Going down in a blaze of glory beats any other boring way of exiting a tournament. Bernard Parker delivered a killing blow to South Africa’s chances of making the world cup by scoring one of the most incredible own goals ever seen as he headed the ball off an Ethiopian free kick, dooming his side to a 2-1 loss.
Bernard Parker was actually the one who opened the scoring with a legitimate offensive goal, but Getaneh Kebede equalized just before half time. In the 70th minute, an Ethiopia free kick was headed with quite a lot of pace by Parker from the edge of his own box to make it 2-1.
Maybe a technicality can still save South Africa, as FIFA opened an investigation into the Ethiopian FA for fielding a player in an earlier match during the qualifiers that was ineligible to play. The claim is that Manyahile Beyene couldn’t have players against Botswana due to yellow cards received when playing South Africa and a previous encounter with Botswana. As always, in Africa, these things are hard to decipher.
