Since the 1996 inaugural season, MLS has incorporated both goals and assists into its formula to decide who becomes its Budweiser Scoring Champion. This moniker is somewhat misleading, however, due to the nature of the scoring system that would give two points for every goal scored, as opposed to only one given for an assist.
Roy Lassiter, the speedy forward who put in a record 27 goals for Tampa Bay in 1996 to become the league's first Budweiser Scoring Champion, still holds the record for most goals in a season, yet only had four assists during that campaign. The system has since provided mixed results, with four years out of nine providing a double-digit goals/assists winner, the rest scoring a disproportionately high number of goals to assists.
So it comes as no surprise then that those players who tallied high on the goal scoring sheet would come away with the league award, unless of course a player could miraculously pull off roughly 40 assists in a season. Even Preki, considered one of the greatest assist men in league history and second all-time to Carlos Valderrama, capped out at 17 assists both in 1997 and 2003 - winning the scoring title each year. Both those years Preki was able to also net 12 goals, which would be good enough to tie for third in 2005 with Colorado's Jeff Cunningham. Needless to say, his assists put him over the edge in terms of scoring, and rightfully so.
Last year's Budweiser Scoring Champion, Amado Guevara (MetroStars), had a respectable 10 goals and 10 assists. A solid season, no doubt, yet the Honduran and three other players tied for seventh in goals scored. San Jose Earthquakes forward Brian Ching and the Dallas Burn's (now FC Dallas) Eddie Johnson's 12 goals apiece was tops and four others netted 11. The system leaned toward the goal scorer, yet the occasional assist man could poach the title away. This inconsistency could have been resolved by either awarding equal points for both goals and assists, or ridding of the assists altogether. Which begged the question, should the Budweiser Scoring Champion be a goal scorer, or an all-around points man?
That question was answered for the 2005 regular season as MLS decided to re-work its scoring system with not only a new formula, but also a new name. The Budweiser Golden Boot award is now awarded exclusively to the individual who scores the most goals for his club. And assists? Well, maybe they'll make a new trophy for that when they get around to it.
The Fire will award its own Budweiser Golden Boot to forward Chris Rolfe prior to this Friday's opener of the Eastern Conference Semifinal Series at Soldier Field against D.C. United. By earning the award, Rolfe becomes the first rookie to lead the Fire in scoring, while his eight markers are tied for the second most by a Fire rookie, equaling Josh Wolff's total in 1998 and placing him three behind Damani Ralph's MLS record of 11 during his incredible 2003 season.
If one team in MLS would be unaltered by the new change, it would be the Fire, for if one were to retroactively apply the new standard to previous Budweiser Scoring Champions from 1998-2004, the winner would remain the same for each year. This comes in large part to the "Men in Red" never having a single player achieve both double digit goals and assists in a regular season. New England, who the Fire ended their regular season against on Saturday night, is the only other non-expansion franchise to never have a double double scorer - something that could have changed with a Clint Dempsey assist against Chicago.
But would things be different under the old system in 2005? It turns out it would just be par for the course, as Rolfe's eight goals and five assists would still have put the rookie striker two points on top of another newcomer, midfielder Thiago, as the team's overall points leader. While Rolfe's eight tallies give him a piece of Fire history, it also makes him its first leading scorer without a double-digit goal tally in team history.
Fire fans need not worry about lacking that go-to goal scorer, such as five-time Fire Budweiser Scoring Champion Ante Razov. No one man is putting points on the board for Chicago, a team that saw a league record-tying 17 different players score throughout the 2005 campaign. What can be described as true team contribution overshadows the lack of a solitary goal-scoring machine.
And if the Fire, as a team, are hoisting their second MLS Cup come November, well no one will care which boot the goals came from, golden or not.
Previous Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champions:
2004 Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champion: Damani Ralph - 25 pts. (11g/3a)
2003 Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champion: Ante Razov - 34 pts. (14g/6a)
2002 Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champion: Ante Razov - 36 pts. (14g/8a)
2001 Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champion: Eric Wynalda - 25 pts. (10g/5a)
2000 Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champion: Ante Razov - 42 pts. (18g/6a)
1999 Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champion: Ante Razov - 35 pts. (14g/7a)
1998 Fire/Budweiser Scoring Champion: Ante Razov - 29 pts. (10g/9a)
