Nashville SC Scouting Report: Folks, I Have a Feeling. A Feeling.

L to R: Muyl, Mukhtar, Surridge?

Think I found a vehicle for smuggling Western-Conference-wide chatter into a post – e.g., inside the upholstery on the seats, also, at the end of this post. First up, the Nashville SC Scouting Report.

Don’t worry. I’ll keep it brief. A good spy knows to talk about only what he observed directly. Oh, in the list of prior results below, W = Win, L = Loss, D = draw. I’m guessing you know that, but some guy last year made a joke about it and I never recovered.

Nashville SC
0-1-1, 1 pt., 0 gf, 2 ga (-2); home 0-0-1, away 0-1-0
Last Results: DL
Strength/Location of Schedule
v NE (0-0 D); @ RBNY (0-2 L)

About what you’d expect, though the home draw versus the New England Revolution had to sting a bit. I watched more of that one than I watched of last weekend’s road loss at Red Bull New York (~35 minutes) – and I watched more of that one than I should have (~30).

Big picture, Nashville’s a mediocre team with new head coach, B. J. Callaghan. Their broad profile remains the same: play hard to beat, let Hany Mukhtar cook. That worked better a couple seasons ago, when Hany had younger, plumper legs and a stronger supporting cast. In 2024, it led to a fucking terrible start to the season (click here, scroll way down), the second-fewest goals scored in all of MLS (click here, scroll down, then up) and missing the playoffs – and the early signs for 2025 don’t point to immediate improvement. You don’t see a lot of attacking talent (flair is dead) when you look at Nashville’s starting XI last week and the week before. After Mukhtar, Andy Najar gives you something up the right, but also from the back. and it’s been a while for Daniel Lovitz (good defender, tho); Alex Muyl provides strong running and competent combination, but that wraps up introductions for the crew tasked with feeding English (right?) forward, Sam Surridge. They haven’t got much to him lately – a (likely bogus) offside call pulled back his only “goal” of 2025 (against the Revs; pretty good) – which forces Surridge to move all over the receive the ball. While posted respectable numbers last season, he’s not a great field player and that just puts things back on Mukhtar and his Mediocre Men to find Surridge in good spots, but he’s not there – see moving all over – and the whole thing looks pretty circular and, no doubt, frustrating for all concerned.

That said, defense has been Nashville’s strong suit for as long as they’ve been a team and the central brick of Joe Willis, Walker Zimmerman, Jack Maher and Wyatt Meyer, aka, the fun one (hold this thought*; no, not long), keep a tidy fort. Their size makes them hard to beat on corners and other assist-based set pieces and I suspect they’ll hold up well to the kind of pressure Portland can throw at them – which is mostly down to the belief that the Timbers can’t bully in a goal the way the Red Bulls can (a good tactic, for the capable).

Tagseth, taken late afternoon Friday, pre-shave.

Back to Meyer, he’s a 23-year-old rookie and everything I’ve watched suggests Callaghan has faith in the kid. The Official Organ has him in the XI as a defender, but his bio lists him as a midfielder and he does play like a very deep (pretty large) No. 6. He’ll pass long – e.g., he’s the guy who played the long ball to Mukhtar (at wide right) for the cross that led to Surridge’s “goal” – he follows the attack up the field and parks centrally to pick up strays, and he often plays the first ball out of the back. The most likely recipient for that short pass: Norwegian newcomer/midfielder, Edvard Tagseth. I haven’t seen enough to speak to his potential, but this guy never stops moving. Think of him as Nashville’s Crazy 8: whether to provide an outlet or to create space, he just moves until the ball gets out of the backline and into Nashville’s midfield. All that’s a long way of saying they’ll do fine with getting the ball to the top of the Timbers’ defensive third; the question is how much the Timbers need to worry about that.

If I could be Phil during the pre-match peps-‘n’-preps (i.e., “pep talks” and “preparatory meetings”), my main message to the defense would be to skirmish with Nashville as they move up the field, but to largely let them do it. The scenario(s) to avoid is (are) any that get Portland’s back three, four, five scrambling back to goal – e.g. because if Meyer finds Mukhtar deep on the right, the Timbers CBs need to figure out where Surridge got off to. Despite the fluffing above, the Timbers probably have the talent to get at least one past Nashville’s D – and, there, Phil should try the same kind of shit he’d do in [generic game], i.e., I didn’t see any obvious cheat codes (which isn’t the same as saying there aren’t any). Here, in particular, I’m looking to see what David Da Costa, et al, can go against one of MLS’s more reliable defenses.

Bottom Line
Portland should get a point out of this one and they have a decent shot at three so long as they can score one. If I’m worried about anything, it’s the Timbers making a mistake that requires them to score more than one.

That’s it for the scouting report. Let’s close this out with some…

Please, god, don't let it come to this.

Free Association About the Western Conference
1) Fluffing the Cushion
The Timbers have three clear layers of cushion between themselves and the abyss in this early season: Houston Dynamo FC, the Los Angeles Galaxy, and Sporting Kansas City, who neglected to rebuild (so far; Houston), ibid. (LA, so far, if with a large side of injuries), and who made their house from straw (aka, the middle build; SKC). I expect the Galaxy to improve, if ultimately, but the other two have issues, both new and old.

2) Funny
Seattle started badly. That’s all. And I don’t expect it will continue.

3) Lots of Mystery Meat
While I expect Seattle will claw their way well above 12th place, I have no goddamn idea what to expect from the 4th in the West to 11th. As for what I believe: the two teams that played to a 3-3 draw last weekend – FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids – strike me as the most likely to run away from the Timbers so far.

4) I Still Don’t Care About San Diego
That’s it. Maybe I’ll grow an interest.

5) The Three Perfect Amigos
MLS Wrap-Up put on a shameful, number go up segment on all the unbeaten teams in MLS – which, here, include the San Jose Earthquakes, the Vancouver Whitecaps, and Los Angeles FC. With the exception of Dax McCarty (who protested too little for me), every gigolo on that broadcast acted like San Jose and Vancouver would stay up there forever. In their defense, Vancouver started pretty strong – slaughtering the Timbers on the road and winning against an admittedly limping Galaxy team at BC Place – but the ‘Quakes will get bumped out of first class at some point…

…unfortunately, that isn’t the real question here. The question is whether San Jose is good enough to stand between the Timbers and a playoff spot, however low in the standings. I'm not desperate enough to think the Timbers will need every spot they can get, but still. The same applies to Vancouver, of course – they finished just one place above Portland in 2024, and even on points – but, for whatever reason, I keep swallowing the hype on those guys, so I’ll worry about the Timbers leap-frogging them when I get a better view of their butts.

LAFC will continue to suck the life out of every game/succeed.

Let the free-for-all begin, fuck Ted Nugent, and may the Timbers get three points this weekend. Till the next one…