Our stats guru @AndyHowe_statto says this season is poised to be the greatest for goals scored in our history. Here’s why…
Season 10 in the Hyundai A-League is on track to being the highest scoring in the competition’s ten-year history.
Sydney FC’s spectacular 5-4 win over Brisbane Roar FC saw the league’s 300th goal for the season, reached in 103 games.
The 300-goal milestone was reached ten games sooner than last season, and is the fastest first 300 goals in any A-League season, beating the previous fastest of 109 games in season 2012/13.
After Round 21 the league’s average goals per game ratio stood at 2.95, which is also on par to being a record for most goals per game in an A-League season.
The record goals per game ratio in a full season is 2.91, set in 2008/09 when Melbourne Victory scored 50 goals in 24 games in their Championship-winning campaign.
In fact, at the current rate Season 10 of the Hyundai A-League is on the way to being one of the highest-scoring of any Australian national league season, including the old National Soccer League (NSL).
The all-time maximum goals per game figure was set in the 2000/01 NSL season, at 3.27 goals per game.
The remarkable 2000/01 season included a combined 38 goals from Wollongong Wolves pair Saso Petrovski and Scott Chipperfield, while Damian Mori and Bobby Despotovski were not far behind netting a combined 36 goals between them for Perth Glory.
Meanwhile there have been some impressive individual goal-scoring achievements so far in Season 10.
After Round 21 the league’s leading scorer is Mark Janko, who created a new A-League record for scoring in most consecutive games for his club (seven) in Sydney’s victory over Brisbane.
Janko’s feat of scoring in seven consecutive appearances equalled the all-time Australian national league record set by Andy Harper for Marconi in 1993/94 and matched by Adelaide City’s Damian Mori the season after.
But what’s more impressive about Janko’s run is the sheer volume of goals scored throughout this streak. With 12 goals in his seven-match sequence, the Austrian has scored well more than both Harper (nine goals) and Mori (eight) in their equal record seven-match scoring streaks.
And with 16 out of Sydney’s 40 goals after Round 21, Janko has scored almost half of his club’s goals so far.
Not only does this make Janko Sydney FC’s highest scorer for a season already, but the Austrian captain is now a decent chance of scoring the most goals of any player for an A-League season – a record currently held by Besart Berisha with 21 goals for Brisbane in 2011/12.
Berisha’s tally of 21 goals in what was his first A-League season is the all-time record for scoring most goals in a debut Australian national league campaign.
This makes for an extra honour Janko could potentially pick up in his first – and hopefully not last – Australian season.
The only other players to net more than 16 times in their first Australian season were Charlie Egan (20 goals – South Melbourne 1982), Stuart Young (19 – Wollongong Wolves 1999/2000) and Dez Marton (18 – St George 1982).
And there’s yet another goal-scoring-related record on the cards for the 2014/15 A-League season, albeit a less mainstream feat.
After Round 21, Melbourne City FC have had 17 different players score goals for the club, already beating the previous A-League record of 16 different scorers for a full season (Central Coast Mariners 2013/14).
The all-time Australian national league record of most scorers in a season stands at 18 players, set by the Auckland Kingz in the NSL of 1999/2000.
With a congested Hyundai A-League competition ladder, and so many goal-scoring records in prospect – in addition to history already being made in season 2014/15 – the last few weeks of the tenth A-League season is set to see a fascinating finale.
*Follow Andrew Howe’s Aussie football stats updates on Twitter @AndyHowe_statto
