TORONTO – In the previous round of the MLS playoffs it was Ignacio Piatti who Toronto FC zeroed in on.
Considered one of the best creative midfielders in the league, Piatti was at the heart of a Montreal Impact attack that overwhelmed the Reds at times in their Eastern Conference semifinal, with the Argentine scoring one goal and adding an assist over the two legs.
Now Toronto must face another talented South American playmaker in Saturday’s MLS Cup final at BMO Field: Nicloas Lodeiro of the Seattle Sounders.
Lodeiro, a 27-year-old native of Uruguay, has taken the league by storm since joining Seattle from Buenos Aires club Boca Juniors in late July. At the time, the Sounders were floundering—they were rooted to the bottom of the Western Conference standings and fired long-time coach Sigi Schmid.
The Uruguayan’s arrival, along with the appointment of Brian Schmetzer as Schmid’s replacement, marked the beginning of an amazing Seattle renaissance. Lodeiro went on to score four goals and added eight assists in 13 regular season appearances. The Sounders climbed up the table and finished fourth in the West after wining eight of their final 14 games of the season, with only two losses.
Lodeiro has been just as effective in the playoffs, with four goals in five starts, and he was recently named MLS newcomer of the year.
Schmetzer admitted he didn’t get a chance to watch the Lodeiro play in person for Boca when the Sounders were scouting him, but he hasn’t been the least bit surprised by how the Uruguayan has made such a big and immediate impact in MLS.
“He came as advertised. We’d been doing some extensive scouting, sending three different people to watch him live, obviously watching him on film. We did a lot of due diligence to make sure that he was the right fit for our team, but he was almost better than what you saw on TV, better than what you saw on film,” Schmetzer said on a recent conference call.
“From the minute he came on the training field, on the game day field, he’s been tremendous.”
His influence in helping to turn around the Sounders hasn’t gone unnoticed by Toronto coach Greg Vanney, who called the Uruguayan one of the best players in MLS at pulling the creative strings.
“One of the pieces [Seattle] missed, regardless of coaching staff, was the guy who can unlock the defence, make the final pass,” Vanney said.
“They’ve got guys who can run off the ball, who are very direct; some pieces that could hurt you, for sure. They were just lacking that link… that’s what they picked up in Lodeiro. He’s goal dangerous, but he’s also a guy who can find the right guys at the right time with the right pass. It’s added to their group.”
What’s the key to stopping Seattle’s danger man?
“For us, it’s having a good understanding of how we manage him, depending on what areas he comes from,” Vanney explained. “Seattle sometimes plays Lodeiro from an outside position, sometimes inside. He’s not the only playmaker, but the key playmaker.”
What makes managing Lodeiro such a challenge for opposing teams is that the South American star doesn’t need a lot of space to operate.
“Nicolas is a very technical player,” Vanney said. “He’s very clever also in how he moves around the field, and he doesn’t need a lot of space, and he obviously sees passes very early, but he doesn’t need a lot of space to unlock a team to find the runners around the field.”
As is so often the case with championship games, one-on-one matchups between marquee players become one of the prevailing storylines, and in this case that’s Lodeiro vs. Toronto’s Sebastian Giovinco.
The Italian has four goals to go along with four assists this post-season, underlining his importance to the Canadian club. Comparisons between Giovinco and Lodeiro are natural, even though they play different positions and have different roles.
“Are their skill sets the same? Not exactly, although I do think there is some crossover between what each of them are capable of doing,” Vanney said.
“Obviously, Nicolas is more of an attacking midfielder than he is a forward, and Seba is more of a forward than he is an attacking midfielder. But there’s some clear sort of value that each of them bring to their respective teams.”
For his part, Lodeiro doesn’t see any similarities between his game and Giovinco’s.
“We’re completely different players,” the Uruguayan told reporters in Seattle earlier this week. “The only way that we’re alike is we’re short.”
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