Match Preview: Nashville SC vs Real Salt Lake
After two consecutive 2-1 losses in which Nashville SC dropped all six points from a winning position, they must dust themselves off and regroup as they welcome Western Conference foe Real Salt Lake into GEODIS Park Saturday night.
Let’s dive in.
Match Details:
Location: GEODIS Park, Nashville, Tennessee
Time: 7:30PM CST (local)
Referees: Jair Arrufo (REF), Corey Rockwell (AR1), Adam Garner (AR2), Sergii Demianchuk (4TH), Jorge Gonzalez (VAR), Mike Kampmeinert (AVAR)
Head Coaches: B.J. Callaghan (NSH), Pablo Mastroeni (RSL)
Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+
Commentators: Mark Followill & Warren Barton (English), Pablo Ramirez & Jesus Bracamontes (Spanish)
Home Radio: WGFX 104.5FM The Zone
The History
This might be one of the shorter “history” sections you’re gonna see in a Nashville preview all season. Saturday marks just the fourth time Nashville and Real Salt Lake have played one another, and the second in the Music City.
The first two meetings between these clubs took place in Sandy, Utah, with a 0-0 draw opening the series in 2021 before a 2-1 RSL victory over the Boys in Gold marked the first of a pair of 2022 meetings.
The second of those meetings in 2022 was at GEODIS Park, in the second game in the stadium’s history, and the first to end in a victory for the Boys in Gold, by a scoreline of 2-0 thanks to a pair of goals from Dave Romney and C.J. Sapong respectively.
That’s it. These clubs have gone two years without being on the schedule with one another, and this is of course their lone meeting in 2025, being in different conferences.
The clubs also do not participate in the same cup competitions this season either, with Nashville sending its first team to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, while RSL partakes in Leagues Cup, and has already been eliminated from CONCACAF Champions Cup.
There is of course, one player on Real Salt Lake’s roster with a personal connection to Nashville, as Forster Ajago spent the 2024 season in Gold, making 16 appearances in all competitions, scoring two goals. This season in Utah, Ajago has made eight appearances, with three goals to his tally for the first team.
Injury Report
Nashville SC
OUT- Walker Zimmerman, Bryan Acosta, Tyler Boyd, Maximus Ekk, Julian Gaines
QUESTIONABLE-
Real Salt Lake
OUT- Matthew Bell, Javain Brown, Kobi Henry, Zac MacMath
QUESTIONABLE- Phillip Quinton
Lineup Prediction
In this hypothetical “Ronan is Right Land”, just one change is made to the Nashville lineup that started the game against Charlotte. It’s at the back, and it’s the very change head coach B.J. Callaghan made when captain Walker Zimmerman went down with what ended up being diagnosed as a concussion.
Joe Willis stays in goal as ever, and Dan Lovitz, Jack Maher and Andy Najar get 90 more minutes to build chemistry with newcomer Jeisson Palacios who would be making just his second Nashville appearance.
The midfield remains unchanged, for now. Eddi Tagseth is as locked into this starting lineup as anyone that’s not Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge when healthy, and this time he’s partnered with Gastón Brugman oncemore. Brugman was very good against Charlotte, and is rewarded with a second successive start.
Up front, as always, it’s Mukhtar, Surridge, Alex Muyl and Ahmed Qasem.
Analysis & Prediction
There’s two hinge points in this game, from my view at least. One, how the Nashville backline fares with Jeisson Palacios, and two, the performance of Diego Luna.
Real Salt Lake, as thin as they are up front right now, are incredibly reliant on Luna’s creative ability to generate chances. If both the Nashville backline and Diego Luna are good, this game gets tight.
If Luna is good and the Nashville backline is bad? RSL has a real chance to steal all three. If it’s the inverse, Nashville could cruise.
The one thing Nashville absolutely cannot afford in this game if they want to get anything out of it is a lapse in performances. The Boys in Gold have been very good in each of their last two games, both 2-1 losses, but collapsed late.
This stage of Nashville 2.0 is finding a full 90 minute performance against a good team. I think the Boys in Gold do that on Saturday, to the tune of a 3-1 victory with goals from Surridge, Muyl and Tagseth.