I never really talk about assists on this blog, and my detailed reasons for that can be found here. Basically, it's due to the differences in MLS history on what constitutes an assist, which resulted in some ridiculous numbers in the league's early years. I also have a problem with two assists (primary and secondary, as they're known) being given out, because I believe only a direct pass should be considered an assist (MLS is getting better at that, thankfully). Primary assists are also the only fair way to compare assist numbers over the years.
So that's why I don't mention them much, because I only care about primary assists. Unfortunately, MLS doesn't publish that stat any more. They used to have a list of the leaders for both primary and secondary on MLSnet, but not in recent years. Luckily for you though, I've gone through and figured out which assists were which, and the numbers are below.
Overall Table & Percentages
| Goals | Assists | Primary | Secondary | | CHI | 31 | 24 | 17 | 7 | | CHV | 46 | 51 | 34 | 17 | | CLB | 39 | 46 | 32 | 14 | | COL | 29 | 22 | 14 | 8 | | DAL | 37 | 32 | 26 | 6 | | DC | 56 | 52 | 35 | 17 | | HOU | 43 | 42 | 34 | 8 | | KC | 45 | 46 | 32 | 14 | | LA | 38 | 33 | 23 | 10 | | NE | 51 | 44 | 31 | 13 | | NY | 47 | 40 | 27 | 13 | | RSL | 31 | 20 | 16 | 4 | | TOR | 25 | 25 | 19 | 6 |
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| | Total | 518 | 477 | 340 | 137 |
Somebody mentioned before the possibility of the official scorers having an impact like in baseball, and affecting the number of assists given out at certain stadiums. Don't have the data on that, but it would be something neat to look into in the future (although far down on my list of stuff I want to research).
| Prm-Pct | Prm/G | Sec/G | | CHI | 70.8% | 0.55 | 0.23 | | CHV | 66.7% | 0.74 | 0.37 | | CLB | 69.6% | 0.82 | 0.36 | | COL | 63.6% | 0.48 | 0.28 | | DAL | 81.3% | 0.70 | 0.16 | | DC | 67.3% | 0.63 | 0.30 | | HOU | 81.0% | 0.79 | 0.19 | | KC | 69.6% | 0.71 | 0.31 | | LA | 69.7% | 0.61 | 0.26 | | NE | 70.5% | 0.61 | 0.25 | | NY | 67.5% | 0.57 | 0.28 | | RSL | 80.0% | 0.52 | 0.13 | | TOR | 76.0% | 0.76 | 0.24 |
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| | Total | 71.3% | 0.66 | 0.26 |
The first stat is the percentage of assists that were primary, followed by the number of primary and secondary assists per goal. The total average of 0.92 assists per goal I believe is the lowest number in league history.
Primary Assist League Leaders
This is the meat of this post, right? How are things affected for the league's top assist men? If you look at the MLSnet leaderboard, it shows Ralston in first followed by Donovan and Kljestan, who have one fewer. As you can see below, when you look at primary only Ralston is still in first, but he's joined at the top by Schelotto who jumps up from fourth. Kljestan looks the worst among the leaders, as 5/13 of his assists were secondary. He lead the league in the category, followed by Olsen with 4.
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| Primary | Secondary | Total | | 1 | NE | Steve Ralston | 11 | 3 | 14 | | 1 | CLB | Guillermo Barros Schelotto | 11 | 0 | 11 | | 3 | LA | Landon Donovan | 10 | 3 | 13 | | 4 | CHV | Sacha Kljestan | 8 | 5 | 13 | | 5 | DC | Christian Gomez | 7 | 2 | 9 | | 5 | DC | Fred | 7 | 1 | 8 | | 5 | NY | Dave van den Bergh | 7 | 1 | 8 | | 8 | KC | Davy Arnaud | 6 | 3 | 9 | | 8 | CHV | Ante Razov | 6 | 2 | 8 | | 8 | CHI | Cuauhtemoc Blanco | 6 | 1 | 7 | | 8 | COL | Terry Cooke | 6 | 1 | 7 | | 8 | DAL | Dax McCarty | 6 | 1 | 7 | | 8 | KC | Sasha Victorine | 6 | 1 | 7 |
Leaguewide Breakdown of Every Player, by Team
Beckerman, Klein, Ngwenya, and Nunez had assists for multiple teams. Beckerman and Reyna were interesting because they had the most assists of any players who only had secondary. They each had 3, no primary.
CD Chivas USA
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Sacha Kljestan | 8 | 5 | 13 | | Ante Razov | 6 | 2 | 8 | | Maykel Galindo | 4 | 1 | 5 | | Francisco Mendoza | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Jesse Marsch | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Alex Zoctinca | 3 | 0 | 3 | | Lawson Vaughn | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Paulo Nagamura | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Laurent Merlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | | John Cunliffe | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Orlando Perez | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Ramon Nunez | 0 | 3 | 3 | | Claudio Suarez | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Jonathan Bornstein | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Rodrigo Lopez | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Chicago Fire
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Cuauhtemoc Blanco | 6 | 1 | 7 | | Calen Carr | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Chad Barrett | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Chris Rolfe | 1 | 2 | 3 | | Chris Armas | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Ivan Guerrero | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Gonzalo Segares | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Justin Mapp | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Willian Oliveira | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Wilman Conde | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Diego Gutierrez | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Thiago | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Colorado Rapids
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Terry Cooke | 6 | 1 | 7 | | Conor Casey | 3 | 0 | 3 | | Colin Clark | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Heculez Gomez | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Mehdi Ballouchy | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Jovan Kirovski | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Nicolas Hernandez | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Kyle Beckerman | 0 | 2 | 2 | | Bouna Coundoul | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Pablo Mastroeni | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Columbus Crew
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Guillermo Barros Schelotto | 11 | 0 | 11 | | Eddie Gaven | 5 | 2 | 7 | | Alejandro Moreno | 4 | 3 | 7 | | Duncan Oughton | 2 | 2 | 4 | | Frankie Hejduk | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Ned Grabavoy | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Andy Herron | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Stefani Miglioranzi | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Marcos Gonzalez | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Ricardo Virtuoso | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Brad Evans | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Danny O'Rourke | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Joseph Ngwenya | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Robbie Rogers | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Rusty Pierce | 0 | 1 | 1 |
DC United
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Christian Gomez | 7 | 2 | 9 | | Fred | 7 | 1 | 8 | | Jaime Moreno | 5 | 1 | 6 | | Ben Olsen | 3 | 4 | 7 | | Brian Carroll | 2 | 2 | 4 | | Clyde Simms | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Marc Burch | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Guy-Roland Kpene | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Nicholas Addlery | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Facundo Erpen | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Josh Gros | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Kasali-Yinka Casal | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Bobby Boswell | 0 | 2 | 2 | | Luciano Emilio | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Troy Perkins | 0 | 1 | 1 |
FC Dallas
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Dax McCarty | 6 | 1 | 7 | | Abe Thompson | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Arturo Alvaerz | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Pablo Ricchetti | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Carlos Ruiz | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Dominic Oduro | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Kenny Cooper | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Marcelo Saragosa | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Ramon Nunez | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Chris Gbandi | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Clarence Goodson | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Ricardinho | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Juan Toja | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Houston Dynamo
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Richard Mulrooney | 4 | 1 | 5 | | Stuart Holden | 4 | 1 | 5 | | Corey Ashe | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Brad Davis | 3 | 0 | 3 | | Joseph Ngwenya | 3 | 0 | 3 | | Dwayne De Rosario | 2 | 2 | 4 | | Brian Mullan | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Ricardo Clark | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Brian Ching | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Eddie Robinson | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Nate Jaqua | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Wade Barrett | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Craig Waibel | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Chris Wondolowski | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Kelly Gray | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Kansas City Wizards
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Davy Arnaud | 6 | 3 | 9 | | Sasha Victorine | 6 | 1 | 7 | | Eddie Johnson | 5 | 1 | 6 | | Carlos Marinelli | 3 | 2 | 5 | | Jose Burciaga | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Michael Harrington | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Jack Jewsbury | 3 | 0 | 3 | | Scott Sealy | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Eloy Colombano | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Nick Garcia | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Kerry Zavagnin | 0 | 2 | 2 | | Ryan Raybould | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Los Angeles Galaxy
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Landon Donovan | 10 | 3 | 13 | | Cobi Jones | 4 | 1 | 5 | | Pete Vagenas | 2 | 3 | 5 | | Chris Klein | 2 | 1 | 3 | | David Beckham | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Abel Xavier | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Kyle Martino | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Mike Randolph | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Josh Tudela | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Kyle Veris | 0 | 1 | 1 |
New England Revolution
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Steve Ralston | 11 | 3 | 14 | | Khano Smith | 4 | 2 | 6 | | Adam Cristman | 4 | 0 | 4 | | Shalrie Joseph | 3 | 2 | 5 | | Pat Noonan | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Taylor Twellman | 3 | 0 | 3 | | Jeff Larentowicz | 1 | 3 | 4 | | Andy Dorman | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Matt Reis | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Avery John | 0 | 1 | 1 |
New York Red Bulls
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Dave van den Bergh | 7 | 1 | 8 | | Dane Richards | 5 | 1 | 6 | | Josmer Altidore | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Juan Pablo Angel | 2 | 3 | 5 | | Clint Mathis | 2 | 0 | 2 | | John Wolyniec | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Dema Kovalenko | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Francis Doe | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Hunter Freeman | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Markus Schopp | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Sinisa Ubiparipovic | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Taylor Graham | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Claudio Reyna | 0 | 3 | 3 | | Seth Stammler | 0 | 2 | 2 | | Jeff Parke | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Jon Conway | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Real Salt Lake
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Alecko Eskandarian | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Andy Williams | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Chris Wingert | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Fabian Espindola | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Freddy Adu | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Javier Morales | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Atiba Harris | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Carey Talley | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Chris Klein | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Jack Stewart | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Chris Lancos | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Kyle Beckerman | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Toronto FC
| Primary | Secondary | Total | | Carl Robinson | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Ronnie O'Brien | 3 | 1 | 4 | | Marvell Wynne | 3 | 0 | 3 | | Chris Pozniak | 2 | 1 | 3 | | Edson Buddle | 2 | 0 | 2 | | Andy Welsh | 1 | 2 | 3 | | Andrew Lombardo | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Danny Dichio | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Jeff Cunningham | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Kevin Goldthwaite | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Maurice Edu | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Andrew Boyens | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
