SEATTLE – Nicolas Lodeiro is starting to look like his old self again.

The Seattle Sounders’ star midfielder is coming off a 2017 campaign that saw him score seven goals and bag 12 assists, solid numbers by any standard. But he didn’t quite replicate his historic dominance that he achieved when he first came to MLS in 2016, when he scored four goals and tallied eight assists in just 1,170 minutes, leading the Sounders to their first-ever MLS Cup.

Some speculated the league was starting to figure him out. Defenses were keying in on him, game-planning with the express intent of neutralizing his impact on games.

In the Sounders’ 2018 CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 series against Santa Tecla, however, Lodeiro got his 2018 off to a rip-roaring start. He bagged a 40-yard golazo in the first leg in El Salvador to give the Sounders a crucial road goal. He then followed that up with another goal and two assists in Seattle’s 4-0 second-leg romp at CenturyLink Field on Thursday that saw Seattle through to the CCL quarterfinals.

“I mean, the goal down there was class,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters after the Leg 2 blowout. “His goal and assist tonight were very, very good.”

Lodeiro assisted on forward Will Bruin’s opener just after second-half kickoff on Thursday before bagging Seattle’s second goal with a flicked header off a Clint Dempsey cross in the 69th minute. He then delivered a pinpoint corner kick that defender Chad Marshall headed home in the 81st.

“The set-piece assist, that’s something we work on,” Schmetzer said. “Chad Marshall in that spot we knew was going to be dangerous.”

For the Sounders, the hope is that the strong start to the season from Lodeiro is a sign of things to come. If he can find his MVP-caliber form of 2016 during the MLS season, it could go a long way in helping offset the loss of forward Jordan Morris, who tore his ACL in the first leg of the series in Santa Tecla.

“It’s been nice to get him on the scoresheet,” Schmetzer said. “But that’s not the only value that he brings. You saw Cristian [Roldan] and Nico there in the midfield in the second half, they cover a lot of ground. So they did a really good job back there dictating the game.”