Nicolas Lodeiro has taken MLS by storm in just three games -- and will aim to continue to do so Sunday night, when the Sounders defend their home against reigning champs the Portland Timbers (9:30 pm ET, FS1, MLS LIVE in Canada).
His performances have led the Sounders to two wins and a draw, putting them back in the playoff race. Individually, Lodeiro has scored a goal and collected three assists, but as a team the Sounders have scored six goals after averaging just above a goal per game in their first 20 games.
The much-improved Sounders attack is also reflected in their expected goals numbers. Expected goals is an advanced soccer metric that measures not how many goals a team has scored, but how many goals an average team would have scored with the amount and quality of shots created.
The data scientists at OptaPro provided the following numbers, which are astounding.
The Sounders accrued 2.95 expected goals against LA on July 31, 3.01 against Orlando City on August 7 and 3.34 against Real Salt Lake last Sunday. Seattle had just one game previously where they garnered more than 2.95 expected goals in a game, which came against a short-handed FC Dallas side last month.
Unsurprisingly, all of Seattle’s star strikers have seen the benefits of Lodeiro’s abilities. All have seen significant improvements in their expected goals figures.
Of course all of this comes with the caveat that three games is a very sample size compared to a 20-game stretch. We will have to wait and see if Lodeiro can continue this blistering pace.
If they are able to, they should be sitting above the red line when the season ends.
