After #CupDreamz came to an end almost a week ago, it’s time for Nashville SC to double down and refocus on league play. Can they get revenge on the last team to beat them in a USL contest?
The essentials
Opponent: Atlanta United 2 (2-7-5, 16 GF, 28 GA so far in 2018, 15th in USL East, 15th in USL East Power Ratings and 28th in combined-table Pure Power)
The Line: None available (will update if one is published)
Time, Location: 7:30 p.m. CDT • First Tennessee Park
Event: USL Regular season
Weather: 81ºF, 24% chance of rain, 74% humidity, 6 MPH Southerly winds
Watch: In person! Locally on MyTV30, stream with a subscription to ESPN+. See the list of soccer bars in Nashville if you want to watch remotely.
Listen: Locally on 94.9 Game2 in English, 96.7 El Jefe FM en Español.
Tailgate: With the Assembly and Eastern Front SG at Von Elrod’s, with The Roadies at Pastime. Music City Supporters at Germantown Depot.
Follow: @NashvilleSC, @ClubCountryUSA, USL gametracker page, @ATLUTD2, #NSHvATL
Etc.: Gary Smith and Justin Davis press conference.
Elsewhere: Speedway Soccer‘s latest ep includes a preview.
Atlanta United 2
This is a bad team. Like other MLS reserve sides, however, they have the opportunity to be a lot better or a lot worse game-to-game based on the talent they have available. This squad has had some really exciting players as long as they aren’t with the parent club. Both Andrew Carleton and Chris Goslin – US Youth internationals – are expected to play for the team (certainly they were named to the full roster for the weekend, we’ll see if they make the gameday lineup or even travel with the parent club heading in the opposite direction to Orlando).
Carleton is a playmaker at the attacking midfield position, while Goslin is a box-to-box type whose talent to date has mostly been shown as a holding type for ATL UTD 2 (he’s a bit more versatile with US youth national teams). Those guys – both signed to MLS contracts that allow them to be dropped down to the USL side – are not truly the keys to this team (in part because they spend a lot of time with Barco and Co., even if they rarely see the field for the big boys), though. Nor is a guy like Lagos Kunga, another MLS guy who spends time down ATL UTD 2, and is the team’s leading assist-man (2) and has one goal in just six appearances.
That honor goes to folks like Jon Gallagher (also signed to Atlanta United, but with zero appearances for the A-team), who leads the team with five goals and has also added an assist. He’s among the squad’s leaders in minutes, as well, starting 11 of the 14 games to dates as a forward.
Mikey Ambrose is an MLS loanee and Laurent Kissiedou a USL guy, and they’re the only non-Gallaghers with more than one goal (each with two). While this team is sort of a copy of the MLS team, they clearly don’t have the ability to actually score like the Five Stripes do, and they’re much leakier at the back than the parent club – which has that reputation but actually is fairly stout on D.
26-year old Jack Metcalf is a pure USL signing, and he’s got just a seven-minute lead in game action on midfielder Oliver Shannon (who is 22, an MLS signing who’s on a season-long loan to the B-side). Andrew Kendall-Moulin is only 23, but another pure USL guy, paired with AJ Cochran who is just 25 but signed to the USL team himself. That duo leads the team by a wide margin in clearances.
“This is a very talented, young group of players,” Nashville SC head coach Gary Smith said. “This group don’t lack talent, what they lack is experience in many cases. They’re young players learning the trade. For most developing young players, they’re not always consistent with their form.
“They do play very similarly to the first team: their outside backs will be aggressive, they’ll get forward, they’ll be bright and purposeful getting bodies and numbers into good areas. And they have individuals that are very very creative on their own, not needing to combine.”
One interesting thing to watch? Whether we see some players who have already taken the pitch art First Tennessee Park. Some players who have moved down to the USL team (or were temporarily brought up from it) since the Feb. 10 friendly against Atlanta United could be available, and even Romario Williams, who scored for the Five Stripes in that one, has spent some time with the USL team – though of course, we’re not expecting to see him.
Another note: this team is on looooong rest. They haven’t finished a game since way back June 13 (and played just under half of one a couple days later before lightning scuttled their match against Ottawa Fury). I don’t know if that’s super-impactful for such a youthful side – it probably just affords them to train with the first team a bit more in the interim. That could mean some get a chance with the MLS team this weekend after impressing during those training sessions, which is obviously good for development and the organization as a whole, less so for the competitiveness of this team.
The Boys in Gold
I think it’s fair to say this team is slumping a bit. Nashville has just one win in its last four games in all competitions, and even that was a last-kick escape against a poor North Carolina FC side. They’re off losses in two straight, both against teams that had already beaten them earlier in the year.
“These are all lessons that we’re learning, and it’s part of the experiences of being a brand-new group,” Smith said.
It is, however, a veteran group: while Justin Davis didn’t see the field Tuesday evening, he’s a guy with MLS experience, and the Boys in Gold (blue for this one) have several other players with such experience. It probably makes sense for that experience to see the field, and Smith’s comments above seem to imply that he’s wanting to go back to some steadiness as a contrast to Atlanta.
“It was not our best performance of the year, so it was disheartening [not to see the field] in that sense,” Davis said. “I’m good to go – obviously we had a lot of games here with the Open Cup run that we’ve had.”
A snap back to reality is needed – particularly in advance of a more competitive game in a week’s time – and you’ll probably see a bit of a taper in form as NSC works toward that contest with Cincinnati.
Projected lineups
Not too much controversial from either side here:
Davis and Kosuke Kimura back on the field, a shakeup at both wing midfield positions after it was an area of struggle Tuesday. All three subs should once again be used.
Predictions
Nashville is good (I know with the ups and downs of a season, it might not feel like it right now), Atlanta 2 is bad (despite talent that could see them break out at any time). This game should bear both of those facts out.
- Nashville’s goal-scoring form returns. Atlanta’s defense is bad (second-worst in USL ahead of only TFCII), particularly on the road, where they’re giving up more than two goals per game. Nashville’s offense doesn’t feel so hot right now, but is comfortably above average in USL.
- Those goals? Brandon Allen opens the scoring early on an assist from Taylor Washington. Ropapa Mensah comes on as a second-half sub and puts together just Nashville’s second brace of the season in USL play. Lebo Moloto and Bradley Bourgeois(!) get the two assists.
- Atlanta 2 does manage to get a goal themselves, though. Nashville’s defense has proven it’s not as invincible as we thought earlier in the year, and it’s hardly like giving up a goal in a game they’re dominating (both on the pitch and the scoreboard) is damning.
- NSC’s subs: Ropapa Mensah in the 55th minute, London Woodberry replaces Winn in the 70th (with Nashville up two goals, that’s an offense-for-defense change), and Matt LaGrassa replaces Moloto in the 78th.
Nashville SC wins 3-1. Getting back on the right track provides just a bit of the return to the hype for next week’s Cincinnati contest that lost some of its luster with NSC losing to Indy Eleven and FCC having a much, much worse result with a draw to Toronto FC II.
Club and Country 