1. Sweden's Markus Allback scored the 2,000th goal in World Cup history. It was Sweden's first goal in its 2-2 draw with England in a Group B match. Goal No. 1,000 was scored by Rob Rensenbrink of the Netherlands in 1978.
2. Ronaldo scored his 15th World Cup goal to become the tournament's all-time leading scorer, topping German Gerd Mueller's record by one goal.
3. Switzerland became the first team eliminated from a World Cup without conceding a goal. The Swiss lost on penalty kicks in a second-round shootout against Ukraine.
4. Portugal's Ricardo Pereira was the first goalkeeper to save three shots in a penalty shootout at a World Cup.
5. Germany is the only team to have been involved in four World Cup penalty shootouts, winning every one.
6. At 18 years, 357 days, Lionel Messi became the fifth-youngest scorer in the history of the tournament when he scored Argentina's sixth goal against Serbia-Montenegro in Gelsenkirchen.
7. Iran's Yahya Golohammadi became the fifth-oldest scorer (36 years, 84 days) in the history of the World Cup when he connected against Mexico on June 11.
8. Against Ukraine, Tunisia keeper Ali Boumnijel became the fifth-oldest player (40 years, 71 days) to play in a World Cup game.
9. Togo's Otto Pfister (68 years, 211 days) became the second-oldest and Spain's Luis Aragones (67 years, 334 days) the third-oldest coaches in World Cup history.
10. With four shutouts at this tournament, French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez's career total at the World Cup moved to 10, a record shared with England's Peter Shilton. Barthez, of course, plays in today's final against Italy.
11. Portugal's quarterfinal draw after extra time with England ended Luis Felipe Scolari's streak of 11 consecutive World Cup coaching wins. However, his 12-match unbeaten stretch after Portugal beat England in a shootout was a record; it was snapped in a 1-0 semifinal loss to France.
12. With four wins to start this competition, 2002 champion Brazil set a record of 11 consecutive victories at the World Cup.
13. Going into the final, Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has not conceded a goal in 453 minutes, the fifth-longest span.
14. Horacio Elizondo is the first referee assigned to the opening game as well as to the final. He is the second referee, after Mexico's Benito Archundia, to officiate five games at a World Cup.
15. Archundia became the first referee to officiate five matches in one competition.
16. With 16 yellow cards and four ejections, the Portugal-Netherlands game set a record for most disciplinary measures in a single World Cup game.
17. Cafu became Brazil's most capped player at the World Cup with a total of 20 matches. At the same time, Cafu also became the player with the most World Cup wins (16).
18. Guus Hiddink qualified for the second stage of the competition for the third consecutive time, and with three different teams: the Netherlands in 1998, South Korea in 2002 and Australia in 2006.
19. Brazil's Carlos Alberto Parreira became the first coach in World Cup history to face national teams from all six confederations.
20. Parreira equaled Bora Milutinovic's record of five World Cup participations.
21. Parreira celebrated his 20th World Cup match as coach, equaling Mario Zagallo and Milutinovic. Helmut Schoen leads with 25 matches.
22. The second-round match between France and Spain was the 700th World Cup game.
23. The penalty shootout between Switzerland and Ukraine (won 3-0 by Ukraine) was the lowest-scoring tiebreaker in World Cup history. Switzerland became the first team not to convert a single penalty kick in a shootout.
24. Italy's 11 goals going into the final were scored by 10 players, matching a record by France in 1982 despite not making the final.
25. The average attendance of 52,500 is the second highest in World Cup history. Only USA 1994 drew larger crowds.