NASHVILLE – It was bound to happen sooner or later, but you won’t catch Nashville SC head coach Gary Smith saying he’s relieved to get his team’s first home loss out of the way. He won’t say he’s glad to have the pressure of maintaining an eight-game unbeaten streak in the USL off his team’s plate. The one thing he is happy for though, is that Indy Eleven’s 2-0 victory over NSC in First Tennessee Park last night can serve as a wake-up call.
“This game really brings you back to reality,” he said. “Reality is that this is a tough league. Home or away, nothing can be taken for granted. We’ve been on a good run for particular reasons, and those reasons are that week-in week-out, we are at the top end of our form, of our quality, and we don’t take things for granted.
“I think there have been one or two things, not necessarily meaning, but subconsciously, some young players and players that are on a winning streak can sometimes be a little bit complacent, and those fine lines make a massive difference.”
Finishing was perhaps the biggest issue for Nashville SC on the day. They launched 19 shots, 12 of them inside the box, but managed to put only five on the frame. Indy keeper Owain Fon Williams was up to the task with four saves, and had plenty of help from his friends, with left back Ayoze Garcia Pérez saving an Alan Winn headed attempt off the line in the 66th minute.
Nashville lived in Indy’s box all game, with 62.8% of possession in total, and 77% passing accuracy in the opposing half of the field. Indy certainly invited some of that pressure after an early set piece goal by centerback Karl Ouimette and a counter-striker by Justin Braun (both assisted by Ayoze) allowed them to bunker down and see out their result.
“I think the story of the evening really for us was that, after dominating pretty much between the penalty boxes, we weren’t clinical enough or incisive enough in their box,” Smith said. “They got numbers behind the ball and did a pretty decent job – something that we’ve done pretty well in the past. We had a bit of a taste of our own medicine there, and they were clinical enough in our penalty box to take away a good victory.”
“Them scoring the first goal, we talked about as a team, it was really their first chance,” added team captain Michael Reed. “They took advantage of it, so we had to come back and put forth the extra effort. I think it was still early in the game and we still had a lot going in our favor. After the second goal, you have to change your approach. But I think if you look at the second half, and I’m sure the stats will show, was very positive. We just have to be more critical in the box and take advantage of the many opportunities we have and that’s really our problem right now.”
The letdowns at the back are certainly not excused by the fact that both goals were uncharacteristic for Nashville. However, that does give a little bit of hope that they won’t be repeated. The normally sure-handed Matt Pickens let in his first truly soft one of the year for the second Indy tally, a low-angle, low-pace shot from outside the corner of the six-yard box that snuck under his arms.
It hadn’t happened before, and while the goal still counts, there’s certainly some faith that it won’t happen again.
“I don’t think there’s anything that we need to read into too much about the way that the second goal was scored, other than it was a mix-up between Liam [Doyle] and Bradley [Bourgeois],” Smith said. “Bradley tried to step in front of the forward who worked on a little bit of a diagonal, and Matt’s really disappointed in the locker room with his save. He’s been immaculate up to this point. On a night where we concede from a dead ball against the run of play, and Matt makes a mistake, we lose a game, and it doesn’t feel very good and it shouldn’t.”
The sky is certainly not falling after just the third loss of the year (and first at home). Nashville has the opportunity to rebound with a game against Atlanta United 2 this weekend, and that’s one they intend to seize.
“Everyone is going to take how the game went today and go home and self-reflect and see how they saw their performance or as a team saw their performance,” said defender Ryan James. “I think most people will come back and see that there were a lot of positive things to see. But when you lose it’s hard to see past maybe the two goals that scored on us. It’s hard to see past the three points we lost.
“But you really just have to take your time to self-reflect, watch the video and see the positive things you did well and how you can continue to do those positive things and how we can correct the one or two key moments that maybe let us down a little bit. I think that’s the best way to go about it for Saturday and future coming games.”
Atlanta United 2 is among the worst teams in the USL’s Eastern conference, coming in second-bottom ahead of only the pitiful Toronto FC II. Nashville can – and should – get back on track in First Tennessee Park at 7:30 Saturday evening. While climbing into the top two in the league table is no longer a likelihood for that one, getting back on track will feel a relief nonetheless.
Club and Country 