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If it’s all about numbers, here are a few to ponder

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A team of soccer numbers -- that’s 11 in all -- to ponder on a rainy night.

2 -- Goals scored by Brazil-born Croatia national team striker Eduardo da Silva on Monday night as Arsenal defeated Cardiff City, 4-0, in an FA Cup game. It was Eduardo’s first match for the Gunners in almost a year since he suffered a horrific compound fracture of his left leg 51 weeks ago.

3 -- If David Beckham plays for AC Milan against Werder Bremen in Germany on Wednesday night, as expected, it would be only the third time the English midfielder has taken part in a UEFA Cup game. The previous two times came in the 1995-96 season when he played for Manchester United, which twice tied SC Rotor Volgograd of Russia (0-0 in Russia and 2-2 in England) and was ousted on the away goals rule.

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11 -- The U.S. men’s national team has played in 55 countries and countless venues, but it has won more games at RFK Stadium in Washington than anywhere else, going 11-3-4 in the nation’s capital.

24 -- Mexico’s national team has failed to win in its last five games, going 0-4-1. So where did Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson’s team place in the latest FIFA world rankings? It was 24th, up two places. Go figure.

35 -- That’s how many goals Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel has scored in 49 games for the New York Red Bulls since joining Major League Soccer in 2007. On Monday, Angel signed a new multiyear contract with the franchise.

50-50 -- Claude Makelele won the World Cup with France in 1998 and has long been regarded as one of the sport’s premier defensive midfielders. But the Paris St. Germain player told L’Equipe magazine that he is contemplating retiring at the end of this season. ‘My chances of staying or quitting are 50-50,’ the 35-year-old athlete said.

55 -- Minutes on-loan Galaxy forward Landon Donovan was on the field for Bayern Munich in a 2-1 loss to league leader Hertha Berlin that saw Coach Juergen Klinsmann’s defending Bundesliga champions drop to fourth place.

110 -- Italian champion Inter Milan’s 2-1 victory over AC Milan means that Inter Coach Jose Mourinho extended his streak of not having lost a home match to 110 games. The streak covers seven years and three countries and includes Mourinho’s time coaching Chelsea in England and FC Porto in Portugal.

309 -- Goals scored for Real Madrid by Spanish striker Raul, who netted two over the weekend to overtake Alfredo di Stefano and become the 106-year-old club’s all-time leading goal scorer.

32,000 -- Average salary, in dollars, that will be earned by players in Women’s Professional Soccer, the seven-team league that launches its inaugural season on March 29 at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

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9.1 billion -- That, according to one Russian financial magazine, is how much poorer Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is than he was prior to the global economic downturn that has sliced his estimated wealth from $23 billion to $13.9 billion.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Photo (top): Romania’s Dorin Goian, right, chases Croatia’s Eduardo da Silva during a friendly match in Bucharest on Feb. 11. Credit: Robert Ghement / EPA

Photo (inset): Landon Donovan. Credit: Paul Vernon / Associated Press

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