Martinez eager to shine again after injury
ATLANTA — Josef Martinez floated easily between Spanish and English, displaying the deftness he once showed with a soccer ball at his feet.
Clearly, he has expanded his language skills over the past year. He was justifiably proud of the work he’s done.
“Hey, nobody say anything about my English!” he jokingly berated reporters during a Zoom call Friday.
Martinez hopes that no translation will be needed, either, when he steps back on the playing field for his first game in more than a year.
One of the most dynamic strikers in Major League Soccer history, and the face of Atlanta United’s stunning rise to the top of the league, Martinez missed nearly all of last season recovering from a serious knee injury.
With Martinez on the sidelines, the league went through a long pandemic shutdown before finally resuming play in July. But United was not the same team without its top player, struggling to score goals, firing coach Frank de Boer, and plodding to a dismal finish with a listless, uninspired group that missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Martinez is eager to lead a resurgence in the A-T-L. The league opener is April 10 at rival Orlando.
“That was a very hard year for everyone, especially with
everything that happened,” the 27-year-old Venezuelan said. “I’m working to be — I don’t know if it’s 100% — but to be able to train and hopefully for the first game. I’m OK. I’m feeling good.”
Martinez tore the ACL in his right knee during the league opener at Nashville, depriving United of a player who scored a then-record 31 goals and won the MVP award during its run to the MLS Cup title in 2018.
Overall, he has 77 goals in 84 MLS games.
After going down, Martinez was barely able to watch — especially when he saw how far
United tumbled without him.
The team won just six of 23 games, averaging a mere one goal per contest. Only Cincinnati scored fewer — an especially jarring comedown for a franchise that played a thrilling, offensiveminded style during its first two seasons under coach Tata Martino.
“I watched the first two games (of the MLS Is Back tournament) in Orlando, but after that I didn’t watch any more,” Martinez said. “I’m not there to help and I get frustrated and I get mad. I don’t like it when I get mad because I break my house.”
The grind of rehab — especially
with the team struggling and so many restrictive protocols in place because of the pandemic — was also difficult. All sorts of doubts would creep into his head as he worked with head trainer Mario Cruz.
“I know it’s a long year, but day to day the mentality is tough,” said Martinez, sporting a scruffy beard and a collection of jewelry running the length of his left ear. “In the mornings, I would talk to Mario and I’d say, ‘I don’t want to play anymore,’ because in that moment I couldn’t walk. Then in the afternoon, I feel OK — until the next day is another day.”
Tom Crean made it clear he wasn’t ready to reflect.
He said there will be a time to talk about Georgia’s roller-coaster season, from its perfect out-of-conference start to inconsistent SEC play and the dramatic tournament loss to Missouri on Thursday. Less than an hour after the Bulldogs’ 73-70 loss in Nashville — where the Tigers didn’t make a single field goal in the last six minutes — wasn’t the time to recap the year.
“I didn’t say goodbye to my team in the locker room,” Crean said in a virtual postgame press conference. “And I’m certainly not going to reflect on the season just yet because my mind is not in either one of those places.”
Crean said he’s told the NCAA that Georgia wants to play in the National Invitation Tournament, and he has plenty of arguments to back up why the Bulldogs should be offered a bid. Crean said the Bulldogs’ competitiveness against tournament contenders in the SEC should give them the benefit of a 14-win doubt.
“I would really hope that we deserve it, because I think (the SEC) will have plenty of teams in the NCAA Tournament,” Crean said. “I think the fact we beat teams that are going to be in the NCAA tournament, I think that will hopefully serve us well.”
The NIT has been slashed in half this year, leaving 16 teams with a shot at postseason play outside of the NCAA Tournament.
The benefit? Crean said he wants his players to learn how to play in March — the practices, the game experience and the “value of what March is all about.”
“The last thing I want to do right now is not coach this team,” Crean said. “I told everybody after the game, the biggest thing we can do is take a couple of deep breaths, and let’s just see what happens.”
Crean didn’t reflect on the season broadly, but he praised the fight and passion he saw in the lead up to the SEC Tournament and on the court against Missouri. He said the carpet on the second floor of the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University was worn out after the Bulldogs’ Wednesday night walkthrough.
That type of motivation isn’t something Crean wants to see end after the SEC Tournament.
“There’s teams this time of year that have really no interest in playing,” Crean said. “They’re just going through the motions. It’s passive aggressive, and that is not what this team is.”
In a game where both teams shot an identical 43.3% (26-of-60), the Tigers found their edge from the line. Georgia’s last 16 points were offset by Missouri’s last nine, all of which were free throws.
That kind of back-and-forth run could sum up the Bulldogs’ season, Wheeler admitted, but he’s not a fan of moral victories. Losses are losses, and this one brought Georgia to 1412 (7-11 SEC).
“This is a first time experience for everybody, especially playing through a pandemic like COVID-19,” Wheeler said. “But it showed the heart and fight that we have as a team, not to quit and to not to bow down to anyone.”
Wheeler is optimistic for the future. Personally, he’s aiming for the top five of the SEC next year. But like Crean, Wheeler is holding out for the chance at a better ending than the one he suffered in Nashville.
“This group of guys, together, we have good chemistry,” Wheeler said. “We wish we could keep playing. Hopefully, (we are) praying that it’s not over just yet.”