Obafemi Martins of Seattle Sounders FC has dominantly won the voting race for the Week 7 AT&T Goal of the Week award. This is Martins's first Goal of the Week award so far in 2015, and it was well deserved.
In a 3-1 Sounders win over Colorado Rapids last Saturday, Martins received a cross from Andy Rose and immediately put a legendary skillful skill move on two defenders to split their marking and get a shot on goal. Oba shot a perfect strike on goal to score Seattle's third goal of the match to finish off a spectacular highlight MLS play. This emphatic 73rd minute goal put the game out of Colorado's reach in the Seattle victory. This strike was Martins's fourth shot of the year to end up in the back of the net for Sounders.
Martins is the second Sounders player to win the AT&T Goal of the Week accolade, as fellow forward Clint Dempsey netted the award in the opening week of the 2015 MLS campaign. Oba received an incredible 64.18% of the votes for GOTW, much, much higher than the rest of the vote-getters. Here are the final vote counts:
1. Obafemi Martins (SEA) – 64.18%
2. Sebastian Giovinco (TOR) – 14.11%
3. Federico Higuain (CLB) – 11.81%
4. Lamar Neagle (SEA) – 6.62%
5. Mehdi Ballouchy (NYC) – 3.28%
It is likely that fans will see more spectacular goals similar to this for Martins in 2015, as Oba is a renowned elite net-finder and set the franchise single-season goal record in 2014 (with 17 goals), and also won Goal of the Year honors in 2014 with this lobbed stunner: