Wondolowski makes statistical MLS history?

My search hasn't been totally exhaustive, but I've hit most of the high scorers, and I believe that when Chris Wondolowski scored his 16th goal this year, he became the first player in league history to score at least 16 three seasons in a row. The only 3x15 I could find was Raul Diaz Arce in the first three seasons of the league.

Here's a partial table of total goals scored through three seasons:
RDA (1996-1998)-56
Roy Lassiter (1996-1998)-55
Wondolowski (2010-current)-51
Carlos Ruiz (2002-2004)-50
Taylor Twellman (2002-2004)-47
Mamadou Diallo (2000-2002)-47
Juan Pablo Angel (2007-2009)-45
Stern John (1998-1999)-44 (only two seasons played)
Twellman (2005-2007)-44
Dwayne De Rosario (2009-2011)-42
Jaime Moreno (1996-1998)-42

So I've been trolling around, and I think he's the first guy to get to his number since the opening years of the league.

Also, it's looking like he has a shot to get to 20 for this season. If he did that, he'd be, AFAIK, the only player other than Landon Donovan (2008) to do it while not in his first season in the league (lots of guys have come in, taken the league by storm, and then slowed down to one extent or another). If he got to 21, which is not looking like a bad bet, he'd be the first 'league veteran' ever to get there.

Moreno went 16 16 10 early in his career.

I just ran through a ton of the top scorers historically and I think your stat is correct.

Wow. That's good stuff. Thanks for the research!

Added.

Also, speaking of Moreno, Landon Donovan had his 100th league assist last night, making him the second member of the 100/100 club (122/100) after Moreno (133/102).

I double checked and was unable to find anything to disprove your stat. Thanks for this.

Edit: looks like MLSFan123 beat me to the punch. It's what I get for not reading the entire thread.

He scored those 17 goals in only 18 games played.

Wondo is also on pace to become SJ's all-time goal scorer in league games before the season is over. Wondo has 54, Ronald Cerritos is #1 with 61.

Not taking anything away from Dom Kinnear as a coach, but I'm willing to bet he wishes he could take the Wondo for Cam Weaver trade back. From recent memory or at least in the last 20 years, the last great US born Bay Area MLS goal scorer that comes close to Wondo was Paul Bravo. When you think about the trades involving both players, everything seemed to work out great for both players but the teams that traded each guy probably are still mad about the outcome. Interestingly, one guy Dom Kinnear was involved with both transactions. Coach Laurie Calloway traded Paul Bravo to the Colorado Rapids for Dom Kinnear (the player) in 1997 who hardly ever ended up playing all that much for San Jose after being traded. Bravo went on to be a top scorer in the early year of the Rapids. Although Dom later became a successful coach, he in turn, traded Wondo for Weaver. Both Wondo and Bravo proved to be invaluable to their clubs.

Chris Wondolowski needs 11 goals in the last 14 games to break the record (Roy Lassiter 27 in 1996).

Yes, you're correct.....if a mod could change it, that would be great.

I merged into a single thread to track Wondo's accomplishments. As we get closer, I'll edit the top post to look at his single-season scoring against the record.

Right now, the way I remember it, it's this:
Lassiter-27
John, Diallo-26
Ruiz-24
Twellman-23

Based on the stats on the mlssoccer site, this is correct. The only addition is that Raul Diaz Arce also had a 23 goal season. After that, the next highest totals are Hurtado with 21 (1996), and then Donovan and Emilio with 20 each.

20+ single season goal scorers.
27 Roy Lassiter 1996
26 Stern John 1998
26 Mamadou Diallo 2000
24 Carlos Ruiz 2002
23 Raul Diaz Arce 1996
23 Taylor Twellman 2002
21 Eduardo Hurtado 1996
20 Luciano Emilio 2007
20 Landon Donovan 2008

Ante Razov (1998-2000)-42

How about a goals per number of games in a season? We've changed total games played quite a few times. I'm talking total games in a season, not games played by the player.

It would be ideal if he broke it at 12 though...don't want there to be an HBO movie called 28*.

Stern John's 44 is really impressive. Not as impressive as his name, but impressive nonetheless.

Not that it's all that relevant, but somebody needs to ask or note the "PK-contribution" to these goal-scoring numbers.

(And certainly not to take anything away from Wondo, but his 2012 and recent-season numbers will have to note the reality that MLS now plays a 34-game season, and that hasn't always been the case -- as noted by crew2112.)

Maybe but Wondo didn't do much for Houston when he played with the first team. He played in 37 games, starting 11 of those, in 3.5 seasons here. He only scored 4 goals total. Back then he was known as the "King of the Reserves" because he would light up the scoreboard in those games like he does now in SJ but on the first team he just didn't do much for us.

On the other hand, Cam Weaver hasn't done a lot but he has scored 10 goals.

As cool as all this is (and I do find it cool), it's this part above that I find really awesome. Probably shouldn't talk about it too much as the season's just past half over, but those numbers are the sorts of numbers that you see from an elite, international-level goalscorer. I've occasionally looked at goalscorer charts in other leagues, and those are the sort of numbers that the best goalscorers in the world get.

Granted, he's doing it in MLS and not the Premier League.

But I do wonder why it is that he hasn't seen more time for the US. Especially considering the struggles the national team has had at forward. And, yes, I see that he's had 8 appearances for the nats and hasn't scored yet.

With those numbers, you just have to be wondering how he would be doing in the Eredivisie or Ligue 1

In fairness, however, his minutes totaled to 917 in these 37 appearances. He scored four goals in those minutes. That's a goals/90 rate of .39. That isn't stellar but it's useful in a small sample size.

Wondo also played midfield quite a bit when he was subbed in by Kinnear late in games in Houston, as well as in San Jose in 2009 after he was first traded, so it's hard to really look at his scoring rate. The only year in Houston where he got any consistent time was early 2009 before he was traded. That year he played in 7 of the first 11 games (starting 3), playing 287 minutes. He scored 2 goals and had 1 assist, for a 0.63 g/90 rate (over an admittedly very small sample, but still....).

Maybe Kinnear did him a favor by sitting him so long so he could play in the Reserves and learn the game, but it's not like there weren't at least some signs that he would be a useful striker in the league based on his limited minutes and reasonable scoring with Houston (and his very high scoring rate in the Reserve league). I think Kinnear just was biased by his preference for very athletic forwards (either very tall or very fast) and never really saw what Wondo could bring.

I know it's a stretch, but these are the same reasons I'd really like to see Wondo get some consistent playing time with the USMNT. So far, his time has been very similar to what he got in Houstone - just small pieces of time here and there, nothing consistent. Maybe he would be able to translate his play to the International level just as he has in MLS if he is given 2 or 3 games with some consistent playing time. Regardless, even if he never does anything with the USMNT, it's been very enjoyable to see him perform in San Jose the past 3 years.