Re: NASL 20 Goal Scorers The 35-yard line was instituted in 1974 or 1975, I think. Some would argue it was not the advantage you'd think it would be--as the fields NASL teams played on were much narrower than an MLS pitch, the extra 15 yards from midfield was kind of a wash. As far as 1924-25, it was probably the greatest season for a great league--the 1920s American Soccer League was a full-blown, major division one league. The ASL pirated away many Scottish internationals to go with a smattering of English pros, and had a number of top American and Canadian players. Read all about it. In sum, there were 12 teams, including the team that had the greatest single-season in American Soccer history: the 1924-25 Fall River Marksmen.
Re: NASL 20 Goal Scorers Well, good heavens. When you gave us Archie Stark's goals earlier in the thread, you never mentioned the 44 game season. ...still, 67 goals in 44 games is crazy. Or maybe I somehow overlooked that. If so, then nevermind.
Re: NASL 20 Goal Scorers interesting that the 63-point Fall River Marksmen actually had two fewer victories in that year than the 60-point Bethlehem Steel side (as twice as many loses -- 10 to 5 -- and seven fewer draws by Bethlehem is what gave Fall River the most points). in that 1924-25 ASL season, there were eight 20-goal scorers, and admittedly the season was longer (more games were played), but still six of the eight looked to have gotten (assuming consistent strike-rates during the season) to 20 goals by the 30-game (MLS current) point in that season: Leading Scorers............................GP/G Archie Stark (Bethlehem Steel).........44/67 Andy Stevens (Boston/New Bedford)..32/33 Harold Brittan (Fall River)................34/32 David Brown (New York)..................34/26 Johnny Nelson (Brooklyn).................33/24 Herbert Carlson (Indiana Flooring)......40/24 Jerry Best (Providence)....................29/20 Andy Straden (Fleisher Yarn).............34/20
I was intrigued when I first read this thread, so I collected some goal scoring data from the MLS web site for ALL the players who have had seasons of at least 14 goals in MLS history. Counting Emilio, Angel, and Johnson who each has at least 14 goals this season, I think that there have been 51 14-goal seasons. Noting the bizarre fact that each 20-goal scorer achieved the feat in his first year, I wanted to see how far down the list this form would hold out. The 19-goal scorers, Chacon, Jones, and (thus far) Emilio almost fit the trend, as both Chacon and Emilio were (are) first-year players. Jones was in his third year. After this, counting only 18-goal scorers that have not already appeared on the list, we add Preki (1st year), Kreis (4th year), and Razov (5th year). It goes downhill from here. Interestingly, while the '96, '98, and '07 years are expansion years, 2000 was not, and 2002 was a CONTRACTION year. Also noteworthy is the fact that the '96, '98, and 2000 seasons were 32 games, the 2002 season was 28, and 2007 is 30 games, and the relative abundance of goals scored in the league in each of these years is: Year Teams g/gm Rank 1996 10 3.37 2 1997 10 3.26 4 1998 12 3.57 1 1999 12 2.86 9 2000 12 3.19 5 2001 12 3.28 3 2002 10 3.01 6 2003 10 2.89 7 2004 10 2.61 12 2005 12 2.87 8 2006 12 2.64 11 2007 13 2.65 10 Notice that 1996 was the second most prolific goal-scoring year, while '98 is first. 2000 is fifth and 2002 is sixth, or about average. 2007 is (thus far) tenth, but is essentially equal to 2004 and 2006, which are the two lowest scoring seasons on record. One final observation is this: 12 men have achieved multiple seasons of 14 goals or more. They are (in alphabetical order, by first name) Ante Razov, Ariel Graziani, Carlos Ruiz, Diego Serna, Giovanni Savarese, Jaime Moreno, Jeff Cunningham, John Spencer, Raul Diaz Arce, Roy Lassiter, Stern John, and Taylor Twellman. With the exception of Ante Razov, who scored 18 goals in 2000, a year after scoring 14 for the first time in 1999, no one else on this list ever exceeded his first 14-goals-plus season's output in a subsequent season. Put another way: only one player in 12 who has had a season of at least 14 goals has gone on to surpass that season's output. Razov actually went on to duplicate his 14-goal output three more times after his 18-goal season, and Jaime Moreno duplicated his first-year total of 16 goals twice. (I know that Moreno started in '96, not '97, but I count '97 as his "first" year since he arrived in MLS around mid-year of 1996.) All this seems to support the conjecture that it is harder to repeat as a "top tier" scorer after you've been identified as such by opposing teams. I think... T
Re: NASL 20 Goal Scorers If you think it will add to the discussion, I'll give you the goals by 30 games numbers. Let me know.
Re: NASL 20 Goal Scorers Don't joke. This was the prime issue in the "Soccer War" of 4 years later (majority of ASL clubs v. USSF/FIFA/handful of ASL clubs), which basically destroyed the ASL, and major league professional soccer, for years to come. God forbid that should happen again.