The goals have been piling up across MLS this year. Just how much? With two weeks remaining in the 2018 season, the league is trending toward one of its top-five most offensive seasons ever.
Heading into the second-to-last weekend of the regular season, with 26 more games still to be played, MLS is averaging 3.20 goals per game – the fifth-most of any season in league history.
If the pattern holds, it would be the second-highest average this century, behind only 2001, when there were 3.28 goals per contest (third-most all-time).
The league record was set in 1998, when 3.57 goals per game were scored. MLS has averaged higher than three goals per game on just six occasions before this season, and all took place in the league’s infancy, from 1996-2002. This year’s numbers are the latest in a steady progression of growth since 2010:
If the 2018 scoring rate is maintained through the final two weeks, MLS would post the highest goalscoring average of any of the world’s top domestic leagues.
Average Goals Per Game
Last Completed Season: 2017-18 or 2017
<strong>Major League Soccer [2018]</strong> |
<strong>3.20</strong> |
Eredivisie (Netherlands) |
3.14 |
1.Bundesliga (Germany) |
2.79 |
Ligue 1 (France) |
2.72 |
Primeira Liga (Portugal) |
2.70 |
La Liga (Spain) |
2.69 |
Premier League (England) |
2.68 |
Serie A (Italy) |
2.68 |
Liga MX (Mexico) |
2.54 |
Serie A (Brazil) |
2.43 |
Superliga (Argentina) |
2.26 |
Premier League (Russia) |
2.25 |
