Spectacular feats from Cristiano Ronaldo, Uruguay and Mexico in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ qualifiers feature alongside milestones for Tim Cahill and Jay Rodriguez and a well-earned title for Cruzeiro in FIFA.com’s latest stats review.
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Players have now represented England after Fraser Forster, Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez earned their first caps in Friday’s 2-0 defeat to Chile. Rodriguez was credited as being the 1,200th and follows on from fellow milestone men Gareth Barry (1,100th in 2000) and Neil Webb (1,000th in 1987). It was a largely unhappy occasion for the debutants though, with England failing to score against Chile for a fourth successive match – their worst such run against any opponents since an identical sequence against Sweden between 1979 and ’89. England’s last goal against Chile came back in 1953, courtesy of the legendary Nat Lofthouse. The picture became even gloomier last night, with a 1-0 defeat to Germany consigning the Three Lions to successive defeats for the first time in two decades. Worse still, Roman Weidenfeller – who became the oldest goalkeeper to debut for the Germans, at 33 years and 105 days – did not have a single save to make, with England failing to register an effort on target at home for the first time since a 1-0 defeat by Scotland in 1999.74
G oals is the record tally on which Cruzeiro have built their first Brazilian title-winning campaign in a decade, and maintained the club’s high-scoring reputation. Since the Brasileiro became a 20-team division in 2006, only one team had ever managed to score more than 68 goals in a single season: Cruzeiro themselves, with 73 in 2007. On that occasion, defensive weaknesses led to the Belo Horizonte outfit finishing fifth, but there were no such problems on this occasion, with fewer goals conceded than closest challengers Gremio, who are also 34 worse off in the goals for column. Cruzeiro were able to clinch the title with four games to spare and, with 75 points already to their name, have three matches still remaining in which to snatch away Sao Paulo’s 20-team Brasileiro record of 78. The championship is the club’s first since 2003 and second overall since the national league’s 1971 inception. It also caps a memorable year for Mineiro football, coming in the wake of Atletico Mineiro’s Copa Libertadores triumph, and is the first time that two clubs from the region have won Brazil and South America’s top prizes in the same year.