Schelotto Stalls at 19 Assists

At the beginning of September, I commented that Guillermo Barros Schelotto had a good chance of becoming just the second MLS player to ever tally 20 assists. While Schelotto had an MVP-caliber season he came up just short, tying Marco Etcheverry, Carlos Valderrama and Steve Ralston for the second highest total in league history.

  Player              TM GM A Year
1 Carlos Valderrama   TB 32 26 2000
2 **Schelotto**      CLB 27 19 2008
  Marco Etcheverry    DC 26 19 1996 
  Carlos Valderrama   TB 20 19 1997 
  Marco Etcheverry    DC 29 19 1998 
  Steve Ralston       NE 27 19 2002
6 Steve Ralston       TB 32 18 1999
7 Carlos Valderrama   TB 23 17 1996 
  Preki               KC 27 17 1997 
  Marco Etcheverry    DC 22 17 1999 
  Mauricio Cienfuegos LA 30 17 1999 
  Steve Ralston       TB 30 17 2000 
  Preki               KC 30 17 2003

Schelotto's season also ranks him third in margin of victory for the assists title.

1 Carlos Valderrama 9 2000
2 Preki             6 2003
3 **Schelotto**     4 2008
  Jaime Moreno      4 2004
5 Marco Etcheverry  3 1998
  Steve Ralston     3 2002
7 Marco Etcheverry  2 1996
  Carlos Valderrama 2 1997

What really did him in was the fact that he missed a couple of games down the stretch. In some ways it puts the skill of Carlos Valderrama into perspective. Not only does he top both of these lists, he also averaged 0.95 assists per game in 1997 when he recorded 19 assists in 20 games.