In FIFA.com’s latest weekly stats review, the dismissals of John Terry and Benjamin Lecomte feature alongside a landmark goal for USA’s champions, a historic defeat for Juventus and a record-breaking Bundesliga strike.
1000Major League Soccer goals was the landmark reached by Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday. The reigning champions are the first MLS team to celebrate this particular milestone and, fittingly, the historic strike came from their talisman. Robbie Keane once again finds himself a rich vein of form, having scored eight times in his last five appearances for the club – including doubles in each of his last three. New York City, with David Villa and Andrea Pirlo in their line-up, were the Irish veteran’s latest victims, and the 35-year-old has now scored against all MLS teams bar one: Montreal Impact. The former Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur striker’s goals have helped his team return to the top of the standings on the back of four straight league wins, and their latest success – a 5-1 trouncing of star-studded City – was enjoyed by TV viewers in 150 different nations.
87years of Italian Serie A history produced a first for Juventus on Sunday: they lost at home on the opening day of the season. In 40 previous curtain-raisers in Turin, I Bianconeri had won 33, drawn seven and always managed to score at least once. But all those records were rewritten in a shock 1-0 defeat to Udinese that knocked Juve off the top of the Italian top flight for the first time in 64 rounds - since Week 12 of the 2013/14 campaign. The result could hardly have been more unexpected, as Juventus had lost just twice in 76 league matches at their new stadium, and were facing an Udinese side that had failed to even score against them since 2012. However, Cyril Thereau emerged as the match-winner, scoring with Udinese’s first and only shot on target. The French forward has now scored in each of his last three appearances for the club, having failed to find the net in his previous nine. And his latest goal has left Juve to become the first reigning Serie A champions since Sampdoria in 1991/92 to lose the opening match of their title defence.
39seconds had been played of Lorient’s match with Saint Etienne when the hosts’ keeper was sent off. Benjamin Lecomte’s early red card was the fastest seen in French Ligue 1 since 2006/07 and, without him, Lorient slumped to a 1-0 defeat. Marseille enjoyed considerably better fortune on home turf, meanwhile, cruising to a 6-0 victory over Troyes. The result ensured that Marseille, in the space of 90 minutes, went from having the division’s worst attacking record to boasting its best, and it was a tribute to the team’s new-found efficiency. The south-coast side managed their six goals from just seven efforts on target; quite a transformation for a team that had previously registered 37 attempts without finding the net.
9seconds were on the clock at Hoffenheim on Saturday when Kevin Volland scored the fastest Bundesliga goal of all time. The young German’s strike broke by 0.3 seconds the record set by Karim Bellarabi 364 days earlier, giving his team a dream start against reigning champions Bayern Munich. However, despite going down to ten men and conceding a penalty, Pep Guardiola’s side battled back to win 2-1. Their cause was aided by Eugen Polanski’s failure to convert the aforementioned spot-kick, and Manuel Neuer can now boast of having been beaten by just one of the last five penalties he has faced. The Bavarians’ comeback was then sealed by Robert Lewandowski, who scored his first goal as a Bayern substitute but his tenth against Oliver Baumann, cementing the Hoffenheim keeper’s status as the Pole’s favourite Bundesliga victim. Bayern nonetheless find themselves in the unfamiliar position of second place, with free-scoring Borussia Dortmund – a team with four goals in each of their last three outings – on top. The second of that trio of wins was most notable as Dortmund had been 3-0 down to Odd of Norway before winning 4-3 – the first team to triumph in such circumstances in European competition since Brugge claimed an identical win over Maribor in 2011.
5years and four months without a red card was the league run that came to an ill-timed end for John Terry on Sunday. The Chelsea captain, substituted the previous week for the first time under Jose Mourinho, was sent off for the fifth time in the English Premier League, equalling the club record of Frank Leboeuf. Terry’s only consolation was that his team held on to win without him as goals from Pedro, Diego Costa and Cesar Azpilicueta secured a 3-2 victory over West Bromwich Albion. This represented only the second time in Premier League history that three Spanish players scored for the same team in the same game, the first having been a 4-1 win for Swansea City over Queens Park Rangers in which Michu, Angel Rangel and Pablo Hernandez found the target.