it there, I couldn’t believe my eyes. After all, he had plenty of time to clear the puck to safety. I feel sorry for him,” he added.

This is how Japan’s Nobuhiro Sugawara scored an own goal in the match against Denmark at the 2004 World Cup. | Video: Youtube.com

Sugawara’s short-circuit (and not only) still resonates among the Danes.

Years ago he for a Swedish daily The evening paper commented, for example, former forward Kim Staal, who has a strong memory of the goal, even though he didn’t even see it from the bench.

“I just came back from the substitution and I was completely drained. I was sitting with my back to the goal when the goal was scored. So I turned around and breathlessly celebrated. Then I see our five come to the substitution. Everyone was dying of laughter. Slowly they couldn’t breathe, just they were laughing,” Staal recounted.

Danish journalist Peter Fredberg, who was reporting from Ostrava at the time, called the bizarre event “the own goal of the century” in the world championships.

After years for website of the highest Danish competition he recalled chasing Sugawara right after the match to find out what was really going through his mind. “Back then it was still the case that you could walk straight into the dressing room,” he explained.

However, the devastated defender refused to speak.

Japan then failed in the retention group and has not played at the elite level of the World Cup since then. And he never represented Sugawara again, at least not at IIHF events.