Records Are Fun Part 2: Let's Acknowledge Some Records Now That Carlos Vela Has Broken Them

If you’re reading this website, you probably already know Carlos Vela has been quite good at soccer over the last several months. You probably even know that he set some records. If you’re a truly astute observer and loyal reader, you’ll even know the numbers he passed to set some of those records. Now that the regular season is over, let’s take a look at those marks - old and new - and look ahead at playoff records that he (or Zlatan, or Josef Martinez, or really any number of players) might surpass in the coming weeks.

First, a recap of what regular-season records have already fallen. Vela finished a hat trick ahead of Josef’s historic season with 34 total goals, while Zlatan became only the third MLS player to ever put up 30. Josef became the first player to have multiple seasons of 27+ goals, the long-standing record prior to his breaking it last year.

Season	Player	Team	Total
2019	Carlos Vela	LAF	34
2018	Josef Martinez	ATL	31
2019	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	LAG	30
1996	Roy Lassiter	TB	27
2012	Chris Wondolowski	SJ	27
2019	Josef Martinez	ATL	27
2014	Bradley Wright-Phillips	NYR	27
1998	Stern John	CLB	26
2000	Mamadou Diallo	TB	26

If you’re not a fan of including penalties in your record book, first of all, congratulations on having the right opinion, Vela is no longer sole record-holder. He did manage 25 this season, which ties him with the two most prolific seasons in MLS history: Stern John in 1998 and Mamadou Diallo in 2000 also had 25. Shoutout to Zlatan who came up one goal short, kind of like at the end of 2018 when his team was trying to make the playoffs.

Season	Player	Team	Total
2019	Carlos Vela	LAF	25
1998	Stern John	CLB	25
2000	Mamadou Diallo	TB	25
2019	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	LAG	24
1996	Roy Lassiter	TB	24
2016	Bradley Wright-Phillips	NYR	24
2018	Josef Martinez	ATL	23

Speaking of playoffs - who holds those records if you add in playoff games? Big caveat here: with the ever-changing structure of playoffs, some guys played way more games than others in their quests for MLS Cup. We’ll look at a per 90 calculation later to control for that.

Season	Player	Team	Total
2018	Josef Martinez	ATL	35
2019	Carlos Vela	LAF	34
1996	Roy Lassiter	TB	33
2002	Carlos Ruiz	LAG	32
2014	Bradley Wright-Phillips	NYR	31
2019	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	LAG	30
1996	Raul Diaz Arce	DC	29
1998	Stern John	CLB	29
2000	Mamadou Diallo	TB	28

Hey, we found a record that Vela doesn’t have! He’s certainly within striking distance of Josef’s last year, despite the shrinking of the playoff system limiting him to a maximum of only three postseason games.

If we strip penalties, we actually find a record that’s a real stretch to imagine Vela taking over this year. In the inaugural MLS season, Roy Lassiter put up 24 regular season (non-penalty) goals for the Tampa Bay Mutiny, then added 6 more in 5 games despite losing in the conference finals.

Season	Player	Team	Total
1996	Roy Lassiter	TB	30
2002	Carlos Ruiz	LAG	28
1998	Stern John	CLB	28
2000	Mamadou Diallo	TB	27
2018	Josef Martinez	ATL	26
2015	Kei Kamara	CLB	26
2019	Carlos Vela	LAFC	25
2014	Bradley Wright-Phillips	NYR	25
2016	Bradley Wright-Phillips	NYR	25

We also need to shout out Carlos Ruiz’s 2002 season. He led the league in the regular season with 24 goals (21 non-penalties), then had 8 goals and 2 assists in a championship run through the playoffs. The Galaxy played 6 games in those playoffs, and Pescadito scored in five of them (only one of which was a penalty, for the record). No one else has ever scored more than 6 goals in a postseason, and with the change to a single elimination format, it seems unlikely that it will happen (at least until the league spins the magic wheel of playoff formats to result in more games).

So 2002 Ruiz has the playoff record with 10 total goals + assists (tied by 2000 Ante Razov’s 4 goals and 6 assists). Let’s step back and look at the complete picture of regular season plus playoffs: here’s the leaderboard for most total goals and assists:

Season	Player	Team	Total
2019	Carlos Vela	LAF	49
2018	Josef Martinez	ATL	42
2016	Sebastian Giovinco	TOR	40
2014	Robbie Keane	LAG	38
2015	Sebastian Giovinco	TOR	38
2019	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	LAG	37
1996	Roy Lassiter	TB	37
1996	Preki	KC	36
1998	Mauricio Cienfuegos	LAG	35
2000	Clint Mathis	LAG	35
1998	Stern John	CLB	35
2002	Carlos Ruiz	LAG	35

Carlos Vela. Already. By a lot. The playoffs haven’t even started yet. With one more goal or assist, he’ll break 50. Only two other guys have ever cracked 40 (though Zlatan could do it this year, as well). That’s wild!

If you want to strip penalties from the total, the story doesn’t change much. Vela already has that record too, and it’ll take three Zlatan hat tricks to even tie him. Carlitos and Zlatan became the 19th and 20th members of a group with 30+ goals+assists (non -penalty) in a campaign (season + post-season). Only Roy Lassiter and Sebastian Giovinco have done it multiple times (twice each).

Season	Player	Team	Total
2019	Carlos Vela	LAF	40
2014	Robbie Keane	LAG	37
2016	Sebastian Giovinco	TOR	35
2015	Sebastian Giovinco	TOR	35
1996	Roy Lassiter	TB	34
2000	Clint Mathis	LAG	34
1998	Stern John	CLB	34
2015	Kei Kamara	CLB	34
2018	Josef Martinez	ATL	33
1998	Cobi Jones	LAG	33
1999	Jason Kreis	DAL	32
2000	Ante Razov	CHI	32
1999	Roy Lassiter	DC	32
1998	Marco Etcheverry	DC	32
2001	Diego Serna	MIA	32
2019	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	LAG	31
1998	Mauricio Cienfuegos	LAG	31
2002	Carlos Ruiz	LAG	31
2014	Landon Donovan	LAG	31
2000	Mamadou Diallo	TB	31
1998	Welton	LAG	31
2016	Bradley Wright-Phillips	NYR	30

Standardizing things on a per 90 basis gives us some different looks - some stars presumably missed portions of seasons due to injury or midseason transfer. Vela has the crown for regular-season goals and goals + assists per 90, but if you strip penalties some challengers emerge:

Season	Player	Team	Total
2001	Diego Serna	MIA	1.37
1998	Cobi Jones	LAG	1.35
2019	Carlos Vela	LAF	1.32
1998	Wolde Harris	COL	1.27
1998	Stern John	CLB	1.24

It seems worthwhile to note the 2001 Miami Fusion here, who combined Diego Serna’s impressive 15 G/15 A effort with Alex Pineda Chacon’s 19/9 MVP campaign, only to lose to baby Landon Donovan in the playoffs and then have their team disappear from the face of the earth. Wild but apparently true story: Pineda Chacon and Serna went on to play in six more MLS seasons between them, scoring a grand total of seven more goals. Here’s hoping the curse that befell them doesn’t carry onto Inter Miami next season.

Once more, if we expand this per 90 table to include the playoffs, Vela is miles ahead if penalties are included. In fact, he’d have to go scoreless for six full games this postseason to lose his place atop the leaderboard. This seems unlikely since LAFC will only need to play three games to win MLS Cup. I like his chances of retaining this record. Without penalties, again it’s more interesting! Vela is currently ahead of Diego Serna’s magical 2001, but a cold spell could see him fall down the list.

Season	Player	Team	Total
2019	Carlos Vela	LAF	1.32
2001	Diego Serna	MIA	1.27
1998	Wolde Harris	COL	1.22
1998	Cobi Jones	LAG	1.19
2018	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	LAG	1.18
1998	Stern John	CLB	1.17
2009	Jeff Cunningham	DAL	1.13
2015	Sebastian Giovinco	TOR	1.1
2014	Robbie Keane	LAG	1.1

Whew, that’s a lot of tables and records. I’ll end here with a quick round-up of strange minutiae that came up in the collection of this data, but as a quick aside for you unselfish folks: assist records start and end with Carlos Valderrama’s 26 in 2000. He didn’t even add any in the playoffs, and he’s the record holder for regular season and overall. Additional recognition for playoff excellence is due for Guillermo Barros Schelloto (25 total assists, 6 during the playoffs in 2008), Marco Etcheverry (3 seasons of over 20 total assists, including 6 in the 1999 playoffs), and Ante Razov again for his insane 2000 playoff run (4 goals, 6 assists in 7 games). And keep your eye on Maxi Moralez, who had 20 assists in the regular season and has an outside shot at those numbers with a big postseason.

The small-sample nature of playoffs throw up some truly strange leaderboards:

• The joint leaders in playoff goals in 2008 were Juan Pablo Angel (okay), John Wolyniec (hmm…a little weird), and Chad Marshall (what?)

• Some guy named David Vaudreuil had 5 assists in the 1997 playoffs after having 2 in the entire regular season for eventual champ DC United. Tony Sanneh also put up 3 goals and 3 assists for DC during that playoff run.

• Noted goalscorer Aurelien Collin also led the 2013 postseason with three goals on the way to Sporting KC’s title. 

• I also did not expect to see Richard Mulrooney’s name on multiple playoff leaderboards (3 playoff assists in both 2001 and 2003)

• The career records for playoff goals and assists go to our patron saint, Landon Donovan, with 25 goals and 15 assists in 44 career playoff games. He was pretty good! On a per-game basis, Carlos Ruiz’s 16 goals in 19 playoff games could be considered even better.

• The Toronto duo of Jozy Altidore and Giovinco were insanely prolific in 2016, especially the playoffs. Jozy had 5 goals and 4 assists while Seba added 4 and 4. You could view that as doubly impressive since it doesn’t even include any goals from the final…or rather damning since they couldn’t score in the final.

With all that said about history and records, I’ll leave you with one key to remember. The MLS record book was rewritten this year by one Carlos Vela, and that is true regardless of what Zlatan tries to tell you in postgame interviews, full-page newspaper ad buys, or Adidas commercials. Well, unless he comes out and powers the Galaxy to MLS Cup with three straight hat tricks, or something but he‘s not going to do that. Or is he?