Infants of the Caribbean
Costly gloves to fill
On-fire forwards from the Dalmatian Region and The Avila's Sultana
200 goals for Manchester City is what Sergio Aguero became the first player to register. The 30-year-old’s double’s sunk Chelsea and ended a run of four straight years in which the FA Cup winners beat the Premier League champions to the FA Community Shield.
71 million pounds is what Chelsea paid Athletic Bilbao to make Kepa Arrizabalaga the most expensive goalkeeper in history. It was more than double what the record fee for a keeper was one year ago – the £35m Manchester City gave Benfica for Ederson. Thereafter, Alisson joined Liverpool for £67m.
17 goals in 11 MLS matches is what Josef Martinez has rattled home to fly Atlanta United to the summit of the overall standings. The little Venezuela striker is 11 clear of his closest rival for the leading marksmen award, and just one shy of the overall record for goals in an MLS regular season, shared by Roy Lassiter, Chris Wondolowski and Bradley Wright-Phillips. The Five Stripes have ten games remaining.
14 years and 327 days was the age at which Haiti defender Dougenie Joseph became the youngest player to start a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup match against China PR. The youngest to appear in one was Sydney Leroux, who was 14 years and 187 when she came on for Canada against Australia in 2004. Haiti, remarkably, started two 14-year-olds in their opening two outings at France 2018, with the impressive Melchie Dumonay the other.
12 corners is what Flamengo had in the first 45 minutes against Cruzeiro on Wednesday – the most a team has had in a half in the Copa Libertadores over the last five years. The Carioca giants only had one in the second period, and Thiago Neves’s first goal in 11 games sealed a 2-0 win for Mano Menezes’s Mineiro visitors at the Maracana in their last 16, first leg.
6 successive French Super Cups – and eight overall – was the Lyon record that Paris Saint-Germain equalled with a 4-0 smashing of Monaco in Shenzhen. The Trophée des Champions hadn’t been won by a bigger margin since its maiden edition in 1955, when, despite being without poster boy Raymond Kopa, a Reims side including Robert Jonquet and Rene Bliard destroyed Lille 7-1.
6 goals in two appearances is how Ivan Santini has begun his Anderlecht career. The 29-year-old bounced back from the disappointment of getting cut from Croatia’s 32-man provisional squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ by hitting back-to-back hat-tricks to inspire the Brussels behemoths, who lost their last three games of 2017/18, to a 4-1 win at Kortrijk and 5-2 victory over Oostende.
3 goals in a game is what Patri Guijarro became the first Spanish female to score in a FIFA competition. The Barcelona midfielder then helped Spain beat Japan 1-0 – the same scoreline by which they beat the same opponents in the previous FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
0 goals is what PSV and Feyenoord served up – despite the presence of Luuk de Jong, Hirving Lozano and Robin van Persie – to produce the first goalless Dutch Super Cup in history. The Johan Cruyff Shield had never gone to penalties until last year, but has now been decided by a shoot-out in back-to-back seasons, with Feyenoord winning both, but they needed 16 spot-kicks on Saturday as South Africa 2010 Final team-mates Mark van Bommel and Giovanni van Bronckhorst pitted their wits against one another for the first time.