In the 73rd minute of Saturday night’s match at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, three Colorado Rapids players closed in on Andy Rose near midfield. Rose then played a ball over the top to the feet of Obafemi Martins, who had two Rapids defenders right next to him when he received the pass.
Not even Rose could have predicted what would happen next.
With his back turned to the goal, Martins split the defenders by doing a 360 spin and taking one dribble towards the penalty area. Two touches later, the ball was in the back of the net.
Last year, Martins won AT&T Goal of the Year and scored the MLS Goal of the Week fives times, more than any other player in the league. It’s safe to say that this goal – already his fourth this year – has a solid chance to earn Martins his first honor of the 2015 season.
It was part of a strong offensive outing for the Sounders, who won 3-1 after being held scoreless by the LA Galaxy in their previous game. Here is what Martins and Head Coach Sigi Schmid said after the match about the team’s three-goal performance.
Obafemi Martins:
“I can’t really remember what I did, but Rose gave me a good ball. I was thinking to control the ball facing our goal, but I just decided to do something different. So I just turned with the ball and placed it. It was just one of those times where you score a really good goal.”
“Whenever you play LA, it’s one of the toughest games. We had a lot of chances and we couldn’t score. But we just moved on to the next game...and [today] we got the three points.”
Sigi Schmid:
“Fantastic goal. It was a great ball through from Andy Rose, and then Oba makes a fantastic move and bends the ball into the corner. So it was a fantastic goal to his skills.”
“We had a couple of good looks in the second half. I thought we got forward really well. Sometimes getting chances isn’t necessarily reflected in shots. We just missed some opportunities, and then Oba scores a fantastic goal to make it 3-1 and we were able to take it from there.”
