2022 World Cup stats: Asia's record 3, Shaqiri's 5, Uruguay's missing 1
Day 13 of the 2022 FIFA World Cup saw dramatic conclusions to Group G and Group H with South Korea denying Uruguay a place in the knockout stages.
Cameroon ended Brazil's World Cup group stage unbeaten streak of 17 games, while Son Heung-min's South Korea scored in stoppage time to advance along with Portugal from Group H.
By The Numbers has the best stats from the four World Cup matches played on Friday:
Ghana vs Uruguay
1
Ghana is the first team to not convert multiple penalties vs a single opponent at the FIFA World Cup (Ghana also missed in 2010 QF).
1
Uruguay needed to score just one more goal after South Korea's match ended to advance to the knockouts.
3
Giorgian de Arrascaeta is the third Uruguayan to score two goals in the first-half of a World Cup match, after Juan Peregrino Anselmo vs Yugoslavia (1930) and Oscar Miguez vs Bolivia (1950).
22
Uruguay have been eliminated from the FIFA World Cup group stage for the first time in 22 years. They have advanced to knockout stage in their previous three World Cup appearances.
South Korea vs Portugal
3
Three countries from the Asian Football Confederation have advanced to the round of 16 -- the most ever in a single World Cup.
4
Four of South Korea's last seven goals at the World Cup have been scored in the 90th minute or later.
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5
Ricardo Horta's goal was the fifth straight World Cup goal scored by players other than Cristiano Ronaldo, the most without Ronaldo since a streak of nine straight between 2006 and 2010 World Cups.
India are currently ranked 106 out of 211 nations in the Men's FIFA rankings. That's bang in the middle, and in essence, quite the opposite of the year that Indian football has had in 2022.
This was always going to be a massive year for the All India Football Federation (AIFF), and at the end of it, they come out having done their own reputation a great deal of harm (at least the previous administration did).
The Women's Asian Cup fiasco
The year began in an embarrassing fashion for the AIFF. After just one game, the Indian Women's Team was forced to withdraw from the AFC Women's Asian Cup due to a massive COVID-19 outbreak.
Hosting the Women's Asian Cup was the focus of the AIFF's women's football program for more than a year leading up to the event in January 2022. The Indian Women's League (IWL) didn't happen in 2021, and the national team went on exposure tours to six different countries in that year. While a foolproof COVID-secure bio-bubble is almost impossible to achieve, India were the only country whose tournament was wrecked by a virus outbreak.
India out of AFC Women's Asian Cup: Timeline of events and key questions
In Indian football's top-down approach, which was highlighted by hosting mega continental or world events every other year, the top had been doused with a variety of inflammatory substances and then set on flames. As ever, the least thought of entities in the ecosystem - the players - had to look on as their house burnt down and pick up the debris as well.
Fans make their presence felt in the stands
The first real high for Indian football in 2022 came on March 20, when the ISL final saw the return of fans to the stands to mark the end of two torturous bio-bubble ridden years.
What does it say about the state of the sport in the country that it was a tangible win for the Federation to see the fans back in the stands? However, it wasn't a win just for the Federation.
