Well, that was fun.
Week 5 in Major League Soccer finished with 31 total goals, including 28 scored during a memorable day of action on Saturday that included two different defensive midfielders scored incredible braces (Portland's Diego Chará and Colorado's José Mari) and Clint Dempsey scoring his first-ever MLS hat trick.
All those goals led plenty of fans to wonder if the day was the highest-scoring in league history, and as it turns out, they weren't far off. The 28 goals scored were tied for the third-most scored on a single day in MLS history, falling just two goals shy of tying the record set on May 28, 2011.
That was a day marked by braces from Maicon Santos, Justin Mapp, Andrés Mendoza, and Danny Mwanga. It wasn't exactly a murderers' row for all-time MLS greats (Mapp and Mwanga are the only ones of that group who are even still in the league), but they were still part of history nonetheless.
Perhaps even more impressive, however, is the mark of 28 goals set way back on April 25, 1998. Only five games were played on that day (compared to eight played on Saturday), and each of the five winning teams that day had at least three goals. Among the notable matches, Los Angeles scored five goals in a rout of Tampa Bay, while Colorado and Chicago tied 4-4.
Other notes:
• Speaking of all those goals, six were scored from outside the box, excluding Leo Fernandes’ cross-turned-goal for Philadelphia against Chicago. After seeing multiple days of at least six goals from outside the box in 2010, ’11, and ’12, 2013 did not see a single day with more than five.
• New head coaches are always in the spotlight, and sometimes not for the right seasons. Look no further than Montreal (Frank Klopas) and Chicago (Frank Yallop), where neither coach has posted a win in his first five games at the helm of his new club.
They're certainly not alone here, however, when you look at Chivas USA interim head coach José Luis Real last year (6) and Portland Timbers interim boss Gavin Wilkinson in 2013 (7), who both posted longer streaks to start their tenure. And don't forget that even Real Salt Lake hero Jason Kreis failed to post a win in his first seven games at the helm in 2007.
• After scoring in each of the first four games of the season, Chivas USA's Erick “Cubo” Torres failed to put his name on the scoresheet on Sunday. In doing so he missed his chance to tie Brian McBride’s record of five goals in five games to start the 1998 season.
