Josef Martinez’s Atlanta United teammates think it likely that he will break the MLS single-season scoring record on Friday at Orlando City.
Martinez has scored 27 goals this season and needs just one more to move ahead of Roy Lassiter, Chris Wondolowski and Bradley Wright-Phillips for the record.
“The way he’s scoring I don’t doubt it,” fullback Chris McCann said. “If he gets a chance, he will put it away. I hope he keeps scoring for our sake. The longer he does this the better it us for us because it’s propelling us to the top of the league every week.”
Probability and his skill level would indicate that Martinez will break the record on Friday.
The Venezuelan has scored in eight consecutive games. If he scores on Friday he will tie the league record for consecutive games with a goal set by Portland’s Diego Valeri last year.
Martinez is scoring in a variety of ways: six with his right foot, six with his left, nine with his head and six on penalty kicks.
Orlando City’s defense is a shambles with a league-high 57 goals allowed this season.
Lastly, Atlanta United is trying to stay on top of the Supporters’ Shield standings. It leads MLS in points (51), but is just three ahead of New York Red Bulls and four ahead of NYCFC.
Martinez is a big reason why. He has scored in all but seven games this season. Atlanta United is 2-3-2 in those games.
“Josef is Atlanta, Josef represents Atlanta,” Miguel Almiron said. “Josef’s breaking records. Atlanta’s breaking records.”
Martinez seems likely to smash the record. If he maintains his scoring clip of 1.09 goals per game, he will finish with 36 goals this season.
McCann didn’t want to try to predict how many Martinez will score.
“I wouldn’t like to put a number on it because when he gets in the zone he doesn’t seem to miss,” he said. “He’s so clinical in front of the net at the moment. Everything seems to drop his way. That’s the sign of a good striker: Always in the right place at the right time.”
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