A royal performance in the Queen City.
Nashville SC put on a show Saturday night in North Carolina, riding two spectacular strikes from its midfielders to a thrilling 2-1 win against Charlotte FC. The Boys in Gold’s victory, their fifth in MLS play, puts them alone atop the Eastern Conference standings and within two points of the Supporters’ Shield lead, having scored a conference-high 15 goals.
Nashville opted for a heavily rotated squad Saturday, resting many of its traditional starters with the second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal looming. The Boys in Gold made seven changes to their lineup, most notably among its forward line, where Cristian Espinoza, Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge made way for the youthful trio of Warren Madrigal, Woobens Pacius and Ahmed Qasem.
Despite not possessing the experience of those they replaced, Nashville’s new-look attack was threatening as ever, stretching the Charlotte defense into several last-gasp saves. One of the best moments came earliest: Qasem took two defenders out of the game with a deft turn on the edge of the box in the third minute before the ball fell to Patrick Yazbek, who fizzed a shot that bobbled in and out of the goalkeeper’s handsjust shy of the goal line.
The breakthrough soon followed. Yazbek mazed his way across the edge of the box before poking the ball toward Eddi Tagseth — himself rested midweek — who uncorked a laser of a shot from 20 yards out into the top-left corner. That goal marked Nashville’s 22nd of the season as well as Tagseth’s first for the club since joining last year.
Tagseth’s superb score highlighted a spectacular all-round evening for the Norwegian, who helped Nashville dominate a talented Charlotte midfield alongside Yazbek and Alex Muyl. The trio’s work rate, stamina and ability to weave the ball out of cramped situations kept the hosts on the defensive for much of the match. And when Charlotte found space to move forward, the Boys in Gold rallied to steal it back, helping the visitors to a 62-38% possession advantage at halftime with 325 completed passes to 198.
As if that wasn’t enough, Yazbek got in on the goalscoring action in the 62nd minute. The Australian weaved his way through the center of the pitch before breaking out to the right and lashing his laces through the ball, deflecting on its way toward the net to wrong-foot the keeper and send his team up 2-0. In a perfect bit of poetry, that was Yazbek’s second career Nashville goal.
Charlotte regained some control out of the break, but not enough to usurp Nashville. The visitors’ defense was typically excellent across the match, holding a Charlotte squad that has scored 12 times in six MLS games to just three shots on target. The hosts nearly got on the board inside 10 minutes with a freak cross which arced toward the top-right corner before Brian Schwake instinctively palmed it away. But that was, somehow, not even the most impressive bit of goalkeeping from the 24-year-old, who produced an assured save on an Idan Toklomati penalty kick just minutes after Yazbek scored. The visitors halved the deficit with another penalty in the 90th minute, but Schwake’s pair of vital stops earlier in the match meant it was too little too late.
Elsewhere, Dan Lovitz and Jack Maher locked down the left flank and right side of defense, respectively, as Maxwell Woledzi performed the usual sweeping and ball-progressing duties that have made him a breakout star of the 2026 season. Mukhtar, Surridge and Espinoza joined the fray in the final minutes of regulation to see out the result, one with the argument as Nashville’s most impressive of the campaign.
The Boys in Gold stay on the road, heading to Mexico City for the second leg of its Champions Cup Quarterfinal against Club América, scheduled for Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. CT, before returning to MLS play at Atlanta United next Saturday.
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