{"id":20297,"date":"2018-12-05T16:23:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T21:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonsoccer.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=20297"},"modified":"2018-12-05T16:23:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T21:23:27","slug":"josef-martinez-wins-2018-mls-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2018\/12\/05\/josef-martinez-wins-2018-mls-mvp\/","title":{"rendered":"Josef Martinez Wins 2018 MLS MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Atlanta, Georgia (December 5, 2018)<\/strong> &#8212; Josef Martinez made MLS history in 2018 and has been rewarded as such.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/post\/2018\/12\/05\/atlanta-uniteds-josef-martinez-wins-2018-landon-donovan-mls-mvp-award\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The league named the 25-year-old striker its Most Valuable Player<\/a> on Wednesday. It comes after Martinez shattered the MLS single-season record for goals in a season with 31. The previous mark was 27, set by Roy Lassiter (1996), Chris Wondolowski (2012), and Bradley Wright-Phillips (2014).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MLSMVP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MLSMVP<\/a> &amp; his trophy. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ybxMcZ2xEu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ybxMcZ2xEu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLS\/status\/1070400439357706243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Josef Martinez Named MLS MVP for 2018 Season<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Martinez spearheaded an Atlanta United side set to host MLS Cup just two years into its existence. The Five Stripes finished with a 21-7-6 record this season, tallying 69 points which were two behind the New York Red Bulls in the Supporters&#8217; Shield race. But Atlanta knocked off the Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals to get to where they stand now.<\/p>\n<p>The Venezuelan is the first from his nation to win league MVP honors. He&#8217;s the eighth\u00a0player\u00a0from South America to do so and the second in a row after Diego Valeri earned the award last season. Martinez is set to do battle with Valeri&#8217;s Portland Timbers in Saturday&#8217;s MLS Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez burst onto the scene in Atlanta&#8217;s maiden campaign in MLS last year. Originally signed on loan from Torino in the Italian Serie A, Martinez registered 19 goals in just 20 appearances which included 17 starts. His 2017 goal-scoring total would have invariably been much higher had he not suffered an injury on national team duty early on in the season. Not surprisingly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/sports\/atlanta-united-permanently-acquires-martinez\/rMOWvM3iVQwtntPwpAADON\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta made his loan move permanent<\/a> not long after acquiring him.<\/p>\n<p>In his 59 total appearances for the Five Stripes including the regular season and playoffs, Martinez has a grand total of 53 goals and seven assists. He has a chance to add to his legend if he can etch his name onto the scoresheet in a win that ultimately seals championship\u00a0glory this weekend.<\/p>\n<h2>List of Previous MLS MVPs<\/h2>\n<p>2017: Diego Valeri &#8211; Portland Timbers<br \/>\n2016: David Villa &#8211; New York City FC<br \/>\n2015: Sebastian Giovinco &#8211; Toronto FC<br \/>\n2014: Robbie Keane &#8211; LA Galaxy<br \/>\n2013: Mike Magee &#8211; Chicago Fire<br \/>\n2012: Chris Wondolowski &#8211; San Jose Earthquakes<br \/>\n2011: Dwayne De Rosario &#8211; D.C. United<br \/>\n2010: David Ferreira &#8211; FC Dallas<br \/>\n2009: Landon Donovan &#8211; LA Galaxy<br \/>\n2008: Guillermo Barros Schelotto &#8211; Columbus Crew<br \/>\n2007: Luciano Emilio &#8211; D.C. United<br \/>\n2006: Christian G\u00f3mez &#8211; D.C. United<br \/>\n2005: Taylor Twellman &#8211; New England Revolution<br \/>\n2004: Amado Guevara &#8211; New York MetroStars<br \/>\n2003: Preki &#8211; Kansas City Wizards<br \/>\n2002: Carlos Ru\u00edz &#8211; LA Galaxy<br \/>\n2001: Alex Pineda Chac\u00f3n &#8211; Miami Fusion<br \/>\n2000: Tony Meola &#8211; Kansas City Wizards<br \/>\n1999: Jason Kreis &#8211; Dallas Burn<br \/>\n1998: Marco Etcheverry &#8211; D.C. United<br \/>\n1997: Preki &#8211; Kansas City Wizards<br \/>\n1996: Carlos Valderrama &#8211; Tampa Bay Mutiny<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"2eHSDMl6TupDPxLdtqsdRw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1039354174\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2eHSDMl6TupDPxLdtqsdRw',sig:'-XFJDSsZxxbzaHZuaJ0Jb8-llR5ohVlMursMUvfOI2E=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1039354174',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It probably didn&#8217;t come as a surprise to many, but MLS named record-breaking Atlanta United striker Josef Martinez its 2018 MVP on Wednesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":20301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[263,2,119],"tags":[93,129,1006,57,201],"class_list":["post-20297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atlanta-united","category-featured","category-mls","tag-atlanta-united","tag-fifa","tag-josef-martinez","tag-mls","tag-mls-cup"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}