Nashville SC easily handled Charlotte Independence last time these teams met. However, that was in First Tennessee Park, and now we’ll see Queen City (not that Queen City) in the flesh. What should we expect?
The essentials
Opponent: Charlotte Independence (6-6-6 USL (rock!)). 27 GF, 27 GA so far in 2018, 9th in USL East, 11th in USL East Power Ratings and 23rd in combined-table Pure Power.
Recent form: Charlotte (L-L-D-D-D) NSC (D-W-L-L-W)
The Line: Nashville SC +191, Charlotte Independence +125, Draw +219
Time, Location: 6:30 p.m. CDT • Matthews, N.C.
Event: USL Regular season
Weather: 94ºF, 4% chance of rain, 38% humidity, 5 MPH Westerly winds
Watch: Locally on MyTV30, stream with a subscription to ESPN+. See the list of soccer bars in Nashville if you want to watch with fellow supporters (Roadies watch parties at Pastime and Party Fowl Murfressboro, Assembly at Tailgate Demonbreun),
Listen: Locally on 94.9 Game2 in English, 96.7 El Jefe FM en Español.
Follow: @NashvilleSC, @ClubCountryUSA, USL gametracker page, @fccincinnati, #NSHvCIN
When last we met
Charlotte was 2-0-1, and folks were thinking that they might end up one of the best teams in the USL. I cautioned that it was almost certainly a strength of schedule award, and… well, “Ottawa-Toronto-Atlanta” is almost literally as far as you can get from a murderer’s row in this league.
Nashville scored early, and while they waited until the final few moments to put the last nail in the coffin, they were never seriously challenged over the course of the game.
The Independence
Only one major thing has changed for Charlotte (as long as you had a handle on their not being the best team ever prior to the last meeting), so I’ll start with the look from last time around:
The Independence is led offensively by Jorge Herrera, who’s currently tied for top scorer in the league with four goals. He’s played most of his career in Colombia and Charlotte, and at 37 years old, is obviously no spring chicken. Still gets goals tho.
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Over-focusing on one player is risky, of course. Thanks in large part to Herrera’s ability to put the ball in the net, four of his teammates are on the league leaderboard in assists (which includes everyone with at least one, in fairness. Also in fairness: Nashville has zero). Target striker Caleb Calvert leads the way with two (tied with defender Joel Johnson), and he’s also put in a goal. Midfielder Cordell Cato has a pair of goals early in the season.
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Keeper Andrew Dykstra has made only four saves while allowing three goals on the year – seven shots faced through three games indicates solid things from his defense or bad things from the opponent, as debated with myself above – not a great indication of his ability just yet. Certainly what we’ve seen to date indicates that NSC might as well just try to put shots on him and see what happens.
The main change? Calvert does. not. see. the. field. anymore after being one of the key players early. We can have a much better feel for the rotation, as well, particularly on defense.
I have Charlotte as the USL’s 19th-best offense and 22nd-best defense, so even though they’re better at home – basically exactly on average, rather than comfortably below it like they are on the road – there’s only limited amounts to like here.
The Boys in Gold
a team like Nashville should be looking at a draw as worst-case scenario. Taking an L would be a massive disappointment.
That said, it does happen: Cincinnati went into Charlotte and was blasted 4-1 back in May. There were some mitigating factors there (Cincy didn’t have experience against this iteration of the Independence yet, Charlotte had a good gameplan that took advantage of a leaky Cincinnati defense) that probably don’t apply this evening. It can still happen.
Nashville is probably feeling of two minds about drawing FCC last week: there’s the letdown of an opportunity wasted, but also the motivation of knowing you need to make up for it. NSC has dropped from second to fifth in the Eastern Conference (still near the top in the power ratings and projected table, of course) as a result of failing to capture all three points. They can climb back up to third with a win tonight.
Predictions
Going to keep it short and sweet because we’re running pretty far behind schedule today, yeah?
Nashville wins 2-1, with goals from Ropapa Mensah (as a substitute) and Taylor Washington.
Club and Country 