2026 World Cup breaks own-goal record with 14, surpassing 2018 tournament

Lionel Messi might be leading the Golden Boot race after his seventh goal. But the true story of the tournament has been the own goal, which has accounted for twice as many goals as the Argentinian captain.

Since the group stage began, a whopping 14 own goals have been scored across the tournament. That number surpasses the record of 12 set in 2018, which was considered an abnormally high number of own goals at the time.

To put that in context, most World Cups prior to 2018 had between three and six own goals across the tournament. In 2022, only two own goals were scored.

But the tradition of 2018's friendly fire has continued in 2026. Twelve of the own goals came in the group stage, before two more own goals on Friday helped break the record.

The first was from Egyptian defender Mohamed Hany, who was the last touch off an Australian free kick. That brought the Socceroos level, with the game eventually heading to penalty kicks — which Egypt won handily.

Hany had already gotten an own goal in Egypt's 1-1 draw against Belgium at the start of the group stage. That makes Hany the first player to ever get two own goals in the same World Cup.

In Argentina's narrow escape against Cape Verde, the deciding goal was also an own goal, pushing the record one goal further. Though initially credited to Cristian Romero off a Messi corner kick, Cape Verde's Diney Borges was the last to touch the ball as it slipped past goalkeeper Vozinha.

Though the two knockout-stage mistakes ended up being more costly, these own goals have been going on since the start of the tournament — and no one has benefitted more than the United States.

Paraguay's Damián Bobadilla opened own goal's score sheet in the U.S. men's national team's emphatic 4-1 win to open the group stage. And in the second game, against Australia, it happened again, with the USMNT's first goal coming off Socceroos defender Cameron Burgess early in the game.

The United States is the only team this World Cup to benefit from two own goals in one tournament, joining France (2014) as the only team to achieve the feat.

The obvious reason for the increase in own goals is the expanded 48-team field: With more teams, and more games, there will be more instances of things that are normally somewhat unusual.

Additionally, the increased field means that there have been more mismatched games. Most of the own goals have been scored by underdog teams — like debutantes Cape Verde, Jordan and Uzbekistan, or long shot Qatar, which scored two own goals on the way to getting grouped — while trying to defend high-intensity attacking teams off set pieces or breakaways.

Still, with plenty more knockout matches to go and teams scrambling to stay in the game, that number might keep going up as the tournament continues.