[imagesource: AP]

Score with each foot, as well as your head, and you’ve completed what footballers call the perfect hat-trick.

An important component – the idea is to have each goal hit the back of the opposition’s net.

Perhaps New Zealand footballer Meikayla Moore missed that bit, as she racked up a first-half hat-trick of own goals against the United States in the SheBelieves Cup on Sunday.

Moore was making her 50th appearance for her national team, to add further insult to injury.

The first two own goals took place within six minutes of kicking off, with her misery completed in the 36th minute:

Moore was taken off five minutes before half-time, soon after her third goal, and the match ended in a 5-0 victory for the US.

New Zealand coach Jitka Klimkova told ESPN she still had the team’s backing:

“She had a tough day at the office. Obviously, she’s sad and disappointed, but she’s an unbelievable person and player who belongs on this team.

We are all behind her in this tough moment for her.”

Along with the predictable ridicule, there has been a large outpouring of support for the 25-year-old, who plays for Liverpool in the Women’s Championship.

Examples of own goal hat-tricks in professional football are extremely rare.

Putting aside Madagascan team Stade Olympique de L’Emyrne scoring 149 own goals in one match as a form of protest, perhaps only Belgian Stan Van Den Buijs can relate.

He scored three own goals during a 1994-95 season match between Germinal Ekeren and Anderlecht, with his team losing 2-3.

[source:espn]