SEATTLE — After one of the most tumultuous weeks in club history, this was not the result the Sounders desperately coveted after such a long string of disappointments.
In the end it was a result, even if the team felt it left two points on the field. And it came with one massive Uruguayan bow tying it all together.
Studded and highlighted by a masterful debut from Nicolás Lodeiro, the Sounders fought the soaring LA Galaxy to a 1-1 draw on Sunday in front of nearly 50,000 fans at CenturyLink Field. Seattle bossed huge swaths of the match and looked genuinely dangerous going forward after a brutal loss a week earlier spelled curtains for Sigi Schmid’s long seven-plus year tenure with the Sounders.
Cristian Roldan snagged his second goal of the year to give Seattle a lead out of the half, and a defensive miscue between Stefan Frei and Brad Evans led in Sebastian Lletget for a tap-in equalizer. And that’s where it stood. A point where three would’ve been considerably more welcome, especially considering the Sounders’ positioning in the Western Conference.
“They worked too hard today to not get a result and not put that team away earlier,” Sounders interim coach Brian Schmetzer said.
Plenty happened on the field Sunday. Osvaldo Alonso did yeoman’s work to quiet Giovani Dos Santos, who had a forgettable match. Nelson Valdez silenced some of the doubters by holding up a ball in traffic to feed Roldan’s goal.
But the match, in essence, was Lodeiro’s showcase. And what a platform it was.
With that in mind, here’s three things we learned specifically about Lodeiro on Sunday.
Best No. 10 Debut Ever?
Lodeiro’s arrival coincided with Schmetzer’s first match as the head man after Schmid’s ouster. There were plenty of swirling questions about how he’d line up this team, how they’d play and how they’d respond from a difficult week. And the biggest question, perhaps, involved whether Lodeiro would play at all, let alone start.
Lodeiro arrived at the Sounders’ training complex from South America on Tuesday, and expecting too much from him on Sunday was perhaps a bit ambitious. But not only did Lodeiro start, he went all 90 minutes and was not only the Sounders’ best player but inarguably the best player on the field period. He ran the show and was the impetus of the vast majority of the Sounders’ most dangerous attacks.
Lodeiro’s numbers beggar belief. He finished with a game-high 124 touches, the fourth-highest total for any player in any MLS game this year. He led everyone - including pass-master Osvaldo Alonso - with 95 passes, including 66 in the Galaxy’s half of the field. His seven crosses and four from open play also led the team, and he managed to make three passes that led directly to shots, as many as anyone on the field.
And remember, this all came five days after arriving in the country and after a minuscule amount of time in training with the full team. If this wasn’t the best debut from an attacking midfielder in MLS history, it was certainly close.
Lodeiro’s Positioning Offers Clues
Lodeiro’s reputation preceded him to MLS, painting him as a clear cut No. 10 who prefers to stay central and pick out runners from that middle pocket. And that’s certainly something he likes doing, but it isn’t the end of his utility. Which is perhaps why it shouldn’t have been all that surprising to see Lodeiro as the wide right attacker in Schmetzer’s 4-2-3-1, the first time that formation has appeared on a lineup sheet all year.
As the match wore on it became clear Lodeiro would hardly be a dedicated right midfielder. Instead, he drifted in and out of the central channel, pulling Nigel de Jong and Jeff Larentowicz from one direction to the next as they attempted to track his mazy movement.
Here’s a glimpse at the locations of the entirety of Lodeiro’s 124 touches. Try picking a single position out of this cluster.
By and large, Lodeiro migrated inside over the course of the match, finding hotspots without defensive pressure and then beating the Galaxy back line either from deep or in close. It quickly became clear that while Lodeiro is comfortable running at defenders and playing in confined spaces - his 15 duels was the game’s highest total - he’s just as comfortable springing runners for clear chances.
Take a look back at Jordan Morris’s chance that Jelle Van Damme cleared off the line late in the second half. The inch-perfect ball Lodeiro played to spring him into the box deserves a gold medal.
Lodeiro A Game-Changer?
The Sounders have had some massively impactful signings over the years. Fredy Montero defined the early years of the Sounders’ trials in MLS. Few forwards have had the earthquaking impact Obafemi Martins had when he joined the league, and his partnership with Clint Dempsey was the league’s best for two years.
But none had a debut like this, and none played Lodeiro’s position. Indeed, the Uruguayan is in the keystone position to open up the game for Seattle, and regardless of whether he’s nominally placed outside or underneath the striker, Lodeiro’s signing signals intent from Seattle that it intends to participate in the wave of South American playmakers.
As Seattle learned early this year, world-beating strikers are often only as good as the service they receive. The Sounders may have had outsize forward talents like Dempsey and Morris, but they had no key to unlock the door to consistent goals. Morris largely racked up his goals in spite of the service, while Dempsey often dropped too deep to score them in the first place.
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Lodeiro changes that. Nearly 70 percent of his prodigious 95 passes came in the Galaxy half of the field, and he was an uncharacteristic 80 percent on those passes despite taking a ton of risky chances. He might not have found the scoresheet, but the eye test doesn’t lie. Lodeiro laid waste to the Galaxy back line in his first ever 90 minutes in the league. Goals and assists are only a matter of time.
The Sounders’ quest for the postseason might not be mathematically lost, but they’ll likely have to win nine or 10 of their final 13 matches to make the playoffs if the current pace around the conference keeps up. So whether or not Lodeiro can help drag the Sounders into the postseason might be immaterial anyway.
But the real takeaway is that the Sounders potentially locked up a cornerstone midfielder for the next few years who can help avoid a similar season in 2017. If Lodeiro plays like he did on Sunday for the rest of his time in the Emerald City, 2016 will be quite the anomaly.
