Tracking Alex Morgan’s record-setting goal tally

If you attend a U.S. Women’s National Team match this year, it’s likely you’ll see Alex Morgan score a goal. Or, like last night at PPL Park, a couple.

Those keeping score at home will know that Morgan’s duo against China marked the 23rd and 24th goals of her budding international career.

The young starlet has been enjoying a supremely productive 2012. She’s tallied her last 14 goals in this calendar year alone. Oh, and they’ve all come in just 12 appearances.

More stats? More stats.

- She has now scored 13 of the USWNT’s last 28 goals.

- This was her sixth multi-goal game of her career. It was also the fourth game of the year in which she’s bagged a brace.

- She has scored or assisted more than one-third (37%) of the U.S.’s total goals in 2012.

- She’s now tied in 17th place on the USWNT all-time goals list alongside Amy Rodriguez and Natasha Kai.

- She has scored the USWNT’s first goal in six of the team’s last nine matches.

And here’s the most impressive statistic yet. If Morgan continues on this pace, she’ll have the third most prolific year of any USWNT striker in the program’s history.

The U.S. could well play another 12 games, at least according to this theoretical (and very unofficial) list of remaining fixtures:

June 16-18: A three-team tournament in Sweden (two games); June 30: final pre-Olympic domestic friendly at Rio Tinto Stadium (one game); July 25-TBD: Olympics (five games, assuming they reach the final); TBD: Post-Olympic Celebration tour (three games, if not more)

With her current goal rate in mind, she is projected to finish the year on 28 goals. She’ll then become just the fifth U.S. player to score at least 20 goals in one year, and the first since Abby Wambach did it in 2007.

Current single-season highs:

Akers – 1991 – 39 goals

Wambach – 2004 – 31 goals

Milbrett – 1999 – 21 goals

Wambach – 2007– 20 goals

Lilly – 1999 – 20 goals

Hamm – 1998 – 20 goals

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Morgan’s name should appear on that list by year’s end. Where exactly? She has a knack for exceeding expectations, so there’s no telling.