Silverware, sadness and sweet relief

Francisco Varallo’s passing cast a shadow over an otherwise absorbing week of football in which Wayne Rooney’s worst-ever drought came to an end, Atletico Madrid claimed another European trophy and fresh records were set in Brazil and Germany. All these and more are included in FIFA.com’s latest statistical review.
1,114

minutes without a goal for either club or country was the mammoth run that came to a long-awaited end for Wayne Rooney on Saturday. The Manchester United and England star had played for over 18-and-a-half hours without scoring in the four months and 29 days since his last goal, which came against Bayern Munich on 30 March. Unsurprisingly, this constituted the worst drought of Rooney’s stellar career, and it required a penalty against West Ham United at the weekend for the England talisman to rediscover his scoring touch. The 24-year-old will now hope to find the kind of form that had seen him score 11 times in nine matches prior to embarking on his lengthy famine.
100

was the grand old age at which the legendary Francisco ‘Pancho’ Varallo sadly passed away on Monday. Varallo was the last surviving participant from the first-ever FIFA World Cup™ Final in 1930 and went on to become a legend for both Boca Juniors and Argentina. Indeed, it was only in March of last year that Martin Palermo surpassed his professional era record of 194 goals for Los Xeneizes, which had stood for the best part of seven decades.
14

Brasileirao games undefeated is the club record sequence currently being protected by Fluminense. The championship leaders stretched this impressive run with a 2-2 draw against Sao Paulo to surpass the previous benchmark of 13, set back in 2005. However, the Rio outfit, who have strung together ten wins and four draws to lead the table by three points, would almost certainly have made that balance 11-3 but for another notable landmark. The man responsible for it was serial record-breaker Rogerio Ceni, who scored a free-kick - his first goal at the Maracana - to take his career tally to an unparalleled 90. Not content with that, he then saved a late penalty from Washington, a player who until last month had been a team-mate of his at Sao Paulo.
4

wins in 13 matches might seem a modest tally, but for Quique Sanchez Flores it has been sufficient to bring him two European trophies as coach of Atletico Madrid. Los Colchoneros were famously efficient during last season’s triumphant UEFA Europa League campaign, reaching the final on the back of just two wins from eight. Their habit of peaking when it mattered most appears to have continued into this season, with Flores’s side beating Inter Milan 2-0 in Friday’s UEFA Super Cup final. The vanquished European champions, meanwhile, have now failed to score in four of their last five meetings with Spanish opposition.
3.72

is the record high goals-per-game average established in the Bundesliga after the opening two matchdays. This new benchmark was set during a weekend of firsts in the German top flight, with the latest round of matches also producing an unprecedented seven away wins. There was a new record for Bayer Leverkusen too, albeit an unwanted one, after Die Werkself conceded six goals at home for the first time in their Bundesliga history in a 6-3 loss to Borussia Moenchengladbach. Wolfsburg were also reluctant history-makers after becoming the first team in the division for 19 years to build up a 3-0 lead and then go on to lose. Mainz’s 4-3 triumph also made for a bitter-sweet afternoon for Edin Dzeko, who had earlier become Die Wölfe's all-time record scorer, surpassing Diego Fernando Klimowicz’s previous record of 57.