As Josef Martinez bamboozled a handful of Orlando City SC defenders on Friday night and lifted his record-breaking 28th goal of the season over Joe Bendik, there couldn’t have been a more appropriate voice on the broadcast.
Alejandro Moreno, ESPN analyst and fellow Venezuelan, was on the call as color commentator and passionately punctuated Martinez’s record-breaking goal.
“Now and forevermore: VAMOS VENEZUELA!”
With Venezuela facing political and economic turmoil, the importance of the record-breaking goal was not lost on Moreno, whose international career overlapped with the beginning of Martinez’s. After the game, ESPN captured Moreno’s heartfelt congratulations to Martinez.
“Brother, we are all very proud of you,” Moreno said in Spanish. “Know that an entire country is with you, I’m with you, and I wish you the best for what’s left of the season. You don’t know how proud I am of you.”
Both on the broadcast and on ESPN FC this weekend, Moreno organically illuminated the problems currently facing Venezuela and put into context why Martinez’s season is so powerful to his homeland.
“The current situation in Venezuela, the political instability and social unrest – when you have a country in financial chaos and there are no answers in the near future, there’s a hemorrhage of human talent leaving the country because it’s nearly impossible to actually live and survive in Venezuela,” Moreno said, “This moment of Josef Martinez doing what he’s doing in Major League Soccer it provides a moment of hope, it provides respite, it provides a moment to be proud of Venezuela and those moments are very difficult to find in the current situation in our country.
“When Venezuela turns this around – and hopefully sooner [rather] than later – whenever it does happen, it’s going to be because of the talent of the Venezuelan people. And there’s no better example of the talent of Venezuelan people than what we’re seeing right now from Josef Martinez.”
The single-season record is yet another that Martinez now holds in MLS and, depending on how many more goals he can score in Atlanta United’s last eight games of the season, it might be a long time before his record is broken.
“Hopefully, this is something that Venezuelan people can rally around and can feel very proud of,” Moreno said. “And if it’s only for a brief second that they can forget about survival, they can forget about what’s currently going on there, then Josef Martinez is doing all the Venezuelan people a favor.”
Like Moreno, other notable Venezuelans were quick to congratulate their compatriot.
¡El gol de @JosefMartinez17 que celebró toda Venezuela! 🇻🇪 #GiovanniSavarese, @AleMorenoESPN, @YangelHerrera8, @nacholacriatura, @AdrianaMonsalve, @LINDSAYDEPORTES, @VizquelOmar13, @OzzieGuillen, @SalvadorPerez15 y @enderinciartem pic.twitter.com/Jbeu2ffkME
— Fútbol MLS (@futbolMLS) August 25, 2018
“We should all be very proud to be part of what he’s doing, to appreciate what he’s doing, and, certainly for me, being there was an honor,” Moreno said.
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