...should happen very soon (regular season only). Going into this season the number was 4,672. This year 250 goals have been scored already, for a total of 4,922, only 88 away. Going by this seasons' goals per game average (2.78), goal number 5,000 should be scored on August 6.
Milestone Goals 1-Eric Wynalda, SJ vs DC (4/6/96) 500-Ben Iroha, SJ vs DAL (9/11/96) 1,000-Thomas Dooley, CLB vs KC (9/14/97) 2,000-Alex Bunbury, KC at TB (7/3/99) 3,000-Marcelo Balboa, COL at CLB (4/22/00) 4,000-Mark Chung, COL vs LA (6/25/02) 5,000-??? Because I did this myself, I can't be 100% positive about this. On the 3,000 goal, going into 4/22 the total was sitting on 2,993. Three games started at the same time, and judging by the minutes of the goals, Balboa gets it. He scored in the 55th minute of that game, while Dema Kovalenko scored in the 59th minute of NE-CHI. Of course, I have no idea if maybe there was a delay, or a lot of first half stoppage time in one game, etc. There's a similar situation with the 1,000th goal. But I'm pretty confident of this list. Also, I've started a blog where I post stupid stuff like this: http://usasoccer.blogspot.com/
I think that Balboa goal (3000) was the bicycle kick because that happened in 2000 at Columbus. That was a hell of a goal. Often regarded as the greatest goal in MLS history (I imagine it will be towards the top of that 25 moments thing ESPN2 is doing on Soccer Saturday for those who haven't seen the goal) I remember Bunbury's goal vs Tampa Bay as well, that was a nice one too.
Yes, that was a pretty good coincidence. No way the 5,000th will be that great. Here's the link to it.
that's kind of telling. look at how much time has passed since the last milestone! that's over 3 years. The others were close to a year/year and a half apart. does that mean the defenses have gotten better, or offenses have gotten worse?
There was a season, I want to say it was '01 ... there were 3.28 goals per game in the league. It went down to 2.61 recently, and has hovered around 2.65 to 2.70 this year after starting out near 3.
There's been fewer games due to contraction. We lost about 30 games a year because of it. And yes, it is 78, not 88 sorry. However, it still should happen on August 6.
but the league only had 12 teams for 2 years did it not? then it went back down to 10. or was it 12 for longer? i only became an MLS fan at the start of the 2003 season (got into soccer in 2002 while living in sweden and watching the world cup. before that i was unaware that we even had a league here in the US)
i just hope the 5000th goal won't be scored on a PK...i sorta have a feeling it could be with the amount of PKs we have seen this season
10 teams from 1996-1997, 2002-2004 12 teams from 1998-2001, 2005 Games per season 1996-160 1997-160 1998-192 1999-192 2000-192 2001-158 2002-140 2003-150 2004-150 2005-192