After a record-breaking season that will go down in Major League Soccer lore, Josef Martinez capped off his stellar 2018 season with MLS Cup, and the 2018 MLS Cup Most Valuable Player award.
The Atlanta United forward was named MLS Cup MVP, after scoring the winning goal and assisting on the insurance tally in a 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday.
The 25-year-old scored his 35th goal in MLS play, regular season and MLS Cup Playoffs combined, in the win, extending his own combined record. Martinez broke the single-season regular season scoring mark of 27 goals, initially set back in the league's inaugural season of 1996, with a new record of 31 tallies.
The Venezuelan's season led to him winning the 2018 Landon Donovan MLS MVP award, and in being named the MLS Cup MVP, he becomes the fifth player in league history to win both MLS MVP and MLS Cup MVP in the same season, joining Tony Meola (2000, Kansas City), Carlos Ruiz (2002, LA Galaxy), Guillermo Barros Schelotto (2008, Columbus Crew SC) and Robbie Keane (2014, LA Galaxy).
Josef Martinez's 2018 MLS Cup Goal:
