Nico Lodeiro has already done plenty to etch himself in the history books for the Seattle Sounders and now the playmaker supreme has netted himself an MLS record of his own.
After scoring two first-half penalty kicks in the first half against LAFC on Friday night, Lodeiro has now converted all 14 of his penalties during the regular season, the most by any player with a 100 percent record in MLS history.
Lodeiro had gone into the night tied with former midfielder Benny Feilhaber with a perfect 12 from the spot. Former Sounder Brad Evans, current Montreal Impact midfielder Saphir Taider and ex-US men's national team forward Jovan Kirovski all scored nine from nine penalties during their MLS careers.
As for the secret to Lodeiro's success from 12 yards, Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer has a few ideas.
"Nico just is a guy who has a lot of confidence," Schmetzer said in his post-match press conference. "So I think having a guy who has a little bit of fun and works on it and training. A guy who is very mentally strong, you know, those pressure moments, they don't seem to faze him. I would go back even to the 2016 [MLS Cup] Final in Toronto. I think two of the best penalty kicks in that, in that sequence, were, you know, Nicolas Lodeiro and Joevin Jones. Those were tremendous penalties. So he just has it in him."
Lodeiro's two penalties on Friday at CenturyLink Field came just four minutes and five seconds apart, the quickest any team has scored two penalties in an MLS game since the Houston Dynamo did it in two minutes, 19 seconds against Real Salt Lake 10 years ago.
