Soccer: Goal drought at World Cup

BERLIN - The 2006 World Cup finals could finish with one of the lowest goal ratios on record, according to FIFA statistics.

After 56 of 64 matches have been played, 132 goals have been scored for an average of 2.36 per game.

The only other tournament which finished with a lower average was the 1990 finals in Italy where only 2.21 goals per game were recorded.

At the same stage of the tournament four years ago in Japan and South Korea, 147 goals had been scored. In France in 1998, the figure was two higher at 149 and the finals closed with a record 171 goals.

The highest goal average recorded was in 1954 in Switzerland when 140 goals were scored in 26 games, a staggering average by today's standards of 5.38 per game.

- REUTERS