\n<\/p>\n
FIFA ruled Lenny Joseph\u2019s apparent World Cup shot an \u201cown goal,\u201d but Haitians still celebrate the historic moment. For them, that one goal in the 2026 World Cup was all that mattered. And it opened the gate for one more.<\/p>\n
ATLANTA \u2014 Striker Lenny Joseph\u2019s backkick shot, a historic moment in the Haiti team\u2019s 2026 World Cup run that spread euphoria to fans across the globe, is being footnoted in FIFA\u2019s official record books as an \u2018own goal.\u2019 The organization credited the goal to a Morocco player soon after Wednesday night\u2019s match ended 4-2.<\/p>\n
When Joseph flicked Jean-K\u00e9vin Duverne<\/a>\u2018s inch-perfect cross toward goal with an audacious backheel in the 10th minute of the tournament\u2019s last match-up in Group C, Haitian fans erupted inside Atlanta Stadium and around the world. But after a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review, FIFA ruled that Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou\u2019s touch redirected the ball into the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n The goal was officially recorded as an own goal. It counts towards Haiti\u2019s total of two goals, but denies Joseph what would have been his first World Cup goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n FIFA\u2019s ruling also sparked frustration among Haitian supporters, many of whom argued he deserved credit for creating the scoring play.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal should belong to Lenny,\u201d said Carl-Henri Valbrun, a Miami resident. \u201cHe controlled the ball brilliantly and finished it with his backheel.\u201d<\/p>\n Jean Wilson Amorin, who drove from Nebraska to cheer on Les Grenadiers in Atlanta, questioned the decision. Like many Haitians, the VAR decision was about more than a disputed goal. It became the latest flashpoint in a World Cup marked by controversy for Les Grenadiers<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy can\u2019t they give us a break?\u201d Amorin said. \u201cAfter everything Haiti has gone through in the World Cup, one of our players finally finds the net, lifts our spirits, and they credit the goal to the other team because of a deflection.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the tournament even kicked off, FIFA had Haiti remove design elements that supporters said reflected the country\u2019s revolutionary history and identity from its team jerseys \u2014 sparking accusations that the world\u2019s soccer governing body was erasing Haitian heritage.<\/p>\n In the first match of the competition against Scotland, fans and some analysts questioned several officiating decisions they believed consistently went against Haiti. Erasing Joseph from the scoresheet because of a deflection, many supporters say, is another painful slight \u2014 one that denied the striker a place in Haiti\u2019s World Cup record books.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Stephenson Octave<\/a>, a FIFA-licensed referee who officiates in Haiti, said the decision comes down to the ball\u2019s initial trajectory.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on the ball\u2019s trajectory after Joseph\u2019s backheel, it was going wide,\u201d Octave told The Haitian Times<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough Joseph made the first touch, it was not heading into the goal. The ball then struck the Moroccan goalkeeper\u2019s back and deflected into the net.\u201d<\/p>\n Under FIFA\u2019s scoring guidelines, if Joseph\u2019s shot had already been on target, he would have been credited with the goal even if it had deflected off the goalkeeper. Because the goalkeeper\u2019s touch redirected the ball into the net, the goal was recorded as Bounou scoring against his own team.<\/p>\n While Joseph\u2019s name disappeared from the scoresheet, Haiti\u2019s breakthrough on the soccer\u2019s biggest stage did not.<\/p>\n Joseph was also denied the distinction of becoming the first Haitian player to score in a men\u2019s World Cup since Emmanuel \u201cManno\u201d Sanon famously scored against Italy in 1974. That milestone instead went to Wilson Isidor, who restored Haiti\u2019s lead in the 44th minute with a powerful strike from about 30 meters.<\/p>\n Together, the two goals tied Haiti\u2019s all-time 2026 World Cup total at two, matching the mark set during the country\u2019s only previous appearance in 1974.<\/p>\n For many supporters, however, FIFA\u2019s ruling cannot erase Joseph\u2019s role in the successful play that fans much-hungered for. He will always be remembered as the player who ignited one of the most memorable moments in Haitian soccer history.<\/p>\n \u201cWe scored. That\u2019s what matters,\u201d Carlo Mezil, a Nebraska resident, said. \u201cWhether FIFA gives it to Joseph or calls it an own goal, Haiti made history.\u201d<\/p>\n Eliane Voltaire in Port-au-Prince agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Haiti went blank in the first two matches, all we needed to celebrate was one goal before officially exiting the competition,\u201d she said. \u201cWe got it after just 10 minutes of play, toe to toe with Morocco.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/p>\n Overview: FIFA ruled Lenny Joseph\u2019s apparent World Cup shot an \u201cown goal,\u201d but Haitians still celebrate the historic moment. For them, that one goal in the 2026 World Cup was all that mattered. And it opened the gate for one more. ATLANTA \u2014 Striker Lenny Joseph\u2019s backkick shot, a historic moment in the Haiti team\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11991],"tags":[991,695,979,8936,12012,14275,12011,20907,20906,20340],"class_list":["post-30628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haiti-news","tag-credit","tag-fans","tag-fifa","tag-goal","tag-haitis","tag-joseph","tag-latest-news","tag-lenny","tag-moroccan","tag-wc2026"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/haitiantimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-FIF00963.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Haiti News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Overview: FIFA ruled Lenny Joseph\u2019s apparent World Cup shot an \u201cown goal,\u201d but Haitians still celebrate the historic moment. For them, that one goal in the 2026 World Cup was all that mattered. And it opened the gate for one more. ATLANTA \u2014 Striker Lenny Joseph\u2019s backkick shot, a historic moment in the Haiti team\u2019s…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30630,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628\/revisions\/30630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why FIFA ruled it an own goal<\/strong><\/h3>\n
History still made, pride still reigns\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Related<\/em><\/h3><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"