The Wrap: Second game, second 2-2 draw

Welcome to The Wrap! There’s plenty written about each Nashville SC game, and I want to make sure you don’t miss any of it. Here’s everything I wrote, along with a selection of some really good stuff from around the internet.

Local content

Game story:

Just like last week, though, Nashville SC was able to respond with two straight to salvage a draw in Nissan Stadium. Venezuelan striker Jhonder Cádiz bounced home a header from a Randall Leal cross in the 54th minute, and Hany Mukhtar slotted a rebound home with his weaker left foot in the 77th to give Nashville the draw.

Before the season, you’d certainly have expected a Nashville SC team scoring a pair of goals to be almost-assured of a win. For the second straight week, though, it was only enough to earn a comeback draw. 

April 24

The game column with quotes from the postgame press conference:

The key for the team is to avoid the slow starts going forward. There’s every expectation that the luck will even out over the course of the season – and NSC could very well have two wins, rather than two draws, under its belts had the chips fallen in a slightly different way the first two weeks of this young season.

“I think over time, you get what you deserve,” Smith said. “We deserve more than we’re picking up at the moment, but the circumstances of any game are huge. 

April 25

The Graphical looked at what’s got to change for Nashville to get those results the Club feels it deserves:

After the first 30 minutes or so, Nashville didn’t just take a stranglehold on the possession statistics, the Boys in Gold turned that into meaningful offense. Once again, they racked up major xG numbers while the opponent did not.

Of course, there are game-state effects to take into account here: Once Montreal had a two-goal lead, the team’s shooting output may not have decreased a whole lot, but they certainly went into a bit of a tactical shell. Meanwhile, Nashville was sort of chasing the game, and loading up on a number of chances.

April 28

No film room this week, more because I didn’t have the time than because there was nothing interesting to break down. Back next week.

And finally, the voting post, and your results for the Community ratings:

Don’t forget you can type comments in the box below the numerical votes each week!

• Man of the Match M Randall Leal: 8.13 Community comments:
  • “MOTM for me, as he was last game. Got the assist Cadiz goal. Most of what’s good about the attack the past couple of games has run through him.
  • Another strong game on both sides of the ball..continues develop nicely He’s confident and bright “
• GK Joe Willis: 5.09 Community comments:
  • Good-not-great isn’t good enough
  • Not much Willis could have done about the first two goals. After that, Willis was pretty much untested.
  • Two weeks in a row we should have won 2-1. We are getting killed in the box.
• D Walker Zimmerman: 7.03 Community comment:
  • “Felt he could have done better closing down Toye for the first goal. Had a better second half.”
• D Dave Romney: 6.70 Community comment:
  • Unlucky on the deflection
  • Unlucky deflection off of him for the 2nd goal. Was pretty steady defensively.
  • Steady and Superior again
• D Dan Lovitz: 6.52 Community comments:
  • “Big mistake
  • Opened the game up somewhat with his overlapping runs
  • “Another very solid game
  • A few uncharacteristic passes and giveaways in the first 20 minutes “
• D Alistair Johnston: 6.30 Community comments:
  • Better game from him than against Cincy, but his decision-making at times can be worrying. He arguably should have done a bit better on the Toye goal. Still, it was his cross that set up the Mukhtar equalizer. When Nealis came on he slotted in at D-mid.
  • “Another sold game… Alistar is very strong defensively when he keeps attackers in front of him. Needs to be a little more aggressive going forward 1v1 making passes/crosses into the box at speed “
• M Dax McCarty: 6.79 Community comments:
• M Aníbal Godoy: 6.34 Community comments:
  • Felt off-the-mark to me. Passing wasn’t as crisp today and you could see his frustration when he was subbed off.
  • “Superior Warrior who put in a wonderful shift before being substituted off (yellow card) “
• M Hany Mukhtar: 7.22 Community comment:
  • Thought he grew into the game. He made a mess of a chance that, although a bit behind him, a player of his quality should score in the first half, but had a better second half and his goal in the second half was impressive.
• M Handwalla Bwana: 5.45
• F Jhonder Cádiz: 6.80
• M Alex Muyl (HT sub): 6.11
• F CJ Sapong (71′ sub): 5.89
• M Tah Brian Anunga (78′ sub): 5.68 Community comment:
  • Nervy on the ball. Probably just needs a bit of rhythm
• M Luke Haakenson (90’+2 sub): 5.70
• D Dylan Nealis (90’+2 sub): 5.43
• Head coach Gary Smith: 6.00
• Overall Team Rating: 5.76 Community comment:
  • Wonderful 72+minutes
  • Team needs to focus and dial it up early and not allow soft goals
  • This team is constructed very well

Fair marks all around. Don’t forget you can participate in the Community Rankings each week by voting in the post that goes up after the game.

We also talked about the game on the ‘cast.

Elsewhere

The MLSSoccer.com game center always has some useful stuff post-game. NSC story. Drake Hills game story in the Tennessean. Mainstreet Nashville postgame column. MLSSoccer‘s weekend recap touches on the game. Game thoughts from SportsBlogs. Ben Wright parses the luck v. struggle dilemma. ESPN’s power rankings move NSC down to 20th (not to be critical, but “move team down after flukily-negative result” is the king of “
how to be bad at gambling” moves). Noticias Ticas de Randall Leal.

I don’t know what any of this means. Montreal Gazzette game story. CBC game story. Mount Royal Soccer recap.