Compelling story line as Inter Miami forward Josef Martinez faces Atlanta on Saturday

If a Hollywood scriptwriter told the story of Inter Miami’s home game against Atlanta United on Saturday night, Josef Martinez would come off the bench with Miami trailing and score the winning goal against his former team.

He would then be serenaded by the Inter Miami fans and carried off the DRV PNK Stadium field by his teammates. Martinez is one of the most prolific scorers in MLS history but has not scored a single goal since joining Miami from Atlanta this season.

Time will tell whether Martinez, the onetime MLS MVP and face of the Atlanta franchise, has a storybook night or whether his goalless drought extends to eight games.

Inter Miami brought Martinez in with lofty expectations as a replacement for the retired Gonzalo Higuain, but so far, he has not delivered. He never came off the bench in Miami’s 2-1 road win at Columbus last Saturday, and against Houston the week before, he entered the game in the 80^th minute.

“He’s frustrated,” Inter Miami coach Phil Neville said. “I do feel as though the next seven or eight games is going to be Josef’s time. He’s getting fitter, stronger and sharper every day, and he’s buying into the fact that his time is coming. Now, more than ever, we need our center forwards.”

Miami is near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings in 12^th place with a 3-6-0 record for nine points and tied with four teams for last place. The team snapped its six-game league losing streak with the win against the Crew after getting a spark with a midweek U.S. Open Cup win against Miami FC.

Martinez and Leo Campana were supposed to be a dangerous duo up top, but Campana missed the first six games with a calf injury and finally scored two goals in the win against Columbus.

“I’m really happy because we played good the two games before and didn’t get the result we wanted,” Campana said. “Now I know we’re on the right path. It was a massive win against a huge team in Columbus. We have to keep going with the same mentality on Saturday.”

The plan going into the season was for Miami to play with two forwards. Against the Crew, Campana was the lone striker. Campana said he has no preference.

“Obviously if I play alone, I will try my best to score, that’s why I’m here, and if I play with Josef, everyone knows the quality he has, he hasn’t scored but I know when he starts to score nobody’s going to stop him,” Campana said. “I believe in him. I hope he can score against his old team. I’m rooting for him.”

Miami has scored eight goals over nine games, which is third lowest in the East.

Other than Campana, there is no Inter Miami player with more than one goal, and midfielder Jean Mota is the only one with multiple assists (three). Mota was scheduled to have knee surgery on Friday after tearing the lateral collateral ligament against Columbus last weekend. He is expected to be out four to six months.

Neville said the fact that the opponent is Atlanta will factor into his decision on Martinez’s playing time.

“You have to take emotions away from it, but I think sometimes scripts are written and you do feel on Saturday a script could be written for Josef against his former, a team he loved, to impact the game off the bench or from starting,” Neville said. “It’s something that’s on my mind.”

Martinez is hungry to score that first goal, but he is trying not to put pressure on himself.

“These things happen to even the best in sports because we are all mortal,” Martinez said. “There are better forwards who have gone through the same circumstances. When I got here, I said the most important thing was to help the team win as much as I could and that is what I am doing. You have to wait and keep working. You never know when the ball is going to roll in your favor.”

If it happens to be Saturday night, that would be the perfect script.