Nashville SC wants to think of each game as having, in the words of coach B.J. Callaghan, “its own storyline.” But its first losing streak of 2025 is hard to ignore.
Nashville (14-8-5, 47 points) lost 2-1 to New York City FC on Aug. 17 at Yankee Stadium. Jacob Shaffelburg opened the scoring, but NYCFC (12-8-5, 41 points) came back with goals from Andres Perea and Alonso Martinez sandwiched around a 94-minute weather delay to hand NSC its third straight defeat in MLS play.
“I’d be lying if I said we didn’t feel this one as the third loss,” Shaffelburg said. “Going into these games, we don’t think about the losses we just had, you feel it more after. Every game has its own storyline, like B.J. said. We just haven’t been at our best.”
Nashville, which also lost its fourth consecutive road game, will be back at Geodis Park on Aug. 23 to host Orlando City (7:30 p.m.).
Strong start fizzles out
Nashville controlled the early sequences, breaking behind the NYCFC defense with speed, and Shaffelburg was the sparkplug. In the 10th minute, Hany Mukhtar split a pair of defenders with a pass from midfield, giving Shaffelburg a 1-on-1 with goalkeeper Matt Freese, and the Canadian winger put away his second goal of the season.
“I think it was having some close connections in the midfield and Jacob’s commitment to running behind,” Callaghan said. “Guys looked for him.”
As the game went on and New York City ramped up its defensive pressure, Callaghan didn’t think Nashville had an effective answer. It wasn’t able to find as many runs behind the defense, and questionable marking gave Perea an open shot to tie the game in the 40th minute. Martinez was a presence throughout the second half with three shots on goal, and another that hit the post just three minutes before his 75th-minute winger.
“They were able to press high with their front players and really release their center backs in the midfield, and it clogged it up a little bit,” Callaghan said. “They were very strong in the duels tonight.”
Lengthy weather delay
Perea’s goal took place immediately before the delay, which was due to lightning, began. After the delay, the teams finished out the rest of the first half before taking a full 15-minute break for halftime.
Callaghan thought Nashville handled the delay well despite what he called a bit of a slow start to the second half.
“I thought we were able to find a good balance between making some corrections and also just killing time, because there was a lot of uncertainty as to when we would restart,” Callaghan said.
Nashville still in Eastern Conference, Supporters’ Shield race
Nashville entered the weekend third in the East and four points back in the chase for the Supporters’ Shield, which goes to the team with the best regular-season record. Even after the loss to NYCFC, it finds itself in almost exactly the same place.
With seven games left, Nashville remains in third and trails East-leading FC Cincinnati by five points. Cincinnati and San Diego FC are tied for the MLS lead with 52 points, but San Diego has the tiebreaker due to goal differential.
Nashville has home games against Cincinnati and Inter Miami and home and road games against Orlando City, who are all within five points of NSC.
“They’re big games, like playoff games almost,” Shaffelburg said. “I think we’re gonna take that mentality into those games. These are teams we could see in the playoffs.”
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.