The wizard of Subaru Park, José Martínez, is a main ingredient of the Union’s success

Newly blond Venezuelan José Andrés Martínez, all 159 pounds of him, is the defensive midfield engine of the Union. With three players — Dániel Gazdag, Julián Carranza, and Mikael Uhre — providing double-digit goals this season, the contribution of Martínez is at times overlooked, but there’s a reason his father passed on to him the nickname El Brujo, which translates to wizard.

Tasked with stopping an opponent’s attacks and winning the ball, Martínez, 28, is an energetic mosquito on the field, buzzing around. He is the fulcrum of many of the team’s defensive stops transitioning to counterattacks, and a big reason for the squad’s success in the MLS standings even though the Union usually fall short in one key area that many assume is vital: possession percentage.

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Things might have been different for Martínez if he hadn’t grown up in a small town near his birthplace of Maracaibo, with a soccer field so close to his mother’s house that he could walk there to play daily. “At 6 or 7,” Martínez said, “I played every day, with all the kids from the neighborhood.”

Instead of playing with only those his age, Martínez quickly learned to adjust to players who were larger, faster, and more skilled, learning to time his tackles and ball control to the greatest effectiveness. With family support of his career choice, he moved on to a pro club in Maracaibo. Eventually, he helped his club, Zulia, earn the 2018 Copa Venezuela title and then the team made a historic run in the Copa Sudamericana. That’s where he first caught the eye of the Union and transferred midseason in 2020.

“They received me in the greatest way possible,” Martínez told the Inquirer in Spanish. “My debut was against LAFC in Los Angeles, and it was a great game, 3-3. The manager [Jim Curtin] thanked me for how well I played.”

With Martínez working his midfield magic, the Union won their first Supporters’ Shield trophy in 2020, then made the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2021.

This season, the team is on track for another Supporters’ Shield trophy, and the players also have the MLS Cup title in their sights.

“That’s my objective this year, because it’s the most important trophy in this league,” Martínez said. “Our team needs to win something this year, otherwise, we’ll go into the offseason unhappy. The playoff exit last season was tough.” (The Union were eliminated one game away from the final while a number of players were out because of COVID-19 protocols.)

For Martínez, the most difficult part of the transition to MLS wasn’t on the field, where he has instinctively always excelled.

“I’ve never been away from my family for so long,” Martínez explained. “I miss them every day.”

He keeps in touch with them regularly with video chats and has also discovered favorite Venezuelan and Argentine restaurants in Philadelphia that help blunt his homesickness.

Xabi Alonso, the great Spanish player, has always been Martínez’s idol. The dream Martínez still clings to is to one day play in Europe, but he views every accomplishment on the road to that ultimate goal as vital. He also takes inspiration from how many former Union players, like Brenden Aaronson, have successfully made that dream come true.

“We’re doing well,” Martínez said. “Many of our players have demonstrated their qualities and have gone abroad and I hope to do the same.”

It might seem on the stat sheet that Martínez doesn’t contribute much (no goals, four assists), but he often dictates the start of the Union’s attacking plays. Of course, it wouldn’t do any good for Martínez to win the ball so regularly if his teammates weren’t ready to do something with all the opportunities he creates. “We row the same way,” Martínez explained of the Union’s winning formula. “If one starts a run, we all run. We’re united. We have our mission clear in all our heads.”

The playoffs may throw a wrench into any plans of an eventual MLS Cup meeting of the league’s best teams, but all season long, it has seemed a battle of guts vs. glitz between the Union and LAFC, the team Martínez first encountered in his memorable debut match. The Union are a mere two points ahead of LAFC, and all of its numerous big-name players, in the standings.

Martínez isn’t intimidated.

“LAFC has good players. [Carlos] Vela, [Gareth] Bale, [Giorgio] Chiellini, but when you know your objectives, you stay focused. In the Union, even the younger players know what we need to do and they’re all willing to do it. We’re in first place, ahead of all those teams with big stars.”

Playing with passion sometimes comes at a price, and Martínez could be suspended by the league for a headbutt in the team’s most recent match against Orlando. However, whenever he steps on the field, his plan for every game is the same.

“The most important thing is to stay concentrated,” he says. “I don’t compete against my teammates; I compete against the competition. I always want to go up against their best player and do better than that person. It doesn’t matter if it’s the best player in MLS — I want to show what I can do.”

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It’s a chain of success in the beautiful game that Martínez has now passed down to his young son Luciano in Venezuela, who is already known as Brujo Jr. Martínez also hopes to leave a legacy in Philadelphia as well.

“Soccer is joy; it’s the best sport in the world,” Martínez said of inspiring children who come to watch the Union play. “You forget everything else when you’re on the field. When kids see that, they’ll want to be a part of it.”