First place in the East versus last place in the West. The league’s third-highest scoring team versus its third lowest. The best defense in the country versus the worst, at its only unassailed stadium. You couldn’t have picked two more opposite teams for Wednesday night’s showpiece at GEODIS Park.
It so happened that Sporting Kansas City couldn’t pick up Nashville SC’s attackers, either. The Boys in Gold’s eventual 4-0 win against their Western Conference visitors marked one of, if not the, most comfortable games they have played all season, securing three potentially decisive points in the Supporters’ Shield race as their campaign winds to a close. Nashville now sits 14 points clear atop the league table and can clinch the regular-season title with a win in any of its final five matches.
Nashville took almost no time to exert its influence on its opponents, grabbing its decisive opener inside 10 minutes from, funnily enough, its star No. 10.
There was nothing funny about the finish itself, though, which may just be the best Nashville has seen all year. Reed Baker-Whiting — coming off a goal himself in last weekend’s win at Austin — floated a ball over the box for Andy Najar to latch onto on the right flank before sending in his own cross-goal pass to a lurking Hany Mukhtar. The German set himself, lifted his right leg and leapt upwards, slicing his foot through the ball over his head and into the far netting as the stadium exploded in cheers.
Mukhtar has made a habit of important and spectacular goals this season; his bicycle marked his fourth game with a score in a row and his fifth in that span, adding up to 15 across the entire campaign. The German captain (and MLS MVP hopeful) soon showed the other strength of his game, too, turning playmaker for the Boys in Gold’s second goal.
Baker-Whiting once again provided the initial spark, running onto Matthew Corcoran’s expertly weighted lofted through-ball to one-time a pass toward the center of the box. The ball fizzed toward Mukhtar’s foot like a magnet before he dragged his man to his left then jetted a pass to his right, allowing striker Sam Surridge to fire his boot through the ball first-time at the near post. 2-0 in a matter of moments, and the three points all but sealed.
But the best teams don’t let off when a game looks comfortable: They push for bigger advantages and more dominant wins. Enter Najar and Cristian Espinoza.
Just as the Najar did for Mukhtar’s opener, Espinoza’s perfectly placed cross allowed the Honduran to take his opportunity within six yards of goal, heading in his Argentine teammate’s corner to make it 3-0 inside 30 minutes. Make that 14 assists for Espinoza on the season — tied for the best mark in the league with Miami’s Lionel Messi and Rodrigo de Paul and Seattle’s Albert Rusnak.
All this talk of Nashville’s offense may prompt one to ask how its defense performed. The answer, as they may suspect given their record and the lopsided final score, is phenomenally, if comfortably. The Boys in Gold surrendered just 0.47 expected goals to their own 3.77 by full-time and just one shot on target, with goalkeeper Brian Schwake forced into a solitary save.
The greatest triumph of Nashville’s defense, however, was grounding Kansas City’s livewire. For all of Sporting’s struggles this season and last, a prolific starting forward has not been one of them. Dejan Joveljic scored eight league goals for Sporting prior to his summer move to Seattle, replaced in kind by $18 million Brazilian winger Andre Luiz, who netted seven times in his first seven games before Wednesday’s match. His speed, trickery and eye for a goal looked a stern test for the Boys in Gold ahead of kickoff, but the duo of Maxwell Woledzi and Jeisson Palacios were able to completely nullify him with their own physicality and astute positioning.
Elsewhere, the midfield combo of Corcoran and Eddi Tagseth strangled any opportunities Kansas City sought to break through the center of the park, even if the visitors held more of the ball and completed more passes by the end of the night. They also were vital in kickstarting Nashville’s own attacks, combining for 11 passes into the final third.
Head coach B.J. Callaghan unloaded the bench as the game entered its final frame, sending on Warren Madrigal for Mukhtar, Shak Mohammed for Espinoza, Bryan Acosta for Corcoran and Dan Lovitz for Najar, preserving legs as his team looked to preserve its win.
A Madrigal penalty deep into stoppage time added a fourth goal for good measure — ballooning Nashville’s already colossal goal differential and securing a seventh four-goal game of the year.
That extra rest may prove vital as Boys in Gold take a short break before flying West for a date with San Jose, scheduled for Saturday at 9:30 p.m. CT. Should Nashville win, after Vancouver and St. Louis played to a 0-0 draw on Wednesday, MLS’s premier regular-season title will come back to Music City with them.
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