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Just 23 games into his Major League Soccer career, Atlanta United's Josef Martinez has notched his fourth hat trick.

Martinez's three goals lifted Atlanta to a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It was Atlanta's second straight win after a rocky start on the road in Houston.

With his team having its way with the undermanned Whitecaps — who were playing a man down after a red card in the 13th minute — Martinez opened the scoring with a penalty kick.

Martinez bagged two more goals in the second half, and those two scores were impressive.

Atlanta's lightning-quick counter attack produced the second goal, as Miguel Almiron hit Martinez on the breakaway for a one-on-one finish in the 60th minute.

The capper was an 88th-minute header off a cross from 17-year-old American Andrew Carleton, a U.S. national team prospect.

After scoring 19 goals in 2017, Martinez has four through three games this season. Before joining Atlanta, Martinez's previous single-season career-high goal total was eight (most recently in 2013-14 for FC Thun in the Swiss Super League). In 2017, Martinez finished third in the league in goals scored, despite missing 14 games (Nemanja Nikolic of the Chicago Fire led the league with 24 goals).

Martinez is now chasing Stern John for the most hat tricks in league history. John was a potent goal-scoring maven much like Martinez. John played just two MLS seasons and appeared in 55 games — with the Columbus Crew in 1998-99 — but still recorded five hat tricks. 

Since that shocking loss in the season opener, Atlanta United appears to have restored the swagger that made the team such a sensation during its expansion season last year. On Sunday, Atlanta United broke its own single-game MLS attendance record by drawing 71,874 for a 3-1 win over D.C. United.

Contributing: Associated Press.

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