Lionel Messi set Main League Soccer’s aim contribution file Saturday with a aim and 5 assists in Miami’s 6-2 victory over the New York Purple Bulls.
That stellar effort introduced Messi’s season complete to a league-leading 10 targets and 12 assists in solely eight video games.
However can the best participant of our era keep the tempo and snatch MLS’ all-time goalscoring and help information by the tip of the season?
Let’s assess.
Targets
Carlos Vela’s 2019 season with Los Angeles FC was one for the historical past books, as he smashed the MLS’ season goalscoring file on the ultimate day of competitors with a hat trick towards the Colorado Rapids.
His tally — 34 targets in 34 video games — was one of many highest season goalscoring figures in skilled soccer that season. Just one participant topped it: Messi, who scored 36 targets for Barcelona throughout the identical time interval.
Messi, who has missed 4 of Miami’s 12 video games this season, wants 24 targets to match Vela’s file.
With 22 video games remaining within the 2024 common season, Vela’s mark appears beatable, however there is a catch. Messi is predicted to overlook 5 MLS video games when he represents Argentina within the Copa America this summer time, so he does not have 22 MLS video games — he might have 17 at greatest.
With that in thoughts, Messi should rating targets at a fee of 1.41 targets per recreation to problem Vela. His goalscoring fee to this point this season is 1.25 per recreation, so the Argentine celebrity should choose up the tempo.
Assists
Targets aren’t the one metric by which we measure attackers — assists matter, too. The present MLS season help file is 26, set by Colombian striker Carlos Valderrama in 2000.
Messi has 12 assists in his eight video games this season, a mean of 1.5 assists per recreation. If he continues at this tempo for 17 video games, Messi will shatter Valderrama’s MLS file for assists, ending with roughly 38.
With game-level information seemingly falling each time Messi performs in MLS, it is going to be fascinating to see if he can problem season-wide information, too.
Besting a kind of information would get Messi within the historical past books. Besting each would make him an MLS legend, too.
