{"id":2124,"date":"2026-06-23T08:33:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2026-06-23T08:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:33:48","slug":"fast-as-a-cannonball-goals-are-being-scored-at-a-record-pace-at-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2124","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fast as a cannonball’: Goals are being scored at a record pace at the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It\u2019s been goals galore so far at the\u00a0World Cup.<\/p>\n

The tournament has been one of the highest-scoring in history so far and produced nearly 25% more scoring than the same span of games in the previous World Cup.<\/p>\n

Read more How FIFA President Gianni Infantino is attending multiple World Cup games a day<\/a><\/p>\n

One reason for the increase in scoring might be the ball that FIFA is using for this tournament.<\/p>\n

FIFA says the ball has been designed with deep seams to produce \u201coptimal in-flight stability,\u201d and players and coaches say it has been rocketing toward goalkeepers at a high velocity. There is also added grip to help striking and dribbling in wet or humid conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ball is as fast as a cannonball. I think today and the last couple of days, you saw if you kick the ball in the right position, it\u2019s extremely difficult to save,\u201d Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said.<\/p>\n

The games are also running longer because of increased stoppage time related to hydration breaks that are new for this tournament, allowing more scoring opportunities. And the tournament has a bigger talent gap because of the expanded 48-team field that debuted this year.<\/p>\n

Colombia coach N\u00e9stor Lorenzo said he was not surprised by the number of goals considering the talent of the players at the World Cup. He said also said attackers are more protected by officials than they used to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have this protection some 20, 30 years ago, when they were hit a lot more, when rough play was a lot more common,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cToday, any team that defends well and uses counterattacks and tries to play, can manage to do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result: Fans were treated to 121 goals in the first 40 games of the tournament, and many of them came from internationally known players.<\/p>\n

Premier League players are scoring the most<\/h2>\n

More than half the goals scored so far in the tournament were by players from the top three professional leagues in England, Germany and Spain. The English Premier League leads the way.<\/p>\n

The trend was on full display over the weekend in the match between the Netherlands and Sweden,\u00a0a 5-1 triumph\u00a0for the Dutch. All six goals were scored by players who competed in the Premier League in the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Premier League is more intense than this World Cup,\u201d said Gabriel Martinelli, a Brazil player from Arsenal. \u201cBut it\u2019s certainly still a very beautiful World Cup, with high-quality and intense matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real Madrid, Inter Miami of Major League Soccer and Liverpool were the clubs whose players have produced the most goals. Miami, of course, is all because of one man \u2014\u00a0Lionel Messi, who has five goals in two games.<\/p>\n

In addition to the nearly 30 goals from English clubs, 16 came from the German league, 11 from the Spanish league, seven from the French league and five from the Italian league.<\/p>\n

Read more France-Iraq World Cup match in Philly experiences weather delay Monday<\/a><\/p>\n

MLS saw its players score eight times. Messi had a\u00a0hat trick\u00a0in Argentina\u2019s opening match and another two on Monday. The other MLS goals came from FC Dallas\u2019 Petar Musa of Croatia, Atlanta United\u2019s Mat\u00edas Galarza of Paraguay and the Portland Timbers\u2019 Finn Surman of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

When FIFA announced the official squads, there were 200 players based in England at the club level, nearly two times more than the 109 players based in Germany.<\/p>\n

The tallies for the goals were made based on the players\u2019 clubs when the official squad announcements were made.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanada\u2019s 6-0 victory over Qatar at the 2026 FIFA World Cup rewrote the record books. The win became the largest ever by a CONCACAF nation at the tournament, while Jonathan David’s hat trick ended a 96-year drought for players from the region.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

Real Madrid and Liverpool at the top<\/h2>\n

Real Madrid players scored seven times \u2014 four from France\u2019s\u00a0Kylian Mbapp\u00e9,\u00a0two from Brazil\u2019s Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior and one from England\u2019s Jude Bellingham.<\/p>\n

Madrid did not have any players called up for Spain\u2019s national team for the first time. It signed Marc Cucurella from Chelsea during the tournament, though, making one of its own a part of the World Cup with La Roja.<\/p>\n

Liverpool got three goals from Dutch players \u2014 two by Cody Gapko and one by Virgil van Dijk. Another goal came from Sweden\u2019s Alexander Isak, and the other was scored by Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, who was still listed as a Liverpool player when the squads were announced.<\/p>\n

Bayern Munich had four goals \u2014 two by England\u2019s Harry Kane and one each by Germany\u2019s Jamal Musiala and Colombia\u2019s Luis D\u00edaz.<\/p>\n

Bayern was the team with the second-most players called up for the tournament with 18. Manchester City was the first with 19, though its only four goals at the World Cup so far came from Norway’s Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n

How many goals are we talking about?<\/h2>\n

With 121 goals scored by 88 players in the first 40 games of the tournament, the average per game was at three goals. There were only three 0-0 draws, and eight of the goals were own-goals.<\/p>\n

The tournament is on pace to shatter the 172-goal record from Qatar in 2022. The records aren’t an apples-to-apples comparison because the 2022 edition only had 64 matches compared with 104 this year.<\/p>\n

But the pace for 64 matches this year is at almost 194 goals, well beyond the record from four years ago.<\/p>\n

The trend in scoring goes beyond the World Cup. The Champions League has set records in the past two seasons: 3.27 goals per game in 2024-2025 and then 3.47 goals per game in 2025-2026.<\/p>\n

Read more USMNT in the World Cup semifinals? Why a former player believes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ball has been designed to produce \u201coptimal in-flight stability,\u201d and it has been rocketing toward goalkeepers at a high velocity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Fast as a cannonball': Goals are being scored at a record pace at the World Cup - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2124\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Fast as a cannonball': Goals are being scored at a record pace at the World Cup - 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