Is it just me or are we seeing too many records set or broken in soccer of late? Whether it is players or teams, not a week or day goes by without reading about some record or new stat here and there. Off the top of mind:
What is the above a testament to: that football has gone downhill and a few dominate, or that a few are so much better and above the rest, that they break record after record? In other words, why is it that you would never have this many records broken 10, 20 or 30 years ago? Whet else did I miss?
-England went, not only undefeated in the qualifiers, they didn't concede a single goal.-England, for the first time in history, have won 11 competitive games (albeit against the likes of Andorra, Latvia, but still....)
-Speaking of England, Harry Kane scored in his 9th consecutive qualifier.
-Now on to Haaland: he has scored 16 WCQ goals , 17 goals in 9 games for Norway, and guiding his team to their first WC since 1998.-Norway had something like +32 goal difference over Italy in their group
-Portugal scored 9 goals in a match for just the second time yesterday (9-1 against Armenia) with the other one being 9-0 against Luxemburg back in 2023: the irony in both? CR7 didn't play in either one! That should tell you something about his presence....
-Messi and CR7 playing in their unprecedented 6th world cup, while Modric making it to his 5th. If you think this is easy or take it for granted, just think to Brazilian legends and how hard it was for them to get to 3 or 4, with all the injuries and lost of form (Pele, Ronaldo, Neymar to name a few)
-Mbappe scored his 400th goal, at just 26 years of age, which is younger than the likes of Messi, CR7 etc when they scored their 400th.
-Messi reached 400 assists in his professional career.
-Estevao picked up man of the match in 3 out of 4 games for Brazil: in these 4 games, he has scored goals. Not Haaland type of numbers, but hey, for an 18 year old, pretty impressive! Oh and speaking of which, I saw this other cool state: did you know that at age 18, CR7+Messi combined had 2 goals? Another Estevao stat: he now has 10 G/A for club and country this season.
What is the above a testament to: that football has gone downhill and a few dominate, or that a few are so much better and above the rest, that they break record after record? In other words, why is it that you would never have this many records broken 10, 20 or 30 years ago? Whet else did I miss?