Atlanta United striker Josef Martínez is coming off a record-breaking 35-goal season that included an MVP award and an MLS Cup. A repeat of that those stellar marks — or even coming close to them — was always going to be difficult. But as the 2019 regular season comes to a close, the Venezuelan striker may be in even better form than he was in Atlanta United’s championship campaign, showing the qualities of a complete striker more consistently than he ever has in MLS



At the end of last season, Martínez understood that a new manager, new tactics and new teammates would offer unique challenges.



“I don’t want to say it’ll be impossible, but it’s going to be very difficult to have a season like I did this year,” Martínez said then.



It looked for a while like he might be right. At times this season, it has been difficult for Martínez to score goals. But as this year’s...