Josef Martinez has a lot of tricks up his sleeve — and the Atlanta United forward has four hat tricks in his short Major League Soccer career.
His latest, in a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, bagged him the Alcatel MLS Player of the Week as voted by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for Week 3 of the 2018 season on Tuesday.
Martinez, who has four hat tricks in just 23 games, is now one shy of the MLS record set by Stern John and Diego Serna.
The 24-year-old Venezuelan, who scored 19 goals in 17 matches a year ago, opened his account Saturday from the penalty spot in the 15th minute. Martinez added his second on the hour-mark when he was slipped behind the Whitecaps defense on a sublime pass from Miguel Almiron and finished clinically on the breakaway.
Martinez, who also scored in a 3-1 win over D.C. United in Week 2, capped his scoring two minutes from full time, latching onto an Andrew Carleton cross and heading past Stefan Marinovic.
Martinez will look to continue his hot streak when Atlanta United returns from the international break to face Minnesota United FC on March 31 (8 pm ET | MLS LIVE).
The Alcatel MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media.
