AMSTERDAM – With all the current American exports on break from their European club schedules, it gave us time to break out the ol' abacus for ranking some statistical leaders. This time, it's all about putting the ball in the back of the net.
There are all sorts of ways to portion out glorious goals, from the ones that open a game's scoring to the ones that make stadiums explode by deciding a contest with the clock ticking down. We don't want to forget the setup men, so a recount of the all-time assist chart is also covered on this edition of the stat nerd's delight.
Unless otherwise stated, the numbers below count from all European first divisions and second-flight play in England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, plus all domestic and continental cups.
The Deciders
This category counts up all match-winning goals, plus any cup-tie clinchers. Considering he is miles ahead (115 goals to 72, to be exact) of Clint Dempsey in the all-time scoring chart for Americans playing overseas, it is no surprise that Earnie Stewart also stands as the king of the match-winners with 17. It is also no surprise to see the man they call "Deuce" on the list, sitting in the third spot.
The surprise comes at No. 2, where AZ Alkmaar ace
Aron Jóhannsson
(at right) has piled up 15 winners in just 53 career goals. A few others further down the list have even better winners-to-goals ratios:
Carlos Bocanegra
has seven from 17 European strikes,
Jermaine Jones
tallied 11 from 23, and seven of
Maurice Edu
's 12 tallies for Rangers won their day.
The Ice Breakers
One of the best ways to enjoy a good result at the park is to score first. Our research showed that several Americans could be considered artists of the opening salvo. Predictably, Dempsey and Stewart are also the top two in this category, only with the former Fulham star leading with 33 career match openers.
Third-placed Brian McBride started the day's scoring with 24 of his 42 goals across the pond, which impressively accounts for more than 57 percent of his career European total. Joe-Max Moore was another specialist, hitting 17 openers in 32 goals. After only two pro seasons, Terrence Boyd has broken the ice 16 times in 37 strikes. He is tied with veteran Helmond Sport handyman Charles Kazlauskas, who has managed 16 openers from his 30 goals in the Dutch second flight.
Anderlecht's Sacha Kljestan tops them all for rate of snatching the first worm, though, with 14 of his 20 goals (70 percent) christening the scoreboard.
The Rescue Heroes
It takes a special kind of player to step up when the big goal is required in the waning moments. Before starting research, we set the bar for this category at goals that decided a match or cup tie after the 75th minute. Dempsey and Stewart continue to fit the bill, leading with 10 and eight, respectively. The Seattle Sounders star is also one of just four players (joining Edu, Jones and Mikkel Diskerud) to count one here by firing a European tie-winner.
After third-placed
Roy Wegerle
, some surprising names start to show up. Current Columbus Crew boss
Gregg Berhalter
(at right) is tied with Red Bull Leipzig youngster Boyd for fourth place on the chart with five late deciders. Among those with four action-hero strikes are New England Revolution forward
Charlie Davies
and retiring Chivas USA defender Bocanegra, while recent Houston Dynamo pickup
DaMarcus Beasley
is one of five players with three such headline-grabbing goals.
Oddly, none of Jozy Altidore's 59 European goals fit into this specific category, but that can somewhat be chalked up to bad luck. Two of his game-winners have come between minutes 62 and 74, and another pair of his late goals looked all set to earn a better result until his team conceded scant moments later.
The Table Setters
Everyone still must daydream of chasing the 40 assists put up by Eddie Lewis, so for now the hot race is on for second place. Stewart is next with 33, but several active players are breathing down his neck.
Borussia Mönchengladbach's Fabian Johnson recently notched his 30th career helper to take third place, Kazlauskas is on 29, and Sunderland's Altidore already has 28 a couple months shy of his 25th birthday. Current MLS players Jones, Beasley and Bobby Convey all reside in the top 10, with Nantes attacker Alejandro Bedoya on course to crack it.
The Roy Lassiter Trophy Race
Back in the inaugural season of Major League Soccer, Tampa Bay strike star
Roy Lassiter
(at right) was the scoring champion. Back then, the league tallied the award by giving two points for a goal and one for an assist. Lassiter hit for 27 goals and added four assists, racking up 58 points, a total that would not be bested until
Chris Wondolowski
equaled that strike tally and notched three more assists in 2012.
We used this same method of tabulating scoring outputs on every American that has played in Europe, limiting the count exclusively to top-flight ball because, hey, we're comparing to MLS regular-season totals here. Only eight guys have ever posted a season scoring total above 30 overseas, but one is missing from the accompanying list.
Wegerle easily pulled the trick with his 18 goals for Queens Park Rangers in 1990-91, but as English clubs and leagues did not start counting assists until a couple years later, it is impossible to exactly call his total. If he managed as many as five assists that season, it would be good enough to take second place on our chart.
The closest anyone has come to Lassiter's 1996 scoring system total was when Altidore tallied 23 goals and five assists (51 points) for AZ two seasons back. Toronto FC star Michael Bradley claims fifth place for his one big season spent as an attacking midfielder for Heerenveen. The only men to post two point totals above 30 are Altidore and Boyd; the latter did it in each of his first two seasons. However, Boyd must wait until at least next year to get back into a first division with the "other other" Red Bulls.
Winners
Earnie Stewart 17
Aron Jóhannsson 15
Clint Dempsey 14
Brian McBride 12
Jermaine Jones 11
Jozy Altidore 9
Thomas Dooley 9
Alejandro Bedoya 8
Roy Wegerle 8
Oguchi Onyewu 8
Carlos Bocanegra 7
Maurice Edu 7
Joe-Max Moore 7
Claudio Reyna 7
Eric Wynalda 7
= still active in Europe
First Goals
Clint Dempsey 33
Earnie Stewart 28
Brian McBride 24
Jozy Altidore 21
Joe-Max Moore 17
Terrence Boyd 16
Charles Kazlauskas 16
Thomas Dooley 14
Sacha Kljestan 14
Roy Wegerle 13
Eddie Lewis 12
Conor Casey 10
* = still active in Europe
Late Result-Changing Goals
(75th minute or later)
Clint Dempsey 10
Earnie Stewart 8
Roy Wegerle 7
Gregg Berhalter 5
Terrence Boyd 5
Carlos Bocanegra 4
Charlie Davies 4
Mikkel Diskerud 4
Fabian Johnson 4
DaMarcus Beasley 3
Alejandro Bedoya 3
Eddie Lewis 3
Oguchi Onyewu 3
Eric Wynalda 3
* = still active in Europe
Assists
Eddie Lewis 40
Earnie Stewart 33
Fabian Johnson 30
Clint Dempsey 29
Charles Kazlauskas 29
Jozy Altidore 28
Jermaine Jones 25
DaMarcus Beasley 22
Bobby Convey 20
Sacha Kljestan 20
Alejandro Bedoya 18
= still active in Europe
Highest Original MLS Scoring System Pt. Totals
(top-flight league play only)
51 Jozy Altidore (23g 5a) - 2013
41 Clint Dempsey (17g 7a) - 2012
40 Aron Jóhannsson (17g 6a) - 2013
40 Earnie Stewart (17g 6a) - 1991
36 Michael Bradley (15g 6a) - 2008
35 Jozy Altidore (16g 3a) - 2012
33 Terrence Boyd (13g 7a) - 2012
32 Terrence Boyd (15g 2a) - 2013
31 Charlie Davies (14g 3a) - 2008
