Liverpool would have been forgiven for thinking the world had it in for them back in 2009 when Sunderland snatched a 1-0 win through the intervention of a beach ball bearing the Reds’ crest.
The game had started off as a fairly standard October fixture. Liverpool, fresh off a title challenge the previous season, were looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2-0 loss to Chelsea as they travelled north to the Stadium of Lights to play Sunderland. They, themselves were looking to build on a promising 2-2 draw with defending champions Manchester United.
Without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, both out with injuries, Liverpool looked distinctly toothless, perhaps looking somewhat enviably at their opponents, who boasted an in-form Darren Bent going through one of the most productive spells of his career.
The mood was festive in the away end behind Pepe Reina‘s goal as the game kicked off, with a red beach ball emblazoned with the Liverpool club crest being batted about. As the ball reached sixteen-year-old Callum Campbell, seated pitch-side, he took a swing which sent it bobbling onto the pitch and into Reina’s penalty area.
The goalkeeper, however, wasn’t focused on it. Sunderland had started brightly, and shifted the ball out to the right where Andy Reid fired in a cross. Steed Malbranque‘s touch at the near post took it away from both the goal and Liverpool’s defenders, and put the ball squarely in the path of Bent.
As Bent raced onto the loose ball, time almost slowed down. Reina adjusted across goal, having read Malbranque’s touch.
Glenn Johnson shifted to his right, getting himself between Bent and the goal, narrowing down the target. Most importantly, the beach ball had stopped, perfectly placed, a foot or two inside the right-hand upright, waiting patiently on the six-yard line.
The ball Darren Bent into goal
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Bent’s shot was poor, considering he had scored in each of his last four games. There was some power behind it, but it looked like it would be an easy block for Johnson, or, failing that, a routine save for Reina.
Instead, to Liverpool’s horror, Bent’s shot used the beach ball as a ramp, ballooning off on a wild deviation from its original path. To make matters worse, Johnson failed to get his foot to the shot, instead jamming the toe of his boot into the beach ball, possibly the worst thing he could have done in that instant.
As a result, the beach ball veered off into the bottom-right corner, while Bent’s shot looped off towards the left, and Reina was left bamboozled, head whipping around wildly as he found himself beaten on both sides.
Liverpool could only stand around and look for an explanation that wasn’t coming, as Bent wheeled away in celebration. Bemused, Liverpool sleepwalked through the rest of the game with the air of a team that needed to lie down and take stock of what had happened.
Sunderland came away with a win, but the fallout was severe. Naturally, the goal should never have stood, and referee Mike Jones‘ egregious error saw him demoted to the Championship. The unfortunate Liverpool fan who threw the ball on the pitch received death threats for an outcome he could never have seen coming, and there were calls for the game to be replayed.
In the ten-plus years since most have seen the funny side of this incident, but Pepe Reina clearly still holds a grudge.
https://twitter.com/PReina25/status/1052542035817844736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1052542035817844736&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2F49935878
In the end, it will always be one of the most bizarre, bewildering, and genuinely hilarious goals of all time: Darren Bent scoring against Liverpool off a Liverpool-branded beach ball, thrown onto the pitch by a Liverpool fan.
It doesn’t get any weirder than that.