After netting his fourth and fifth goals of 2018 Saturday, Roland Lamah is challenging our idea of the kind of player he is. The deuce was his sixth-career multi-goal game, and he’s only scored in nine games (!!).

It was widely considered that Lamah’s talent wasn’t actually that of someone who scored 11 goals in his debut MLS season, rather of someone who only scored in five of his 32 appearances. This seemed like a fair title considering he certainly didn’t have a consistent impact on the team’s offense -- then again who did last season?

Now just nine games into 2018, Lamah has already equaled his 2017 assist mark (three) and is nearly halfway to equaling his goal total from a year ago. Yes, he’s only scored in three games and hadn’t scored since the March 24th win over Seattle, but maybe we’ve been painting his largest threat as his biggest shortcoming.

Roland Lamah’s 16 career league goals have come on just 55 shots. That is a remarkable 3.44 shots per goal -- let that sink in. For context, Maxi Urruti has also scored 16 goals in the past two seasons, and those came on 132 shots. The two play very different games, but you want decisive wingers (remember Fabian Castillo’s biggest weakness?) and Roland Lamah chooses his chances and takes them very well.

This is a wonderful revelation for FC Dallas, especially if we’re going start seeing more of 2016 Mauro Diaz. Three of Diaz’s assists have been to Lamah and I think this is because Lamah makes smart runs and always finds himself near the ball in the box.

This from Saturday was so pretty as he had the patience to run laterally away from Cole while Diaz served him a delicious ball.

A Final Thought

Whether it’s one goal in four straight games or two two-goal games in a span of four, FC Dallas needs all of Roland Lamah’s goals. In just the second game of the year where the team allowed more than one goal, if not for his deuce, FCD loses at home.