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After a month of shocks, surprises and delights — most of them, amazingly, on the field — the 2014 World Cup came to an end on Sunday. It would be impossible to distill the entire tournament into a few cold, hard statistics, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try. Here are a few of the figures that tell the story of Brazil 2014.
171
The number of goals scored at the 2014 World Cup. Tied for the most ever at soccer’s premier event, with France 1998. The leading scorer was Colombia’s James Rodriguez with six, followed by Germany’s Thomas Muller with five. Rodriguez became the first player to score in his first five career World Cup appearances since Peru’s Teofilo Cubillas in 1970 and 1978.
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16
Goals scored by Miroslav Klose in four successive World Cups, making the German striker the most successful Cup scorer of all time, beating out Brazilian star Ronaldo. Klose made his mark on history with a goal against Brazil in the 2014 semifinal. The soft-spoken player counts Rihanna among his fans.
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280 million
The number of Facebook interactions related to Sunday’s final of the 2014 World Cup. The figure set a record for a single sporting event on Facebook, beating out Super Bowl XLVII, which drew 245 million interactions.
5
The number of own goals scored at this World Cup. The only Cup that registered more was the 1998 tournament with six. Among this year’s own goals was the first goal of the tournament, when Brazilian defender Marcello had to watch the ball deflect from his foot into the goal.
618,725
The number of tweets sent per minute after the final whistle in the Germany-Argentina World Cup final. It was a new record for Twitter and beat the previous one — 580,166 tweets per minute — set during the Brazil-Germany semifinal.
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32.1 million
The number of tweets sent out during the 2014 World Cup final match, making the game the most discussed single sporting event of all time on Twitter.
50
Number of hat-tricks scored in the history of the World Cup. Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri made it an even half-century with his three goals against Honduras in the group stage. Shaqiri also became the first player to score a World Cup hat trick entirely with his left foot since records started being kept back in 1966.
43
Colombian goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon became the oldest person to have played in a World Cup when he took the field in the 83rd minute of Colombia’s first-round game against Japan. Mondragon held on to Colombia’s 3-1 lead and claimed his place in World Cup history, beating Cameroon striker Roger Milla, who played for his country at 42. Milla still holds the record as the oldest goal scorer in a World Cup, having put one past Russia in 1994, his final tournament as a player.
34.65 million
The number of German viewers who watched their team win their fourth World Cup title with a 1-0 victory over Argentina. It was the highest-rated program on German TV since the advent of audience data tracking. An additional 12 million fans are estimated to have watched the game in massive public viewing venues across the country.
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$3 million
The amount — in cash — the government of Ghana flew in by plane to Brazil to pay World Cup appearance fees for their national soccer team, called the Black Stars. The team had refused to take the field for their final group match against Portugal until they were paid. Ghanaian defender John Boye was photographed kissing his $100,000 share of the cash before the match. Ghana lost 2-1 to Portugal, and the Black Stars — and their bonuses — caught the next flight home.
$42,200
The cost of the official 2014 FIFA World Cup timepiece. Hublot produced 100 of the watches, officially called the Big Bang Unico Bi-Retrograde Chronograph but dubbed simply the “Soccer Bang.” The timepiece is made of 18-karat King Gold with a carbon-fiber bezel. Hublot also produced 200 pieces in black ceramic for a more economical $26,300 per watch. One unique function allows wearers to track each 45-minute half of a soccer match as well as extra time.
2.2 billion pesos
The second-quarter earnings of Mexican media giant Televisa. The broadcaster saw its profits soar 21 percent from a year earlier, helped by boffo business surrounding the World Cup. Televisa satcaster Sky Mexico, which had exclusive broadcast rights in Mexico to 24 of the 64 World Cup matches, signed up more than 200,000 new subscribers, bringing its total client base to 6.4 million. Televisa also took in some $84 million in revenue from Univision, which broadcast World Cup matches to Spanish speakers in the U.S.
24.7 million
The U.S. television audience for the June 22 group stage match between Team USA and Portugal, the most watched soccer match in U.S. television history. An average of 18.2 million viewers caught the game on ESPN, easily beating the previous record on a U.S. network for a soccer game — the 17.97 million that watched the Women’s World Cup final between USA and China on ABC back in 1999. An additional 6.5 million caught the match on Spanish-language network Univision.
198,208
The minimum number of World Cup tickets bought by Team USA fans, the largest contingent of foreign supporters who traveled to Brazil for this year’s tournament. FIFA’s official ticket sales tally is probably an underestimate as it does not include fans who picked up last-minute tickets nor the thousands who went without tickets but watched in Brazil at bars and other public viewing sites across the country.
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$1.68 billion
The minimum amount in lost productivity in the United States due to fans watching games during working hours, according to estimates by Captivate Network, which held an informal poll of 714 people across 15 major metropolitan centers. Team USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann famously asked, in an open letter, for U.S. employers to give their workers the day off to watch USA play Germany in the final group match.
?$4,269
The amount won by a British gambler who bet around $8.50 — at 500 to 1 odds — on Irish site Paddy Power that Germany would thrash Brazil 7-1 in their semifinal match. The crazy bet paid off when Germany hit the target, handing Brazil the worst-ever defeat in its soccer history. Fellow betting site William Hill offered 1,000 to 1 odds on the same result, but no one took them up on it. In related gambling news, a Norwegian man took home some $3,330 after betting, at 175 to 1 odds, that Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez would bite someone at this year’s World Cup. The notorious Suarez came through, taking a chunk out of the shoulder of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during a group match.
1
The number of points England scored in World Cup 2014. The tally is the lowest ever for the nation that invented soccer. Brazil also marked the first time that England did not progress past the group stage of a World Cup since 1958.
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