Speed, shocks and six shooters
© Foto-net
In our latest stats review, FIFA.com throw the spotlight on a record-breaking goal for Lukas Podolski, historic victories for Pasching and Basel, a hefty transfer fee at Barcelona and six-goal heroes in Ecuador and Cambodia.
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years of the Austrian Cup had never seen a winner from the country’s third tier until Pasching rewrote history on Thursday. The northern outfit claimed their landmark triumph the hard way, beating champions Austria Vienna – already with 27 Austrian Cup wins to their name – in a remarkable final, having already seen off Rapid Vienna and Salzburg in previous rounds. Pasching are the first third tier team from any European nation to win a domestic cup since Poland’s Lechia Gdansk in 1983. Daniel Sobkova, their match-winner with a decisive header early in the second half, said afterwards: "It's unbelievable for the club. I am stunned. It's the best moment of my career."
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million euros was the transfer fee that this week took Neymar from Santos to Barcelona in the summer’s biggest transfer thus far. The deal establishes the 21-year-old as the second-most expensive Brazilian in history, with Kaka having moved to Real Madrid for €65 million in 2009, and the eighth-most expensive overall. Only Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luis Figo, Hulk, Fernando Torres and Kaka himself have commanded higher fees. Neymar leaves Santos as the club’s record scorer in the post-Pele era, having found the net 138 times in 229 appearances. His high-profile arrival caps a positive week for Barcelona, in which they finished the season 15 points clear of Real Madrid, becoming the first team in history to win La Liga with such an impressive final advantage.
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seconds were on the clock when Lukas Podolski scored the quickest goal in the history of Germany’s national team last Wednesday. The strike, which was the country's 1955th overall, was not however the fastest ever recorded in international football, an honour that still belongs to Davide Gaultieri of San Marino (8.3 seconds versus England in November 1993). It did, though, set Joachim Low’s side on the way to a 4-2 win in which Podolski scored twice, closing to within one goal of Rudi Voller and Jurgen Klinsmann in joint-third in his country's list of all-time leading scorers. There was another landmark four days later when Lars and Sven Bender became the first twins to represent Germany since Erwin and Helmut Kremers 39 years ago. The Bender brothers could not, however, inspire their team to victory, with USA winning 4-3 in a match in which Clint Dempsey scored twice to move on to 35 international goals, overtaking Eric Wynalda as his country’s second-highest all-time marksman.
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goals in 53 minutes was the remarkable feat achieved by Daniel Neculman on Saturday. The Argentinian striker racked up this double hat-trick in a 7-1 victory for his Ecuadorian club Deportivo Olmedo over Municipal Cabar in the country’s second division. The time in which he amassed his incredible tally has set a new record in his adopted country and taken the league’s top scorer – who already had two trebles to his name this season - on to 16 goals overall.“I’ll never forget this day,” Neculman said afterwards. "I’ve never scored six goals in the same game before, although once I manage four”. Remarkably, though, the 28-year-old was not the only player to score six goals in a single match over the past week. Emulating his achievement was Choun Chum of Cambodian outfit Naga Corp, who was responsible for half of his side’s goals in a 12-0 thrashing of bottom side Senate General Secretariat.
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successive league titles was the landmark reached by Basel on Saturday, establishing them as only the second Swiss side in history to embark on such a run. Bern outfit Young Boys had enjoyed an identical streak of success over half a century ago, winning four-in-a-trow between 1956/57 and 1960. A 1-0 win over Sankt Gallen secured this latest crown for FCB, who also made history this season by qualifying for a European semi-final for the first time in their history. Yet the border city outfit remain in third place in the country’s all-time standings, with 16 titles overall leaving them short of record champions Grasshoppers (26) and relegated Servette (17).