Missing Out (Post 2010 Update)

What follows is a list of the men who have played the most games in the MLS regular season without playing in an MLS Cup, updated through the 2010 season. With Jeff Cunningham relinquishing the top spot this past weekend, Jason Kreis returns to the top of the list. Pablo Mastroeni also played in the MLS Cup and is out of the top five. #1 ranking history: Start End Mark Chung ??? 2006-07-04 Jason Kreis 2006-07-04 2009-08-01 Jeff Cunningham 2009-08-01 2010-11-21 Jason Kreis 2010-11-21 ??? Most Regular Season Games Played Without Playing in an MLS Cup (includes games through 2010 season) Games 2009 2008 1 Kreis, Jason 305 2 1 2 Chung, Mark 284 3 3 3 Kotschau, Ritchie 244 5 4 4 Clark, Mike 221 6 6 5 McBride, Brian 220 10 15 6 Rhine, Bobby 212 7 7 7 Pause, Logan 198 15 N/A 8 Brown, Chris 197 8 8 8 Denton, Eric 197 8 12 10 Pareja, Oscar 189 11 10 11 Clark, Ricardo 181 12 22 12 Valderrama, Carlos 175 13 13 13 McKinley, Ivan 174 14 14 14 Maisonneuve, Brian 172 15 15 15 Dunseth, Brian 171 17 17 16 Washington, Dante 170 18 18 17 Burns, Mike 169 19 19 18 Thomas, Shavar 167 N/A N/A 19 Alvarez, Arturo 166 N/A N/A 20 Busch, Jon 165 N/A N/A 21 Boswell, Bobby 164 N/A N/A 22 Lewis, Eddie 163 N/A N/A 23 Chronopoulos, Ted 162 20 20 24 Warzycha, Robert 160 21 21 25 Quaranta, Santino 159 N/A N/A Active MLS players in bold. Next to the number of games played is the rank on this list after previous seasons. An "N/A" means that player wasn't in the top 25 for that year. In addition to the two that fell off, we have six newcomers to the top 25. Quaranta was a part of the 2004 DC United championship team, but did not play in the final. Thomas could've also played for KC in that game, but didn't. Lewis has also sat the bench for the final. Falling off the list are last year's 22-25: Richard Farrer, Ted Eck, Jorge Rodriguez, and Mark Santel. All Dallas Burn players. It looks like Pause is the only hope for a new number one, but even if he plays every game, he's still not going to do it until 2014 at the earliest. It seems that Kreis will reign once again for quite some top into the future. Who else could make the top 25 in the coming years? Active MLS players Outside the Top 25 Parke, Jeff 152 Barrett, Chad 147 Convey, Bobby 143 Oughton, Duncan 136 Ballouchy, Mehdi 129 Hernandez, Jason 124 Sealy, Scott 117 Oduro, Dominic 116 Peterson, Jacob 116 Saragosa, Marcelo 116 Harrington, Michael 115 Kamara, Kei 115 Segares, Gonzalo 114 Gordon, Alan 108 Sala, Dario 100

Cunningham, Mastroeni: Missing Out No Longer

Currently, Jeff Cunningham is the all-time record holder for most MLS regular season games played without playing in an MLS Cup (top 25 after 2009 here). He passed Jason Kreis to claim that record on August 1, 2009. It looks like he'll give the record back to Kreis in a few days. However, despite finally being part of an MLS Cup team, he still could miss his chance to play depending on how Schellas Hyndman pulls the strings. He wasn't in the lineup in the magnificent 3-0 win over the Galaxy. Wouldn't it be cruel for him to not get off the bench? Meanwhile, Pablo Mastroeni has now moved up to third, passing former Rapids teammate Mark Chung. There's quite a few former Burn and Rapids players in the top 25, as you can imagine. Mastro is a lock to be in the lineup on Sunday. Watching these two longtime MLS stalwarts getting their chance in the big game must be making Logan Pause sweat - with the retirement of Brian McBride, he'll be far and away the active leader if Cunningham/Mastroeni both play.

MLS Alltime Leading Goalscorer Timeline

Counting regular season matches only, here's the history of the record now jointly held by DC United's Jaime Moreno and FC Dallas' Jeff Cunningham. By the end of 1996, two men had begun a battle over the title that would last through 2000. Finally, on August 5th, 2000, Roy Lassiter overtook Raul Diaz Arce for sole possession of the goalscoring record. He would hold the title until mid-2004, when Jason Kreis surpassed him. In 2007, Jaime Moreno became the leader and now, Jeff Cunningham is at the doorstep. In all competitions, Moreno still has a double digit lead. Player Goal Date Team Opponent 1 Eric Wynalda 1 1996-04-06 San Jose H DC United Ivan McKinley 1 1996-04-13 Tampa Bay H New England Robert Ukrop 1 1996-04-13 New England A Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 1 1996-04-13 Tampa Bay H New England Brian McBride 1 1996-04-13 Columbus H DC United Pete Marino 1 1996-04-13 Columbus H DC United Steve Pittman 1 1996-04-13 Tampa Bay H New England 2 Robert Ukrop 2 1996-04-13 New England A Tampa Bay Brian McBride 2 1996-04-13 Columbus H DC United Vitalis Takawira 2 1996-04-13 Kansas City H Colorado John Kerr 2 1996-04-21 Dallas A Colorado Marcelo Balboa 2 1996-04-21 Colorado H Dallas Raul Diaz Arce 2 1996-04-27 DC United A New England Jason Kreis 2 1996-04-28 Dallas A Tampa Bay Washington Rodriguez 2 1996-04-28 Dallas A Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 2 1996-04-28 Tampa Bay H Dallas Mauricio Cienfuegos 2 1996-04-28 Los Angeles H San Jose 3 Raul Diaz Arce 3 1996-05-01 DC United H Dallas Washington Rodriguez 3 1996-05-01 Dallas A DC United Brian McBride 3 1996-05-02 Columbus A Kansas City Giovanni Savarese 3 1996-05-04 New York H Tampa Bay Diego Viera 3 1996-05-08 Tampa Bay H Kansas City Marcelo Balboa 3 1996-05-08 Colorado A San Jose Paul Bravo 3 1996-05-08 San Jose H Colorado 4 Brian McBride 4 1996-05-11 Columbus H New England Preki 4 1996-05-11 Kansas City H Dallas 5 Brian McBride 5 1996-05-11 Columbus H New England Steve Rammel 5 1996-05-15 DC United H Columbus Raul Diaz Arce 5 1996-05-15 DC United H Columbus 6 Brian McBride 6 1996-05-15 Columbus A DC United Giovanni Savarese 6 1996-05-16 New York H Colorado 7 Giovanni Savarese 7 1996-05-16 New York H Colorado Brian McBride 7 1996-05-19 Columbus H Colorado 8 Giovanni Savarese 8 1996-05-22 New York A Kansas City Brian McBride 8 1996-06-01 Columbus A San Jose Steve Rammel 8 1996-06-05 DC United H San Jose Preki 8 1996-06-08 Kansas City A Columbus 9 Preki 9 1996-06-15 Kansas City A New England Preki 10 1996-06-20 Kansas City H DC United Eduardo Hurtado 10 1996-06-26 Los Angeles H Colorado 10 Eduardo Hurtado 11 1996-06-26 Los Angeles H Colorado Roy Lassiter 11 1996-07-04 Tampa Bay H Columbus Preki 11 1996-07-06 Kansas City H Los Angeles Raul Diaz Arce 11 1996-07-07 DC United H Dallas 11 Raul Diaz Arce 12 1996-07-07 DC United H Dallas Raul Diaz Arce 13 1996-07-07 DC United H Dallas Raul Diaz Arce 14 1996-07-07 DC United H Dallas Preki 14 1996-07-31 Kansas City A DC United Roy Lassiter 14 1996-08-03 Tampa Bay H Colorado 12 Roy Lassiter 15 1996-08-03 Tampa Bay H Colorado Roy Lassiter 16 1996-08-03 Tampa Bay H Colorado Raul Diaz Arce 16 1996-08-07 DC United A Tampa Bay 13 Raul Diaz Arce 17 1996-08-07 DC United A Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 17 1996-08-07 Tampa Bay H DC United 14 Raul Diaz Arce 18 1996-08-10 DC United A Columbus Roy Lassiter 18 1996-08-10 Tampa Bay A Dallas 15 Roy Lassiter 19 1996-08-17 Tampa Bay H New York Roy Lassiter 20 1996-08-17 Tampa Bay H New York Roy Lassiter 21 1996-08-31 Tampa Bay H New England Roy Lassiter 22 1996-09-04 Tampa Bay A New York Roy Lassiter 23 1996-09-12 Tampa Bay A New England Roy Lassiter 24 1996-09-14 Tampa Bay H DC United Roy Lassiter 25 1996-09-18 Tampa Bay A San Jose Roy Lassiter 26 1996-09-21 Tampa Bay H New York Roy Lassiter 27 1996-09-21 Tampa Bay H New York Roy Lassiter 28 1997-04-06 Tampa Bay H New England Raul Diaz Arce 28 1997-04-19 DC United A MetroStars 16 Raul Diaz Arce 29 1997-04-26 DC United H San Jose Raul Diaz Arce 30 1997-05-10 DC United H Dallas Raul Diaz Arce 31 1997-05-22 DC United H San Jose Raul Diaz Arce 32 1997-06-21 DC United A Kansas City Raul Diaz Arce 33 1997-07-04 DC United A Dallas Roy Lassiter 33 1997-07-18 Tampa Bay A New England 17 Raul Diaz Arce 34 1997-07-19 DC United A Kansas City Roy Lassiter 34 1997-07-20 Tampa Bay H San Jose 18 Raul Diaz Arce 35 1997-07-30 DC United H Columbus Raul Diaz Arce 36 1997-07-30 DC United H Columbus Raul Diaz Arce 37 1997-08-02 DC United H Colorado Raul Diaz Arce 38 1997-08-27 DC United H New England Raul Diaz Arce 39 1998-04-04 New England A Miami Raul Diaz Arce 40 1998-04-11 New England A Columbus Raul Diaz Arce 41 1998-04-25 New England H Miami Raul Diaz Arce 42 1998-05-10 New England H Tampa Bay Raul Diaz Arce 43 1998-05-10 New England H Tampa Bay Raul Diaz Arce 44 1998-05-16 New England H Kansas City Raul Diaz Arce 45 1998-05-31 New England H Metrostars Roy Lassiter 45 1998-06-07 DC United H Dallas 19 Roy Lassiter 46 1998-06-13 DC United A Columbus Raul Diaz Arce 46 1998-06-14 New England H Chicago 20 Raul Diaz Arce 47 1998-06-24 New England A Metrostars Raul Diaz Arce 48 1998-06-24 New England A Metrostars Raul Diaz Arce 49 1998-06-27 New England H Dallas Raul Diaz Arce 50 1998-07-04 New England A Tampa Bay Raul Diaz Arce 51 1998-07-04 New England A Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 51 1998-07-18 DC United H Chicago 21 Roy Lassiter 52 1998-07-18 DC United H Chicago Raul Diaz Arce 52 1998-07-29 New England H Colorado 22 Raul Diaz Arce 53 1998-08-05 New England H San Jose Roy Lassiter 53 1998-08-07 DC United A Dallas 23 Raul Diaz Arce 54 1998-08-08 New England A Columbus Raul Diaz Arce 55 1998-08-22 New England H Los Angeles Raul Diaz Arce 56 1998-08-30 New England A Miami Roy Lassiter 56 1999-03-20 DC United A Tampa Bay 24 Roy Lassiter 57 1999-03-20 DC United A Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 58 1999-04-03 DC United A MetroStars Roy Lassiter 59 1999-04-10 DC United A New England Roy Lassiter 60 1999-04-24 DC United H New England Roy Lassiter 61 1999-05-01 DC United A Chicago Roy Lassiter 62 1999-05-08 DC United H MetroStars Roy Lassiter 63 1999-05-15 DC United A Kansas City Roy Lassiter 64 1999-05-22 DC United A Miami Roy Lassiter 65 1999-05-22 DC United A Miami Roy Lassiter 66 1999-05-29 DC United H Chicago Roy Lassiter 67 1999-06-10 DC United H Miami Roy Lassiter 68 1999-06-26 DC United H Kansas City Roy Lassiter 69 1999-06-26 DC United H Kansas City Roy Lassiter 70 1999-07-25 DC United A New England Roy Lassiter 71 1999-08-21 DC United A Miami Roy Lassiter 72 1999-09-10 DC United A Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 73 1999-10-06 DC United H Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 74 2000-03-26 Miami H Metrostars Roy Lassiter 75 2000-05-13 Miami A Colorado Roy Lassiter 76 2000-05-20 Miami H Colorado Raul Diaz Arce 76 2000-07-12 DC United H Tampa Bay 25 Roy Lassiter 77 2000-07-22 Miami A Metrostars Raul Diaz Arce 77 2000-08-02 DC United H MetroStars 26 Roy Lassiter 78 2000-08-05 Miami H DC United Roy Lassiter 79 2000-08-12 Miami H Colorado Roy Lassiter 80 2000-08-18 Miami A Kansas City Roy Lassiter 81 2000-08-26 Miami A DC United Roy Lassiter 82 2001-04-07 Kansas City A DC United Roy Lassiter 83 2001-06-02 Kansas City A Tampa Bay Roy Lassiter 84 2001-07-14 Kansas City H Dallas Roy Lassiter 85 2001-07-14 Kansas City H Dallas Roy Lassiter 86 2001-08-12 Kansas City A Colorado Roy Lassiter 87 2001-08-19 Kansas City H Colorado Roy Lassiter 88 2001-09-08 Kansas City H San Jose Jason Kreis 88 2004-06-19 Dallas A Colorado 27 Jason Kreis 89 2004-06-26 Dallas H DC United Jason Kreis 90 2004-07-03 Dallas A Kansas City Jason Kreis 91 2004-07-28 Dallas A Columbus Jason Kreis 92 2005-04-09 Real Salt Lake A Los Angeles Jason Kreis 93 2005-04-30 Real Salt Lake H San Jose Jason Kreis 94 2005-04-30 Real Salt Lake H San Jose Jason Kreis 95 2005-05-14 Real Salt Lake H Los Angeles Jason Kreis 96 2005-06-26 Real Salt Lake A Chicago Jason Kreis 97 2005-07-04 Real Salt Lake H Metrostars Jason Kreis 98 2005-08-06 Real Salt Lake H Chivas USA Jason Kreis 99 2005-08-10 Real Salt Lake A New England Jason Kreis 100 2005-08-13 Real Salt Lake H Kansas City Jason Kreis 101 2006-04-15 Real Salt Lake H New York Jason Kreis 102 2006-04-29 Real Salt Lake H Los Angeles Jason Kreis 103 2006-05-27 Real Salt Lake H Colorado Jason Kreis 104 2006-06-17 Real Salt Lake A Houston Jason Kreis 105 2006-06-28 Real Salt Lake A Chicago Jason Kreis 106 2006-07-14 Real Salt Lake A New England Jason Kreis 107 2006-09-16 Real Salt Lake H Dallas Jason Kreis 108 2006-09-30 Real Salt Lake A Kansas City Jaime Moreno 108 2007-05-19 DC United A Toronto 28 Jaime Moreno 109 2007-08-22 DC United H New York Jaime Moreno 110 2007-09-09 DC United H New England Jaime Moreno 111 2007-09-23 DC United A Chicago Jaime Moreno 112 2007-09-29 DC United H Toronto Jaime Moreno 113 2008-04-05 DC United H Toronto Jaime Moreno 114 2008-04-26 DC United H Real Salt Lake Jaime Moreno 115 2008-04-26 DC United H Real Salt Lake Jaime Moreno 116 2008-05-24 DC United H Toronto Jaime Moreno 117 2008-06-07 DC United A Chicago Jaime Moreno 118 2008-06-29 DC United H Los Angeles Jaime Moreno 119 2008-08-02 DC United H Kansas City Jaime Moreno 120 2008-08-10 DC United A New York Jaime Moreno 121 2008-08-20 DC United A New England Jaime Moreno 122 2008-09-13 DC United H Dallas Jaime Moreno 123 2009-05-02 DC United H Dallas Jaime Moreno 124 2009-05-02 DC United H Dallas Jaime Moreno 125 2009-05-09 DC United H Toronto Jaime Moreno 126 2009-06-04 DC United H New York Jaime Moreno 127 2009-06-13 DC United H Chicago Jaime Moreno 128 2009-07-18 DC United H Colorado Jaime Moreno 129 2009-09-05 DC United A Dallas Jaime Moreno 130 2009-09-27 DC United H San Jose Jaime Moreno 131 2009-10-24 DC United A Kansas City Jaime Moreno 132 2010-04-10 DC United A Philadelphia Jeff Cunningham 132 2010-10-02 Dallas H Chicago There's a chance some of the early stuff might be incorrect, as I assumed that games on the east coast started an hour earlier than games in central time (which is usually the case). Also, Preki's 4th goal which tied McBride would have come almost at the exact same time as McBride's 5th, so it's hard to tell if it tied the record without actually seeing the broadcasts.

Missing Out (Post 2009 Update)

What follows is a list of the men who have played the most games in the MLS regular season without playing in an MLS Cup, updated through the 2009 season. Most Regular Season Games Played Without Playing in an MLS Cup (includes games through 2009 season) Games Prev Rank 1 Cunningham, Jeff 317 2 2 Kreis, Jason 305 1 3 Chung, Mark 284 3 4 Mastroeni, Pablo 257 5 5 Kotschau, Ritchie 244 4 6 Clark, Mike 221 6 7 Rhine, Bobby 212 7 8 Brown, Chris 197 8 8 Denton, Eric 197 12 10 McBride, Brian 194 15 11 Pareja, Oscar 189 10 12 Clark, Ricardo 181 22 13 Valderrama, Carlos 175 13 14 McKinley, Ivan 174 14 15 Maisonneuve, Brian 172 15 15 Pause, Logan 172 N/A 17 Dunseth, Brian 171 17 18 Washington, Dante 170 18 19 Burns, Mike 169 19 20 Chronopoulos, Ted 162 20 21 Warzycha, Robert 160 21 22 Farrer, Richard 158 23 23 Eck, Ted 156 24 24 Rodriguez, Jorge 155 25 25 Santel, Mark 154 N/A Active MLS players in bold. Prev rank refers to their ranking after the 2008 season. Jeff Cunningham passed Jason Kreis for the top spot on August 1, 2009. That was also the game where he scored four goals (a "beaver trick") against Kansas City in a 6-0 win. Previously, Kreis held the record from July 4, 2006 until August 1, 2009. Before that, it was held by Mark Chung. Cunningham is in the same company as fellow athletes Gary Anderson (NFL), Dale Ellis (NBA), Mike Gartner (NHL), and Rafael Palmeiro (MLB), who all currently hold the distinction in their respective leagues. If there's going to be a challenge to Cunningham any time in the near future, it will have to come from Pablo Mastroeni. He's still two full seasons behind, though. Other big news: two MLS veterans saw their first MLS Cup action on Sunday and fall off the list: Kyle Beckerman and Edson Buddle. They were 9th and 12th in last year's ranking, and would've been 7th and 9th this year. Logan Pause makes his debut in 15th place. Meanwhile, because of the two dropoffs, the retired Mark Santel comes back into the top 25. Who else could make the top 25 in the coming years? Active MLS players Outside the Top 25 Guevara, Amado 153 Lewis, Eddie 150 Thomas, Shavar 150 Alvarez, Arturo 147 Busch, Jon 147 Boswell, Bobby 138 Oughton, Duncan 133 Simms, Clyde 133 Quaranta, Santino 132 Moor, Drew 131 Barrett, Chad 124 Rolfe, Chris 123 Stammler, Seth 121 Convey, Bobby 115 Segares, Gonzalo 108 Kljestan, Sacha 104 Ballouchy, Mehdi 102 Bornstein, Jonathan 102 Saragosa, Marcelo 102

MLS Week 32 Notes

This is my favorite time of the year to blog. Not because it's playoff time, but rather because the regular season is over and I can get into the business of comparing this year's teams historically. I'll have plenty of material in the coming weeks, so check back often. However, there's still two more games to play today. Let's discuss some things that happened this weekend first. 1) New England must get a result (win or draw) today in Columbus to return to the MLS playoffs. But that's not all - the Revolution streak of seven straight years in the playoffs is at stake. That's not just tops in Major League Soccer, but tied for 6th among the top five sports leagues in the US. Click on the link for a full list (which has yet to be updated with the latest MLB season, but that doesn't affect the Revs' position). Only the Red Wings, Spurs, Devils, Mavericks, and Pistons have longer streaks. It would also be Steve Nicol's first season without making it (not counting his interim coaching stint in 1999). 2) Team MVP winners are starting to be announced. They're usually given out at the team's last home game, though not every team does that. Already, I've seen articles naming Jeff Cunningham, Shalrie Joseph, Josh Wolff, and Nat Borchers (interesting) as winners. Check out the full list of previous winners (1996-2008) here, which I'll be sure to update once all 2009 winners are known. 3) All of the interconference games are done, and for the first time in five seasons, the west has finished on top. The final record was 45-37-30, with the Los Angeles Galaxy dominating to the tune of 8-1-5 vs eastern opponents. That does mean that LA was under .500 against its own conference, interestingly. In the 14 MLS seasons, the east has been the top conference/division 7 times (96-97, 03, 05-08) and the west has been on top 6 times (98-99, 01-02, 04, 09). The extinct central division was first in 2000, with the west finishing second. So I guess you could say that both east and west have been better than the other an equal 7 times. 4) Barring something crazy, Jeff Cunningham is the 2009 MLS Golden Boot winner with 17 goals. At the age of 32.86 (on July 1st), he's the oldest winner (see Golden Boot Ages). Previously, Alex Pineda Chacon was the oldest at 31.53 years of age. Let's hope Cunningham doesn't fall off the way he did. 5) Questionable coaching decisions last night? In all the all-important final match, Gary Smith started Preston Burpo over Matt Pickens in goal for the Rapids. I know their fans weren't happy about that, and it looks like their fears were justified with the way the match turned out. You have to question him leaving his line on the second goal and also the angle on the third (Yura's). Speaking of which, Movsisyan is always great on breakaways and one-on-ones. Possibly the best in the league in those situations. It was surprising to see Schellas Hyndman wait until the 81st minute to insert Marvin Chavez into the match for Dallas. He waited 20 minutes after the equalizer to make an offensive substitution in a situation where their season depended on another goal. Tom Soehn didn't start Jaime Moreno, among other "really interesting roster moves". I only watched the last 15 minutes, but he looked like the biggest threat on the field for United. Of course, they were so close to a game winner and a playoff berth in stoppage time, and then Soehn would've been something of a genius. DC's failure to make the playoffs may not look like a huge collapse based on the weekly standings, but it was. They had five straight league games at home before last night and only went 2-3-0.

Jeff Cunningham's Quest for the MLS Golden Boot

Jeff Cunningham scored two more goals for Dallas to tie Colorado's Conor Casey for the league lead with 15. Actually, he now leads in the race for the golden boot due to the first tiebreaker, assists. He has 7 to Casey's 1, so he'll win any tie between the two men. Not only that, he has an extra game remaining and FCD has been assaulting the nets recently. He has to be the favorite to take home the award. It's amazing how he's come on so strong in the second half of the season. I know he wasn't starting full time, and he was even playing on the wing for a little while. But still, I don't think anyone expected this type of production. That brings us to the next point: Would Cunningham be the worst Golden Boot winner ever? It's hard not to immediately jump to that conclusion. Now, several players have won the award for middling teams (like Jeff Cunningham, 2006). However, I don't recall seeing any of them finish with such a flurry of goals for a team so clearly out of contention. At the halfway point of the season, Dallas was 3-7-5 (14 points) and their season was already over. Cunningham had scored only once. He'd fire in a brace in the 16th game, the 2-1 home victory over New York, and since then he's been on fire. Obviously he plays better without Kenny Cooper (the team was only 3-8-8 when both started over this year and last). So how exactly does Cunningham's stellar second half compare to previous boot winners? 1st 2nd total 1st 2nd 1996 TB Lassiter, Roy 11 16 27 41% 59% 1997 DC Moreno, Jaime 10 6 16 63% 38% 1998 CLB John, Stern 9 17 26 35% 65% 1999 DAL Kreis, Jason 11 7 18 61% 39% 2000 TB Diallo, Mamadou 13 13 26 50% 50% 2001 MIA Pineda Chacon, Alex 8 11 19 42% 58% 2002 LA Ruiz, Carlos 10 14 24 42% 58% 2003 LA Ruiz, Carlos 8 7 15 53% 47% 2004 SJ Ching, Brian 7 5 12 58% 42% 2005 NE Twellman, Taylor 6 11 17 35% 65% 2006 RSL Cunningham, Jeff 7 9 16 44% 56% 2007 DC Emilio, Luciano 10 10 20 50% 50% 2008 LA Donovan, Landon 11 9 20 55% 45% 2009 COL Casey, Conor 8 7 15 53% 47% 2009 DAL Cunningham, Jeff 1 14 15 7% 93% Jeff's current season certainly stands out. I'm a bit surprised at how even most of the previous seasons have been, actually. I also looked at all the 15 goal scorers in league history, and there really isn't a comparable situation to this one. A lot of that is because not every team is going to remain in playoff contention (thank god) as the league expands, whereas previous players didn't have the opportunities to score tons of less meaningful goals. So we can say that: 1) It's not normal for a golden boot winner to have one amazing half where they score the vast majority of their goals. 2) No player has scored this many goals for a team out of playoff contention. Let's talk more about the comparison between Casey and Cunningham. It doesn't take any research to know that Casey's goals have been more important than Cunningham's. Of course, I did it anyway. So let's see how many times each player has tied the game or given their team the lead when scoring: Casey Cunningham tie 5 0 lead 7 8 neither 3 7 Not only have Casey's goals been more important in the context of the entire season, but also in the games themselves. And the number of games scored in is similar: Casey 10, Cunningham 9 (so it's not like there was a disparity in that category). I'd also argue that Casey's goals have been a bit higher quality as well, although that can be subjective. Now, I don't mind if either player wins (even if Casey deserves it more). I don't hate Cunningham, I'm actually enjoying his scoring run. I just find it interesting, especially as he's seemingly become proficient at scoring lots of goals for mediocre teams.