Nashville SC vs. LAFC
2026 MLS Regular Season | Matchday 14
Sunday, May 17 | 7:00 p.m. CT
GEODIS Park | Nashville, TN
Broadcast Details
Watch | Apple TV
Listen | 104.5 The Zone
Fresh off one of its biggest wins of the MLS season, Nashville SC returns to GEODIS Park Sunday evening for a primetime matchup with fellow Concacaf Champions Cup semifinalist LAFC. The Boys in Gold sit two points clear atop the Eastern Conference with a game in hand, looking to secure yet another marquee victory against one of the top teams in the league.
Key Storylines
A war on the wings
Few teams in MLS can lay claim to a stronger group of attackers than Nashville and LAFC; 2025 Golden Boot runners-up Sam Surridge and Denis Bouanga, 2022 MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar, starlets David Martinez and Warren Madrigal and former Boy in Gold Jacob Shaffelburg adorn the rosters. But two players jump off the page leading into Sunday’s match: Cristian Espinoza and Son Heung-Min, a pair of Designated Players plyingtheir trade on the wing as well as two of the league’s premier facilitators.
Espinoza and Son sit second and first, respectively, in the MLS assist charts ahead of kickoff, with 15 between them. Son’s decade at the top of the European game with English Premier League giant Tottenham Hotspur, as well as his nine-goal, three-assist 2025 campaign — in just 10 games after joining last summer — means he is more than capable of seizing control of games. Espinoza was the all-time assist leader at San Jose before making the move to Music City this offseason and leads a team firing on all cylinders at the top of the conference. Both players are crafty dribblers with the pace to beat any defender and an eye for incisive passes, as well as proven match-winning pedigree.
While their numbers and skill sets might be similar, their current form is not. Son leads the league in assists, but six of those came in two games against Houston and Orlando, without a single goal to his name across 2026. Espinoza, meanwhile, has spread his production out, securing decisive assists against New England, Columbus and Club América in the Champions Cup as well as match-winning goal contributions against Miami (CCC), Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando and Minnesota. Even if their momentum differs, these are two players with more than enough talent to impact Sunday’s game and will be central to their teams’ chances. Get ready for a war on the wings.
A battle of the league’s best
If attacking talent is storyline 1A of Sunday’s matchup, goalkeeping talent is storyline 1B. LAFC’s Hugo Lloris — a longtime teammate of Son’s in England — and Nashville’s Brian Schwake have been the league’s two strongest shot-stoppers, also sitting first and second, respectively, in clean sheets.
Like Son and Espinoza, however, recent games have gone firmly in Schwake’s favor. The 24-year-old has conceded just seven goals in his last 10 games in all competitions and blanked his opponent five times, compared to 18 goals in Lloris’ last 10 games with three clean sheets. A poor run of matches should not distract from what has been an overwhelmingly positive season from the 39-year-old former French captain, however, who put together six straight games without surrendering a goal to start the 2026 MLS season, including a 3-0 opening-day win against Miami.
It’s rare a goalkeeper can be called a difference-maker for his team’s chances of winning a high-stakes game, but Schwake and Lloris inarguably have earned that distinction. Look no further than Schwake’s vital penalty saves in the 2025 U.S. Open Cup Final and April’s road match at Charlotte. Both players will be responsible for shutting down — or at least acting as the last line of defense against — a smorgasbord of offensive all-stars, a role just as vital as the goalscorers.
Series History & What’s Next
Nashville and LAFC are uncommon opponents in each other’s history, meeting just four previous times in MLS play. The squad from California leads the series 2-1-1 with an 8-3 goal advantage, the most recent game coming in March 2024. The Boys in Gold’s lone victory came in October 2022 in Los Angeles, with Teal Bunbury scoring the winner.
Nashville SC takes six days’ rest before returning to GEODIS Park on Saturday, May 23 for a date with New York City at 7:30 p.m. CT, its last match before the summer break.
