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Huachipato’s Chilean championship stands out from the crowd in a stats review dominated by star goalscorers from Colombia, Egypt, England and, of course, Argentina.
Premier League goals was the landmark reached by Wayne Rooney as he became his club’s all-time leading marksman in Manchester derbies. The England forward’s two first-half goals were his ninth and tenth in the fixture, taking him beyond Bobby Charlton’s
United benchmark and alongside City legends Franny Lee and Joe Hayes,
with whom he now shares the overall record. At 27 years and 46 days old,
Rooney reached the 150-mark at a younger age than any of the previous
five players to manage this feat: Thierry Henry (28-150), Alan Shearer (28-247), Robbie Fowler (29-325), Andy Cole (31-060) and Frank Lampard
(33-294). His goals also inflicted City’s first home defeat in 37
matches, a run that stretched back almost two years to a 2-1 loss to
Everton on 20 December 2010.
86
strikes for club and country in 2012 have enabled Lionel Messi to smash Gerd Muller’s four-decade-old record for goals scored in a calendar year. Der Bomber can still take pride in having accrued his tally of 85 in fewer matches – 60 to Messi’s 66 – but the Barcelona and Argentina icon’s
achievement is nonetheless nothing short of magnificent. His goals have
been scored over 5,405 minutes of action, meaning that he has averaged a
goal every 63 minutes across the year. Furthermore, as the record drew
nearer, Messi merely picked up the pace, scoring two goals in each of
his last five La Liga appearances. And Muller’s 1972 haul was not the
only benchmark surpassed by the Barça No10’s latest brace
against Real Betis, with Cesar Rodriguez’s club record of 190 league
goals eclipsed by a player who now has 192 to his name.
38
years without a league title was the run that came to an end for Chile’s
Huachipato on Sunday. It was, though, the circumstances of the
Talcahuano outfit’s second championship success that made it more
remarkable than the wait. They prevailed over Union Espanola in the
second leg of the Clausura final, but only after a tense penalty
shoot-out in which seven of the 12 spot-kicks were missed. Unusual too
was the fact that the sides battling for the title had finished sixth
and seventh respectively in the regular stage of the Clausura season,
eight points adrift of leading duo Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile.
5
goals in 43 minutes against Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday saw Radamel
Falcao set a new career personal best. His previous record for goals in a
single match had been set on 28 April 2011, when he scored four times
for Porto in a 5-1 win over Villarreal. The prolific Colombian also
became the first player to mark a La Liga match with five goals since
Fernando Morientes for Real Madrid against Las Palmas on 10 February
2002. The best managed by the Spanish top flight’s other scoring
machines, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, is four, while the league record
is held by Bata and Ladislao Kubala, who scored seven times in matches in 1931 and 1952 respectively.
1
goal every two matches: that is what Mohamed Aboutrika has averaged over a joint-record tally of eight FIFA Club World Cup appearances. Only Al Ahly team-mates Hossam Ashour and Wael Gomaa
– at 37, the oldest player at Japan 2012 – have turned out at the club
showpiece as often, and neither can match Aboutrika’s goalscoring
exploits. Indeed, by scoring the winner against Sanfrecce Hiroshima on
Sunday, six years after he finished top scorer at the 2006 edition, the
34-year-old became just the fifth player to score in multiple FIFA Club
World Cups. And of that quintet, only a certain Lionel Messi can match Aboutrika’s tally of four goals.