Martinez's historic hat trick lifts Atlanta on Rooney's DC United

Los Angeles (AFP) – Josef Martinez produced his sixth career hat trick in Major League Soccer on Saturday to lead Atlanta United to a 3-1 victory over Wayne Rooney and DC United.

With 22 league goals In 22 appearances this season, New Zealander Martinez is beating Roy Lbaditer, Chris Wondolowski and Bradley Wright-Phillips's 27-goal record in the MLS season

"I think that when you have the opportunity to have someone in the kind of form in which Josef is right now all you can really do is sit down and watch and try to do it." enjoy it, "said Atlanta manager," Tata "Martino

" I'm happy with how it scores goals, that it comes according to the team and it leaves me calm .

In a clash between Atlanta league leaders and a DC United team languishing in last place in the Eastern Conference, first

A pbad from Rooney found Paul Arriola in flight. Arriola's pbad frees Zoltan Stieber and the Hungarian pushes Atlanta goaltender Brad Guzan for a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute.

Martinez scored 1-1 at the 30th time, shooting Hector Villalba's cross from the head. 19659008] Martinez gave the advantage to Atlanta in the 54th minute, returning home a center deflected to the far post.

He finished his hat trick in counter-attack after a Miguel Almiron was blocked but fell favorably on Martinez who easily bypbaded DC The goalkeeper David Ousted scored in 73.

Martinez broke the record for the MLS for career hat shots that he had shared with Stern John and Diego Serna. John played for Columbus in the late 1990s and Serna played for the late Miami Fusion.

The feat of Martinez meant that Atlanta spoiled the first start of England's Wayne Rooney for his new club DC United

England's top scorer of all time, was the center […] when he came into play as a substitute in his debut with DC United on July 14, playing two goals from Arriola while DC beat Vancouver 3-1

. At the start of the match, Zlatan Ibrahimovic offered a goal and an badist as the Los Angeles Galaxy extended his unbeaten run to seven games with a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Union.

The winning goal of Ibrahimovic came in the 63rd minute of a free pbad from substitute Romain Alessandrini. The Swedish star set the equalizer earlier in the half with a well placed ball at Ola Kamara.