MLS: The greatest individual seasons ever
Carlos Vela has made a sensational start to the 2019 MLS season. But he is not the only one. In fact, this year, we are seeing some of the greatest individual seasons ever.
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There truly are some brilliant players currently plying their trade in Major League Soccer. The quality of the league is as high as it has ever been, with some individual players truly setting a pace of sensational scoring, assisting and all-round impact.
For no one is that more true than for Carlos Vela. The Mexican international, who was signed two offseasons ago as the face of then expansion side Los Angeles FC, has been in rip-roaring form all year. At present, he has a ridiculous 14 goals in 1249 minutes. That would put him on pace to break Josef Martinez’s single-season goal record from 2018.
What is even more impressive is that Vela is doing it from the wing. Martinez was an out-and-out centre-forward, the focal point of a brilliantly creative Atlanta midfield. Vela has a terrific supporting cast around him as well, but he provides more than just goals. His seven assists are also a league-leading mark.
Much has been made of Vela’s superb 2019 campaign thus far. And rightly so. If he continues playing at the level he has, it will surely be considered the greatest individual season in MLS history. But what is so remarkable about this current MLS season is that he is not the only one playing at an unfathomably high level.
Sebastian Giovinco’s 2015 season is largely considered the greatest individual season in the history of MLS, if team accolades are completely disregarded. In that season, he scored 22 goals and notched 16 assists, claiming the league MVP award. His non-penalty goals and assists per 90 minutes came in at an utterly ridiculous 1.1. That means that he either scored a goal that was not a penalty or assisted a goal every 81.81 minutes.
Well, for players that have played at least 500 minutes this season, there are two players that are beating that current mark, and another two that are extremely comparable. Vela leads the pack with 1.37 non-penalty goals and assists per 90 minutes — for those who are not used to these numbers, I cannot begin to explain how amazing that number is.
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But Orlando City Designated Player Nani is also ahead of Giovinco’s 2015 rate, with 1.11 non-penalty goals and assists per 90 minutes. There are two other players that have topped one non-penalty goal or assist per 90 minutes, Alejandro Pozuelo of Toronto FC (1.05) and Memo Rodriguez of the Houston Dynamo (1.02). It should be said that Rodriguez has only played 616 minutes, so his numbers are slightly skewed by the smaller sample size, though not enough to rule him out of the analysis.
Rather than comment on the individual players, though, I would rather look at how the development of the league as a whole has grown to boast these wonderful attacking players playing at sensationally high levels. And these numbers do not include players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Diego Rossi. You could go on and on.
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All this is to say that the 2019 MLS season possesses some of the greatest individual seasons we have ever seen from MLS players. Vela is leading the pack with his magnificence, but he is not the only one to shine this year. There are plenty of others. Long may it continue.