A year ago, Chris Wondolowski was a little-known player involved in a little-hyped midseason trade. Today, the San Jose Earthquakes striker is the Budweiser Golden Boot winner for 2010.
Wondolowski finished with 18 goals on the season, one more than Edson Buddle of the LA Galaxy. Buddle, who was the league’s leading scorer until the final week, was unable to find the net in the Galaxy’s 2-1 win over FC Dallas on Sunday night.
[inline_node:319386]“Wondo” caught Buddle at the wire. His hat trick on Wednesday against Chivas USA and his consolation goal in the Quakes’ 4-1 loss to the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday saw him pass make up for a three-goal deficit and overtake Buddle for the overall lead.
Wondolowski, who had never scored more than five goals in a season before this year, becomes only the second Earthquakes player in history to finish as the league's top goalscorer. Former Quakes striker Brian Ching shared the honors with FC Dallas’ Eddie Johnson in 2004.
Wondolowski scored 18 of the Quakes' 34 goals in 2010, or 52.9 percent of the total goals scored by San Jose, which is the second highest such percentage in MLS history. Only Carlos Ruiz has had a better percentage, scoring 24 of the Galaxy’s 44 goals in 2002 (54.5%).
- Chris Wondolowski (San Jose), 18 goals
- Edson Buddle (Los Angeles), 17 goals
- Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto), 15 goals
- Omar Cummings (Colorado) and Sebastien Le Toux (Philadelphia), 14 goals
