A South American playmaker arrived in MLS and set the league on fire over his first three games.
No, I'm not only talking about Nicolas Lodeiro, who sparked the Seattle Sounders massive turnaround and led the team to the 2016 MLS Cup title after arriving in the Pacific Northwest last July.
Another South American attacker, Miguel Almiron, is lighting up MLS this year, and he'll face off with Lodeiro on Friday when Seattle welcomes Atlanta United FC to CenturyLink Field (10 pm ET; FS1 and FOX Deportes in US | MLS LIVE in Canada).
The 23-year-old has been outstanding in his first three games with Atlanta, producing two goals and two assists as the expansion team has posted a 2-1-0 record to sit in third place in the Eastern Conference.
Both he and Lodeiro will return to their clubs this weekend after suiting up for their countries, with Almiron playing for Paraguay in their recent World Cup qualifiers and Lodeiro dressing but not seeing the field for Uruguay in two of their matches.
Through the first three games of 2017, Almiron has clearly been the better player, averaging 698 Audi Player Index points per match to Lodeiro's 492.
Almiron's average was raised greatly thanks to his Week 2 performance against Minnesota United FC, as he accrued 1209 points in a two goal, one assist performance. His two goals, one of which came from outside the box (312 points) and one from inside the box (285 points), were worth a combined 597 points just by themselves.
Lodeiro knows a thing or two about hot starts, as he had one goal and three assists in his first three games with the Sounders last year. The Audi Player Index scoring system has vastly changed from 2016 to 2017, including the decrease in points given to goals, but in those games Lodeiro had an average of 999 Audi Player Index points.
Almiron's start may have not been as good as Lodeiro's was last year, but he does have an opportunity to put one over on his South American counterpart in a huge early season matchup on Friday.
