Sweet, suffocating revenge.
Nashville SC left no doubt Saturday night under the GEODIS Park lights, commanding its final match before the October international break with a 2-0 hammering of Toronto FC. With the win, the Boys in Gold extended their lead atop the MLS table to 10 points and moved within 14 points of the league record with seven matches yet to play, keeping them in pole position for the No. 1 overall seed in November’s playoffs.
Here’s what we learned.
Still got it
October’s international window has, as any does, hindered some squads more than others. Some teams, like Miami, Montréal and Red Bull New York, saw as many as nine or 10 departures, while others, like St. Louis, endured only one. Toronto and Nashville sat in the middle of the pack with three and four, respectively, but the impact of those absences far overshadowed the raw numbers. The former headed to Tennessee without its starting right back and one of its starting center backs, while the latter lacked one of the league’s best midfielders (Patrick Yazbek) and the presumptive MLS Goalkeeper of the Year (Brian Schwake). The question before kickoff, then, was whether the Canadians could leverage Nashville’s absences into its first loss at GEODIS Park this season, or if the Boys in Gold could still dominate even without two of their stars.
The answers? An emphatic no, and an even more emphatic yes.
Nashville rarely had to play behind the ball throughout one of the most lopsided wins it has had all season. That’s not to say it faced no adversity; Josh Sargent and Theo Corbeanu had moments in front of the home goal. But Joe Willis, the Boys in Gold’s longtime keeper before Schwake’s breakout, suited up for the first time this season and slammed the door shut on any upset hopes the Canadians had. The 38-year-old produced a series of superb saves in the first half to preserve his team’s clean sheet, earning man-of-the-match honors and more than one round of well-deserved applause from the home support.
Matthew Corcoran and Eddi Tagseth, too, proved a more than capable alternative to Yazbek, helping the Boys in Gold to more than 60% possession and drastic advantages in nearly every passing statistic. Maxwell Woledzi and Jeisson Palacios overmatched Toronto’s attack with their size and speed behind them, handing the midfielders free rein to do what they pleased.
Nashville won’t play another match until mid-October, when it travels for a rematch of last season’s U.S. Open Cup Final against Austin. By that point, Schwake and Yazbek, alongside Ahmed Qasem and backup goalie Xavier Valdez, will be back in the team. Service as usual should resume. But the ability of the Boys in Gold to exert such dominance and maintain such defensive rigidity without two of their most vital players is yet another sign of their championship credentials and further validation of GEODIS Park’s impregnability.
10 hits 100
Another matchweek, another masterful performance from Hany Mukhtar.
There are few, if any words, that have not been used to describe the German throughout his glittering Music City career. He leads the club in all-time goals and all-time assists, is a five-time All-Star (all in a row), won the 2022 MVP award and now captains the runaway favorite for the MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield titles in a few short months. With his brace against Toronto on Saturday, he also became just the 16th player in league history to eclipse 100 goals.
The goals themselves were works of art. One came from some stellar interplay between Elias Saad and Cristian Espinoza to find Mukhtar unmarked at the far post, the other from a superb individual effort to the far corner from the edge of the box. Each exhibited the roundness of Mukhtar’s game: his intelligence to get in the right places and his ability to uncork the spectacular when required.
These sorts of performance are, as any fan should agree, not uncommon for the 31-year-old. This season alone, he’s already netted a brace in a 4-1 throttling of Inter Miami, the winner at Estadio Azteca, a last-gasp decider at Columbus and a hat trick in May’s 3-2 victory against LAFC. That’s not to mention his seven league assists, placing him first in goal involvements for the Boys in Gold in 2026 and above 20 for the fifth time in six seasons.
There are still seven matches to play this regular season — three at home — in addition to a potential deep playoff run. Who’s to say what other milestones he could reach?
Onto the home stretch
Game after game this season we’ve spoken about the records Nashville has broken, the players who have established themselves among the league’s elite and the team’s mental fortitude when challenged. Its regular season is already the stuff of legend, and with its challengers faltering as Nashville continues to roll, a Supporters’ Shield title doesn’t look far away. In fact, it’s far closer than many might recognize.
Upon Nashville’s trip to Texas, the MLS regular season will be inside a month of ending. A 34-game odyssey that started in February, paused for two months this summer and kicked back into gear in July is almost over and, with it, the prelude to the real meat the Boys in Gold are chasing. Through international absences, Mukhtar’s brilliance and another defensive masterclass against Toronto, Nashville has once again displayed all the traits of a team capable of reaching new heights. Overcoming an opponent it lost to in heartbreaking fashion earlier this month with such dominance proves as much. Saturday thus looks to be the perfect springboard for 2026’s final act. And while two weeks of rest will provide a welcome reprieve, it’s right back to business.
The home stretch beckons.
Next Home Match
