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The week in numbers: w/e 24/10/10

October 25, 2010 4 Comments

3 – Beth Tweddle won her third gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, triumphing in the uneven bars. She is the only British gymnast ever to claim gold at the Worlds.

LaShawn Merritt - 21-month ban (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

21 – Length of ban (in months) given to LaShawn Merritt, the world and Olympic 400 metres champion, after three positive tests for testosterone prohormones. Merritt co-operated with the US Anti-Doping Agency, who subsequently shortened his suspension by three months. Conveniently, Merritt will now be eligible to compete in the 2012 Olympics.

14 – Goals scored by Arsenal in their three Champions League group matches to date, the most ever at this stage. They had already beaten Braga 6-0 and Partizan Belgrade 3-1 before defeating Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 on Tuesday.

6 – Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh became the first player to score in six consecutive Champions League matches (three for Bordeaux, three for Arsenal).

8 – Number of summit finishes (out of 21 stages) the peloton will have to tackle during the 2011 Giro d’Italia, the route for which was revealed on Saturday. Ouch.

Samuel Eto'o - six Champions League goals (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

6 – Inter Milan‘s Samuel Eto’o has scored with all six shots on target in the Champions League this season.

1,200,000 – In dollars, the size of the fine the Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov has avoided after his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was upheld. Vinokourov had signed a contract which stated he would forfeit a year’s salary if caught doping. He was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping and subsequently served a two-year ban.

16 – Goals scored by Real Madrid in their last three league games after their 6-1 win over Racing Santander. Cristiano Ronaldo scored four times in Saturday evening’s rout.

10 – PSV Eindhoven inflicted a record 10-0 defeat on former European and UEFA Cup winners Feyenoord. Brazilian Jonathan Reis scored a hat-trick.

70 – Former footballer Edison “Edson” Arantes do Nascimento celebrated his 70th birthday on Saturday. We know him better as Pelé.

Fernando Alonso now leads the F1 drivers' championship (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

5 – Ferrari‘s Fernando Alonso claimed his fifth grand prix win of the season – it was his third in the last four races – at the inaugural event in South Korea yesterday.

25 – With two races remaining of the Formula 1 season, just 25 points separate new championship leader Alonso from fourth-placed Sebastian Vettel. There are 25 points available for a race win.

26 – Age of American male swimmer Fran Crippen, a World Championship bronze medallist, who died on Saturday after losing consciousness in a 10km race held in the United Arab Emirates. The water temperature was officially 30 degrees, although many of the swimmers reported it was hotter. Three other competitors were hospitalised as race organisers did nothing to heed warnings and concerns from several swimmers.

The Premier League week in numbers

1 – West Ham only managed one shot on target in their 2-1 defeat at home to Newcastle, the third time this has happened to them this season.

Johan Elmander - away specialist

5 – Johan Elmander‘s goal for Bolton in their 1-1 draw at Wigan was his fifth in the league this season. All five have come away from home.

8 – After defeating Wolves 2-0, Chelsea have now kept eight consecutive Premier League clean sheets at home.

12 – For Wolves, it was the 12th straight game in which they have failed to keep a clean sheet. They are the only Premier League team yet to register a clean sheet this season.

51 – Birmingham‘s 2-0 win over Blackpool snapped a sequence of 51 games in which they had failed to win by more than a single goal.

Richard Dunne - generous

8 – A Richard Dunne own goal was enough to give Sunderland victory over Aston Villa. Dunne has now scored eight own goals in the Premier League, more than any other player.

16 – Arsenal’s 3-0 at Manchester City was their first clean sheet in 16 games (in all competitions) away from the Emirates Stadium.

4 – Arsenal’s league opponents to date have had four players sent off, and conceded four penalties – more than any other team in both categories.

The NFL week in numbers

328 – Rushing yards accumulated by the Oakland Raiders in their 59-14 rout of the Denver Broncos. It was the third-best rushing day in franchise history, and the most since they set their record of 356 rushing yards against Seattle in 1987.

12 - Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has won his last 12 starts at home, and is 16-1 in his career at home as a starter (Atlanta 39 Cincinnati 32).

184 – Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward had his 184th consecutive game with a reception, passing Art Monk for the fourth-longest streak all-time (Pittsburgh 23 Miami 22).

1 – The Carolina Panthers‘ 23-20 win over the San Francisco 49ers means there is only one winless team remaining in the NFL – the Buffalo Bills, who lost in overtime, 37-34, to the Baltimore Ravens.

2 – Cleveland Browns linebacker David Bowens returned two interceptions for touchdowns, becoming only the third linebacker since 1950 to achieve this feat (Cleveland 30 New Orleans 17).

68 – Cleveland punter Reggie Hodges’ 68-yard run on a fake punt was the longest run by a punter since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, @castrolfootball and NFL.com.)

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World Cup group phase, round 1: in numbers

June 17, 2010 Leave a comment

The opening round of matches in the group phase was completed yesterday afternoon, so we are now exactly one-quarter of the way through the 2010 World Cup in terms of games played (16 out of 64). Here are some random statistics relating to each of the 16 games so far.

20 – South Africa‘s 1-1 draw with Mexico means that the record for host nations in their opening game is now as follows: played 20, won 14, drawn 6. (2002, of course, had two host nations: Japan and South Korea.)

5 – It is the first time since 1986 (Italy 1 Bulgaria 1) that the opening game of the tournament has been drawn, ending a run of five openers without a draw.

3 – The last three games between France and Uruguay have each finished 0-0.

3 – South Korea‘s Park Ji Sung has now scored at three consecutive World Cups.

24 – Argentina had 24 shots in their 1-0 win over Nigeria. Wasteful.

8/10 – England have now failed to score more than one goal in eight of their last ten opening matches at the World Cup.

7 – Slovenia‘s 1-0 win over Algeria was their first win in seven attempts at a major international finals (two World Cups, one European Championships).

4-3-3 – Serbia have now lost all four of their World Cup games, conceding three penalties and accumulating three red cards in the process.

11 – Miroslav Klose scored his eleventh World Cup goal in Germany‘s 4-0 demolition ofAustralia, moving him up to joint-fifth in the all-time list of individual goalscorers.

3 – Last Sunday was the first time in the tournament’s history there have been red cards in three different games on the same day – Algeria‘s Abdelkader Ghezzal, Serbia‘s Aleksandar Lukovic and Australia‘s Tim Cahill.

20 - Holland‘s 2-0 win over Denmark was their 20th consecutive game without a defeat, a sequence dating back to September 2008.

1938 – The last time Holland lost their opening World Cup game (Czechoslovakia beat them 3-0 after extra time).

0 - Japan did not force a single corner in their 1-0 win over Cameroon. In addition, they only had three shots on target in the entire game.

20 - Italy haven’t scored from a direct free kick at the World Cup for 20 years.

12 – Their 1-1 draw with Slovakia was the first time ever New Zealand had avoided defeated in any competition outside Oceania, at the 12th time of asking.

1 - Portugal‘s 0-0 draw with the Ivory Coast – a game which featured just three total shots on target – was the first time they have ever drawn a game in the group phase.

15 – After defeating North Korea 2-1, Brazil have now played 15 World Cup matches against nations from outside Europe and South America and won all 15.

91.8% – Midfielder Felipe Melo completed 90 of his 98 passes in the win over North Korea, an impressive 91.8% success rate.

48 – Chile’s 1-0 victory over Honduras came on the 48th anniversary of their previous World Cup win (16 June 1962 versus Yugoslavia).

5 – Switzerland have kept clean sheets in their last five World Cup games (tying Italy’s all-time World Cup record), dating back to their opening game of the 2006 tournament (0-0 versus France). It is 484 minutes since they last conceded a World Cup goal. Stingy.

2 – Spain have lost just two of their last 49 games – both losses happened in South Africa (2-0 versus USA in the 2009 Confederations Cup semi-final, and 1-0 against Switzerland yesterday).

0 – Total number of goals and assists by Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Samuel Eto’o, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Robin van Persie, Kaka, David Villa and Fernando Torres in the opening round of group games.

(Some stats courtesy of @optajoe, @optajean and @StatManJohn.)

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