By The Numbers: A Statistical, Factual & Trivial Look At South Africa 2010

Firstly, apologies for the delay, but I've been swamped with work lately and the little free time I have been enjoying lately have gone into playing guitar, listening to music or watching House. Plus, interest in World Cup tends to wane very quickly after the thing is over. But whatever, I'm back. I'm too lazy right now to write that formal review thingy, so I'm posting a statistical look at the tournament. Records and such.

•  Brazil made a record 19th appearance. They will be breaking the record again in 2014 when they    participate for a 20th time as hosts.

• Germany made a record 12th appearance in the top four. They are now the only country to appear in the semifinals of all 3 previous tournaments - 2002, 2006 and 2010.

• Germany and Serbia met for a record equaling 7th time in a World Cup finals match, matching the record held by Brazil vs Sweden.

• Germany and Brazil both made record 16th appearances in the final eight stage.

• Switzerland set a record for most consecutive minutes without conceding a goal, spanning an amazing 16 years. From USA 1994, through Germany 2006, and their first match of 2010.

• Switzerland also equaled Italy's record of most consecutive clean sheets with 5.

• Germany have now played more World Cup finals matches than any other country, with 99.

• Brazil's win over Chile in the Round of 16 was their 67th in tournament history. More than any other country.

• Mexico's loss to Argentina in the Round of 16 was their 24th in tournament history. A record.

• Italy set the drawing record, with their 1-1 result against New Zealand being their 21st draw.

• New Zealand equaled Bolivia, El Salvador & Honduras' record of most World Cup games without a win - 6.

• Robinho scored Brazil's 210th World Cup goal against Holland in the quarters; most number of goals scored by any country.

• Diego Forlan's goal against Germany was the 117th that the Nazis had conceded. Another record.

• The Dutch became the first country to lose a 3rd World Cup Final without having won a tournament. They also became the first country to make a 4th appearance in the top 4 without winning.

• Netherlands also became the first country to win as many as 6 games in a single tournament without winning the cup.

• This was only the 4th instance of the Champion having lost a game. Spain follows the Germany teams of 1954 and 1974 and the Argentina team of 1978. All of them lost 1 match.

• Spain equaled the record for champions with lowest goal difference (+6). Italy had previously achieved this in 1982.

• Spain also set the record for champions having scored fewest goals - 8. They are also the first champions with just 3 goal scorers - David Villa, Andres Iniesta & Carles Puyol.

• Spain equaled the record of champions having conceded the least number of goals. They, Italy '06 & France '98 all conceded just 2.

•  Uruguay equaled its own record of having played the most no. of qualifying matches - 20. They had previously done that for the 2002 tournament.

• Germany made a record 15th straight appearance in the top 8 of the tournament, having never failed to do so since 1954.

• Champions Spain qualified for a record 7th consecutive World Cup. From 1986-2010.

• Luxembourg, on the other hand, failed to qualify for a record 18th consecutive tournament, having failed every time since 1934.

• Algeria equaled Bolivia's record of most consecutive matches without scoring with 5. Their record stretches back to Mexico '86.

• David James became the oldest player to debut in a World Cup finals tournament in England's game against Algeria. He was 39 years and 321 days old.

• Miroslav Klose became the first person to score at least 4 goals in 3 different World Cup finals (2002, 2006, 2010)

• Klose also became the 4th person to score twice in 4 matches, after Sandor Kocsis, Just Fontaine & Pele.

• Cuauhtemoc Blanco of Mexico equalled the record for the longest period between a player's 1st and last goals, the record being 12 years. The record is shared wih Pele, Uwe Seeler, Diego Maradona, Michael Laudrup, Henrik Larsson & Sami Al-Jaber

• Asamoah Gyan became the 1st person to miss 2 penalties in his World Cup career with his penalty miss against Uruguay in the quarterfinal

• Iker Casillas became the 1st goalkeeper to save penalties in 2 World Cup finals. He saved Ian Harte's effort in the round of 16 against Ireland in 2002 and stopped Oscar Cardozo of Paraguay from scoring in the quarterfinal this year.

• Carlos Alberto Parreira became the 1st person to appear in 6 tournaments and equalled Bora Milutinovic's record of having coached 5 nations at the finals.

• Otto Rehhagel became the oldest coach to appear in a World Cup finals at 71 years and 317 days

• Referee Oscar Ruiz of Colombia equalled the record for most tournaments, this being his 3rd.

• South Africa became the first host nation to be eliminated at the group stages.

• This was also the first time since 1950 that either Argentina or Brazil failed to win a World Cup hosted outside Europe. Since 1950, Brazil has won Chile '62, Mexico '70, USA '94 and KoreaJapan '02, while Argentina has won Argentina '78 and Mexico '86'.

• Germany became the first country since Brazil in 1970 to score 4 goals in 3 different matches in the same tournament.

• The Final set the record for most bookings with 14.

• With 145 goals, 2010 saw the least number of goals scored for a 64-match World Cup. The 2.27 goals per game is also the 2nd lowest in history after Italy '90's 2.21.

• Thomas Mueller became the first recipient of the Best Young Player Award to win another individual award.

• Japan's win over Cameroon was their first World Cup win on foreign soil.

• This was the first time that both the previous finalists failed to make it past the group stage. 

• For the first time since quarterfinals were introduced in 1954, only 3 Europeans made it to the final eight. Ghana became the 3rd  African team to appear in the quarterfinals after Cameroon in 1990 & Senegal in 2002. Paraguay made its quarterfinal debut.

• Uruguay reached the semifinals for the first time in 40 years, while Spain reached the semifinals for the first time.

Phew! That's enough facts. I'm not promising another World Cup article. May come, may not come. Because frankly, I'm no longer all that interested in it anymore and it's high time I get my boring poetry & other depression-intensive crap back into the blog. :)