When Nicolas Lodeiro arrived from Argentine giant Boca Juniors in last summer’s transfer window, the Seattle Sounders’ newest Designated Player hit the ground running.
The story has been told and retold: Lodeiro came into a squad that had just parted ways with its longtime head coach and sat at the bottom of the Western Conference table as the possibility of missing the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons grew ever more imminent. But once the Uruguayan playmaker showed up, Seattle rode the eventual MLS Newcomer of the Year to its first MLS Cup title.
What made Lodeiro’s feat all the more stunning was that he did it largely without Clint Dempsey. The duo only played four matches together last season after Dempsey sat out the rest of the season with an irregular heartbeat. The Sounders went 3-0-1 in that stretch and showed an attacking impetus unlike anything they had produced all year.
Dempsey started the 2017 season fully healthy, but after the long layoff in between their time playing together, things have taken a little bit of time to click. Movements, positioning and interplay are still a work in progress, albeit ones that are improving by the game.
The biggest difference between last season and this season is that Lodeiro and Dempsey are essentially playing the same position.
Instead of Dempsey operating higher in the attack and playing like a second striker — his best position and one that he excels so much at with the United States national team playing off target forward Jozy Altidore — Dempsey has so far tried to play more of a No. 10 role in the final third. The problem with this is that Lodeiro is doing the same thing.
Rather than one creating for the other, they are each creating, but without a passing option.
In the Sounders’ 1-0 loss to Toronto FC last week, the Sounders had the majority of possession, but could not find the back of the net. Here is the average position map against TFC.
Dempsey (No. 2) Lodeiro (No. 10) and in this case left midfielder Jordan Morris (No. 13) are all playing in the same small area.
To see what this looks on the field, here is a play from the second half. Osvaldo Alonso has the ball in good positioning 35 yards from goal, but his four passing options in front of him — Dempsey, Lodeiro, Morris and Will Bruin — are all in the same vicinity and his options are limited and narrow.
Alonso opts to pass to Bruin, who is making a run wide, but even if Alonso picked out Lodeiro or Dempsey, both would be forced to operate in a tight window around a ton of bodies.
Now let’s take a look at a couple of those games from 2016 to show how effective Dempsey and Lodeiro were in space and giving the other room to operate. The best example is from Seattle’s cathartic 3-1 road win over Orlando City SC, a match in which Dempsey recorded a hat trick. It was then-interim head coach Brian Schmetzer’s first victory and the match many of the players from last year’s team point to as the defining game that turned their season around.
On Dempsey’s first goal, rather than being a few yards from Lodeiro, who has the ball on the right side, Dempsey is actually farther up field than forward Morris. This stretches the defense and forces Orlando to keep track of both players in different spots, rather than being able to contain them in the same space.
Lodeiro slots the ball wide to an overlapping Tyrone Mears, who coolly plays in a cross. If Dempsey is farther back, Morris is 1-v-2 against two Orlando defenders. Instead, Dempsey and Morris are man-marked and Dempsey easily slips his defender for the easy tap-in.
Because Dempsey and Lodeiro both can play the No. 10 position, they can interchange seamlessly, which is what set up Lodeiro’s assist to Morris against Real Salt Lake a week later. Dempsey has the ball with his back to goal, a defender on him and three more behind him. Dempsey recognizes this, as does Lodeiro, who rather than try and work in front of the clogged middle, sprints out wide and toward the end line.
Dempsey springs Lodeiro through and catches an RSL defense that’s out of position and ill-equipped to handle what has quickly become a goal-dangerous opportunity.
From there, all Lodeiro has to do is whip in a cross to the near post, which finds the onrushing head of Morris for what was the eventual game-winner in a 2-1 game.
Finally, let’s look at the last match Dempsey and Lodeiro played together last season, a resounding 3-1 win over the Portland Timbers and a match in which Dempsey recorded a brace.
On Dempsey’s second goal, Alonso has the ball at midfield and once again, Dempsey is stretching the opposing back line deep, acting as a second striker off Morris. Lodeiro is 15 yards wide of Dempsey and slightly deeper, allowing space in the middle of the field and keeping defenders honest in order to allow the eventual pass to Dempsey from Cristian Roldan.
Alonso passes to Roldan, who take a touch before laying it off easily into the path of Dempsey, who is the beneficiary of added room via Lodeiro’s positioning and the horizontal run of Morris.
This current tendency is not the be-all, end-all for the Sounders. Lodeiro and Dempsey are incredibly cerebral players and are often two or three plays ahead of the game, so it should continue to develop with more reps.
We’ll leave you with a play against Toronto FC where the two nearly combined for a goal by combining with flashes of 2016.
Roman Torres finds Lodeiro in the middle of the field, and Dempsey, playing 10 yards to Lodeiro’s right, makes an off-the-ball run even before it reaches Lodeiro’s feet.
