Atlanta United’s free-flowing offense was one of the biggest additions to MLS in 2017, and while it passed the eye test, the numbers also back it up. Here are the stats behind Atlanta’s incredible first year.
Let’s start with the team’s leading goalscorer, Josef Martinez, who fell just short of the Golden Boot as top scorer despite missing several months due to injury. In all, he scored a goal every 80.4 minutes, the best rate in the league, and his 1.12 goals per 90’ is the best in MLS history. His three hat tricks this year put him just two behind the record for most MLS hat tricks in an entire career, and he became just the third player ever to record back-to-back hat tricks in MLS against New England and Orlando in September.