Wondolowski breaks Donovan’s MLS goals record
San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski has broken Landon Donovan’s all-time Major League Soccer goals record with the first two of four strikes in a 4-1 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday.
Wondolowski, 36, is now on 148 goals in 338 MLS appearances, while Donovan took 340 games to reach the previous record of 145.
– Carlisle: How Wondo broke MLS’ all-time goals record
His record-tying goal came in the 21st minute when Cristian Espinoza delivered a long, cross-field pass to Shea Salinas on the left wing, and Salinas’ low, driven cross was stabbed home by Wondolowski at the far post.
Wondolowski set the new mark on 48 minutes when a seemingly innocuous cross from Nick Lima was floated into the box, but when Fire goalkeeper David Ousted fumbled the delivery, Wondolowski was there to pounce and side-foot it in.
He added additional strikes in the 74th and 76th minutes to round out his historic afternoon.
Wondolowski was later substituted to a standing ovation in the first minute of stoppage time as a congratulatory message from Donovan was shown on the video board.
Wondolowski started his career with the Earthquakes in 2005, but scored his first four goals for the Houston Dynamo, where he played from 2006-2009 after the franchise relocated.
MLS returned to San Jose in the 2009 season — and so did Wondolowski, who had his breakout year in 2010, scoring 18 times in 28 appearances.
He had a record-tying year in 2012 when he scored 27 times to match Roy Lassiter’s 1996 mark for most goals in a season. That mark was equaled by the New York Red Bulls’ Bradley-Wright Phillips in 2014 before Atlanta’s Josef Martinez surpassed the trio’s mark in 2018.
Wondolowski also has 11 goals and 35 caps for the United States and was part of the squad that went to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.
Rounding out the top five leading scorers in MLS history after Wondolowski and Donovan are Jeff Cunningham with 134 goals, Jaime Moreno (133) and Ante Razov (114).