Confed Cup: Ideye, Musa hailed among best assists

The duo of Super Eagles’ strikers, Brown Ideye and Ahmed Musa, are
among the eight players hailed as having given the best assists to
goal scorers.
Each of the eight players so named made two assists.
Others are Santi Cazorla and David Villa of Spain, Nicolas Lodeiro and Walter Gargano of Uruguay, Endo Yashuhito of Japan and Neymar of
Brazil.
That is the high point of statistics so far as the ‘festival of
champions’ gradually winds to the end.
Even though the second semi final march of Spain and Italy ended
barren, even after extra time, Brazil 2013 Confederation Cup has
already surpassed the previous editions of the competition in terms of
goal scoring.
This is despite the fact that there are still two outstanding matches
on Sunday.
Till date, the 14 matches played have produced 61 goals, five more
than the existing record of 56 recorded at Germany 2005 after 16
matches.
In the last edition four years ago in South Africa, 44 goals were scored.
The presence of Tahiti, the Oceanian champions, largely contributed to
the goal harvest.
In three group matches, the team of 22 amateurs and a professional
player conceded 24 goals and scored just one that has become a
milestone in the country’s football history.
In spite of demonstrations and riots, the attendance figure at the
matches have also been impressive.
Up till the last semi final match of Spain and Italy, 687,746 people
had watched the 14 matches as against the 584,894 that watched all the
16 matches of the last edition in South Africa.
The figure is also expected to rise above the 603,106 that attended
Germany 2005.
But the best attended Confederation Cup match still remains that of
Mexico in 1999, which recorded a staggering 970,000.
With two matches to go, even with an anticipated full house in both,
it is unlikely that the attendance figure of Mexico 1999 will be
beaten.