It is the marquee matchup among the six Wednesday night Major League Soccer games in Week 16, with Columbus Crew SC hosting Atlanta United hosting (7:30 pm ET | TV & Streaming info) with just three points separating the teams at the top of the Eastern Conference.
There’s little separating Gyasi Zardes and Josef Martinez when it comes to the MLS Golden Boot race with Martinez leading with 13 goals in 15 games, and Zardes just behind him with 10 goals in 16 matches.
Let’s take a bit of a deeper dive into the matchup and see what has made them both so successful this season.
Martinez, who is scoring goals at a record clip, has more goals scored in less minutes played and, as such, has a higher goals per 90 minutes rate (97.6) than Zardes (141.8) with both finding most of their goals around the six-yard box.
Martinez has also scored four goals from the penalty spot to Zardes’ one, even though Zardes has won three penalties to Martinez’s two.
