World Cup Record For Total Goals Just 5 Away From Being Broken

A number of major records fell in rapid succession during the 2014 World Cup.

Germany’s Miroslav Klose broke the all-time World Cup scoring record with his 16th goal in Tuesday’s 7-1 defeat of Brazil, the heaviest loss for a home team in the history of the tournament. This year’s World Cup handily broke online streaming records around the globe. And Brazil spent more money to host the event than any other country in the tournament's long history.

But one of the most impressive records may still be broken even though there's only two matches left to play this year. Over the course of the first 62 games, there have been 167 goals scored. That means that the four remaining teams must score four more goals in order to tie the record of 171 set in France in 1998, or five more to break it. That year, there were 36 matches with three or more goals, the same as this year, to date.

So far, 2.6 goals have been scored per match on average, meaning that the tournament is statistically on pace to beat the record.

Third-place matches like Saturday’s contest between the Netherlands and Brazil are traditionally known as high-scoring events, with game totals of three or four goals far from uncommon.

And the Germany-Argentina match could break a few other records as well. Already, Germany has 17 goals in this World Cup, compared with the tournament-best 15 goals that France scored in 1998.