NASHVILLE, Tenn. (July 24, 2021) – Nashville Soccer Club dominated rival FC Cincinnati in a convincing 3-0 shutout win at Nissan Stadium on Saturday night behind masterful offensive performances from CJ Sapong and Hany Mukhtar.
Rising up the Table: With the win on Saturday night, Nashville SC officially finished the night in second place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 6W-1L-8D and 26 points. The victory extended its current overall unbeaten streak to seven matches owning a 4W-0L-3D record in that span.
Spectacular Sapong: Forward CJ Sapong flourished in tonight’s win, being directly involved in all three goals, scoring two and notching an assist. Sapong’s brace was his seventh of his career and first since Sept. 14, 2019 against FC Dallas as a member of Chicago Fire FC.
Music City Magic: The Boys in Gold continued their stellar play in front of the home crowd at Nissan Stadium extending their undefeated home run to 12 since November 2020.
Nashville SC will return to action Sunday, August 1 when it visits Toronto FC in the club’s first ever MLS match north of the border. Fans can tune in to the action on MyTV30 or live stream the game on www.NashvilleSC.com at 6 p.m. CT to watch the pregame show.
Match Timeline
NSH 13’: Hany Mukhtar makes a run into the box and centers the ball perfectly for CJ Sapong to score from the six-yard box
NSH 35’: Randall Leal smashes his shot to the back of the net following a ball played short by CJ Sapong
NSH 57’: Hany Mukhtar carefully floated a ball to the back post off of a free kick which found CJ Sapong on the other end to head the ball into the goal
Notes
- Nashville SC improved to 1W-0L-1D against rival FC Cincinnati in its MLS history
- Nashville SC has out-shot on target FC Cincinnati 17-2 in two matches this season
- Nashville SC are tied for the highest goal differential in the Eastern Conference +10
- Nashville SC owns a 5W-0L-0D record when scoring the first goal of the match this season and when leading at halftime. They are 10W-1L-0D all-time when leading at the half
- Nashville SC held FC Cincinnati to 0 shots on target
- Tonight’s attendance was 23,832, the largest crowd of the season
- Gary Smith led squads are 47W-7L-20D when scoring the first goal of the match and 33W-0L-12D record when scoring the first goal of the match at home
- Brian Anunga holds a 9W-2L-10D record when appearing in a match
- Randall Leal scored his first goal since May 23 against Austin FC
- Designated Player Aké Loba made his home debut as a substitute in the 68th minute
- Dax McCarty passed Bobby Boswell for sixth place on the all-time minutes played leaderboard with 32,247 minutes
- Hany Mukhtar registered his first career multi-assist game. He sits at second all-time in assists in Nashville SC history with eight
- CJ Sapong has scored in three of his last five matches and is the third Nashville SC player this season to register a goal and an assist in the same match. Sapong has recorded five goals in his Nashville SC career, all coming at Nissan Stadium and all of them ending in victories. Sapong registered his third assist of the season tonight, the highest since 2018
- Taylor Washington started in his second consecutive match, the first time in his MLS career
- Joe Willis is now first in MLS in shutouts with seven, and has recorded 16 clean sheets in 28 matches
BOX SCORE
Nashville SC 6W-1L-8D vs. FC Cincinnati 3W-7L-4D
July 24, 2021 — Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tenn.
Final Score
NSH: 3
CIN: 0
Scoring Summary
NSH: CJ Sapong (Hany Mukhtar) 13’
NSH: Randall Leal (CJ Sapong) 35’
NSH: CJ Sapong (Hany Mukhtar) 57’
Discipline
CIN: Gustavo Vallecilla (Caution) 38’
NSH: CJ Sapong (Caution) 68’
CIN: Geoff Cameron (Caution) 81’
NSH: Hany Mukhtar (Caution) 84’
Lineups
NSH: Joe Willis; Jalil Anibaba, Dave Romney, Eric Miller, Dylan Nealis (Matt LaGrassa HT), Taylor Washington; Dax McCarty (C) (Luke Haakenson 89’), Hany Mukhtar (Abu Danladi 89), Tah Brian Anunga (Alex Muyl 82’); Randall Leal, CJ Sapong (Aké Loba 68’)
Unused Substitutes: Irakoze Donasiyano, Roberto Castellanos, Bryan Meredith, Jhonder Cádiz
TOTAL SHOTS: 8 (Sapong, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (Sapong, 2); FOULS: 14 (Leal, 4); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 0; POSSESSION: 34.2%
CIN: Kenneth Vermeer; Edgar Castillo (Quimi Ordonez 74’), Gustavo Vallecilla (Nick Hagglund HT), Geoff Cameron, Joe Gyau, Caleb Stanko (Brandon Vazquez 63’); Haris Medunjanin (Kamohelo Mokotijo 69’), Yuya Kubo, Luciano Acosta (C); Brenner, Alvaro Barreal (Isaac Atanga HT)
Unused Substitutes: Ben Mines, Frank Kovacevic, Przemysław Tytoń, Avionne Flanagan
TOTAL SHOTS: 7; SHOTS ON GOAL: 0; FOULS: 15; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 1; POSSESSION: 65.8%
Referee: Guido Gonzales Jr.
AR1: Matthew Nelson
AR2: Kevin Klinger
4th: Baldomero Toledo
VAR: Daniel Radford
AVAR: Joshua Patlak
Weather: Clear, 89 degrees.
Attendance: 23,832
Statistics are unofficial.
