Goals, a golden oldie and a cosmopolitan club - THE WEEK IN NUMBERS

Goals, a golden oldie and a cosmopolitan club - THE WEEK IN NUMBERS

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A Frenchman in San Nicolas, a Pole in Brussels and several foreigners in Sicily star inFIFA.com’s latest stats review, along with an ageless legend in Sao Paulo and goals galore in Central Canada.

42was the age at which Ze Roberto became comfortably the oldest player in history to win the Campeonato Brasileiro on Sunday. The only Brazilian to make the FIFA All-Star Team at Germany 2006 broke the record of Manga, who was 39 when his clean sheet helped an Internacional side featuring Elias Figueroa, Falcao, Valdomiro and Dada Maravilha defeat Corinthians in the 1976 final. The oldest outfield player to have lifted the trophy previously was Junior, who was 38 when he scored for Flamengo in both legs of the 1992 decider. Ze Roberto began his career as a left-back for Portuguesa in 1994 – the year in which Roberto Carlos, Cesar Sampaio, Flavio Conceicao, Mazinho, Zinho, Rivaldo, Edmundo and Evair inspired Palmeiras to their last top-tier title. And, after operating as a winger, attacking midfielder and defensive midfielder during spells at Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Hamburg, it was at left-back that he helped O Verdão become the outright record nine-time Brazilian champions (they had shared the record with Santos).

17hours and 28 minutes: that was how long Tigres striker Andre-Pierre Gignac had gone without scoring in open play until he ended the drought in emphatic fashion. The only goal the 30-year-old Frenchman had netted during his barren streak had been a penalty against Puebla in mid-September. Gignac’s hat-trick on Saturday propelled Tigres to a 5-0 win over Pumas and a place in the Liguilla semi-finals, where he got the only goal as Ricardo Ferretti’s side won 1-0 at Leon in the first leg. The former Marseille man’s four goals in four days all came from open play.

13goals in Anderlecht’s last 12 games is what Lukasz Teodorczyk has bagged. The 25-year-old Poland striker, on loan from Dynamo Kiev, failed to score in only one of them. It took Teodorczyk just 58 seconds to head home the deadlock-breaker at home to Mouscron on Sunday. Anderlecht went on to win for the first time in four Belgian First Division matches by a scoreline of 7-0 – their biggest victory since Mbark Boussoufa and Dieumerci Mbokani hit hat-tricks in a 8-1 thrashing of Beveren in May 2007.

12goals is what Montreal Impact and Toronto FC served up in the Eastern Conference final – a record for an MLS playoff tie. The previous high had been New England Revolution’s 7-3 aggregate victory over Columbus Crew in 2014, with San Jose Earthquakes’ 5-4 defeat of LA Galaxy in 2003 next. The Impact stormed into a 3-0 lead in Quebec, but goals from Jose Altidore and Michael Bradley ensured Greg Vanney’s side began leg two at only a one-goal deficit. Another goal from Altidore in Ontario made him the first player in history to score in five successive playoff games in one season, and helped take the game to extra-time. There, just 92 seconds after coming on, Benoit Cheyrou put Toronto ahead for the first time after over two hours of the tie, before Tosaint Ricketts completed a 7-5 victory. Toronto will now battle Seattle Sounders in the MLS Cup, which for the first time since 2008 will feature two debuting teams.

11nationalities is what Palermo started the second with against Lazio on Sunday. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland were accounted for by Mato Jajalo, Bruno Henrique, Ivaylo Chochev, Giancarlo Gonzalez, Josip Posavec, Ilija Nestorovski, Edoardo Goldaniga, Haitam Aleesami, Sinisa Andelkovic, Oscar Hiljemark and Michel Morganella respectively. When Goldaniga went off for Dutchman Ouasim Bouy shortly into the period, the Sicilians still fielded 11 players all from different countries but not one of them was Italy. By contrast, on the same day Sassuolo became the first side this season’s Italian top flight to field an all-Italian starting XI in an encouraging 1-1 draw at Napoli. The diversity didn’t aid Palermo: a goal from Serbian Sergej Milinkovic-Savic condemned them to seven straight Serie A losses for the first time in their history.

Quick hits 
57 internationals is what makes Gareth Southgate the second-most-capped permanent England manager. He is second to Kevin Keegan (63) and followed by Glenn Hoddle (53).

17 years and 45 days was the age at which Ben Woodburn became the youngest marksman in Liverpool’s 124-year history against Leeds United, beating Michael Owen’s record by 98 days.