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USL Insights – Road to 1,000

By NICHOLAS MURRAY - nicholas.murray@uslsoccer.com, 09/07/17, 1:24PM EDT

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The 1,000th goal in the USL arrived on Saturday; here’s how we got there


Photo courtesy David Calvert / Reno 1868 FC

Monday Etim’s late goal for Orange County SC on Saturday night might have proved just a consolation for the side in a 3-1 loss to Reno 1868 FC, but it was still notable thanks to it being the 1,000th goal scored in the USL regular season in 2017.

This is the second year in a row the USL has surpassed 1,000 goals in the regular season, with the league hitting a total of 1,140 goals a year ago. This season the race for the USL Golden Boot is in full swing with four leading challengers for the crown, and the USL single-season record for goals by a team is also in danger thanks to Reno 1868 FC’s potent attack. With six weeks to go in the regular season, the chances are good we’ll see a record number of tallies hit the back of the net this year.

So, how exactly did we get here? Let’s look at the players and teams who’ve been prolific from all areas of the field over the season so far.

1,000 USL Goals – By the Numbers


Photo courtesy Em-Dash Photography / Louisville City FC

RIGHT TURN

Unsurprisingly, right-footed goals provide the biggest total of the 1,010 goals that have been scored this season, with the 556 tallies making up 55 percent of the league’s goals this season. At the top of that list on a team-basis is the Charlotte Independence, with 33 of the club’s 50 total goals coming off the right foot. As many right-footed goals as Charlotte’s Enzo Martinez (11) and Jorge Herrera (10) have scored this season, though, they’re bested individually by Reno 1868 FC’s Dane Kelly, who has scored 12 of his 16 goals this season with his right foot.

LEFT SWITCH

While right-footed goals make up more than half the goals scored in the USL this season, left-footed tallies have got in on the action on a pretty regular basis too, with 27.5 percent – or 278 of the goals scored this season – coming off the left foot. Leading the way here is current Western Conference-leader Real Monarchs SLC, who have seen 22 of the club’s 51 goals scored with the left foot this season.

Interestingly, the top two teams in the West are also the only two to have scored more goals with the left foot than the right in the USL so far this season, with the Monarchs ratio (22L/21R) being surpassed by San Antonio FC’s (16L/11R). It shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, that it’s Monarchs forward Chandler Hoffman leading the individual chart with 11 left-footed goals, accounting for half his team’s total.

AERIAL ATTACK

It probably isn’t a surprise as to which team, or which player, leads the USL in headed goals this season, with FC Cincinnati’s strong wide play and delivery putting itself and Djiby Fall on top of either list. FCC’s 10 headed goals make up almost a third of the club’s 34 goals in the USL regular season this year, with Fall having accounted for half of them with five of his 11 goals in 2017 coming via header. Fall is tied for the individual lead with another outstanding aerial threat in Tulsa Roughnecks FC’s 6-foot-5 forward Ian Svantesson, who has benefitted from the service of Juan Pablo Caffa to notch half of his 10 goals this season with his head.

ON THE SPOT

Of the 142 penalty kicks awarded this season in the USL, OKC Energy FC sits at the top of the list with 12 penalty-kick attempts in 2017. Unfortunately for Energy FC fans, this doesn’t mean their side has also converted the most goals from the spot this season, with the side only finding the net seven times. Sitting one goal ahead of OKC, instead, is Bethlehem Steel FC, which has converted 8 of 10 penalty kicks it has been awarded this season.

Jamaican international Cory Burke leads Steel FC from the spot individually going 3 of 4 this season, but the man with the coolest head so far has been the Rochester Rhinos’ Wal Fall, who has gone a perfect 6 of 6 to lead the league’s players in that category. Fall’s success has also seen the Rhinos convert the most penalties without a miss as the side is 7 of 7 thanks to Kenardo Forbes’ successful take in Fall’s absence against the Charlotte Independence on April 29.

LONG-RANGE BOMBER

There’s very little like a goal fired in from outside the penalty area to bring fans to their feet, and this season, 140 such strikes have been tallied across the league, accounting for 13.9 percent of the goals scored this season. Five teams are tied with eight goals apiece at the top of the rankings, with the precision of Juan Pablo Caffa and Justin Portillo from set pieces putting Tulsa Roughnecks FC and the Charleston Battery level with three of their eight long-range goals from free kicks.

From open play, though, it’s the likes of Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC and Louisville City FC who have been the most free-flowing, with seven of their eight goals from outside the penalty area coming from open play. Louisville’s Brian Ownby and Cameron Lancaster have led City with three long-range goals apiece this season, while the Switchbacks’ Masta Kacher and Kevauhn Frater have each tallied twice for Colorado Springs. There’s only one player among the league-leaders whose been exclusively a long-distance merchant this season, however, and that’s the Tampa Bay Rowdies’ Marcel Schäfer, whose three goals this season have all come from long range.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

The space between the penalty spot and the six-yard area is typically the prime real estate for a stop striker, so the fact that 86 percent of the goals scored in the USL this season have been from inside the penalty area isn’t groundbreaking news. Neither is the fact that the league’s leading scorers, Reno 1868 FC, have scored 53 of their 57 goals from that range, a number that outstrips every other team in the league’s overall total. In a role-reversal from the right-footed goal numbers above, though, it’s the Charlotte Independence’s Enzo Martinez who’s on course to win the Fox in the Box award this season with 15 of his 16 goals coming from 18 yards and in, one ahead of Reno 1868 FC’s Dane Kelly. Both of those guys have at least scored once from long range, though, with all Real Monarchs SLC forward Chandler Hoffman’s 14 goals coming from inside the area.

So, there you have it. A brief summation of where we stand as the season passes the 1,000-goal mark. The remaining questions for the year include:

- Will Reno 1868 FC surpass the New York Red Bulls II’s total of 61 goals a season ago for a single-season league record, and how high might 1868 FC set the bar if it does?

- Can any of the Golden Boot contenders make a final push to catching Matt Fondy’s record of 22 goals in the regular season?

- Will the league surpass its total of 1,140 goals from the 2016 season, sitting just over 100 away with six weeks of games to go?

Stay tuned for the answers to those. 

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