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| It's Shaun Cassidy, right? |
The post ends with a scale I came up with to measure the long-term success of every team in Major League Soccer. It does some things well (e.g., count trophies/achievements), other things less well (capture recent trends). It's called the Joint Points Scale and you can find a link that explains what it does. I was really stoned when I came up with the scale and wrote the post. Caveat lector. With that...
Thumbnail History
Nashville SC joined in the COVID season (2020), along with Inter Miami CF, but fate has made them the plain sister/unathletic brother to MLS's glamour boys. And they built their inaugural roster as if they'd had their fortunes told by an insurance agent. It started with anchoring the backline with Walker Zimmerman and the midfield with forever-MLS vet, Dax McCarty; the front-office honchos filled out those two lines with still more familiar, imposing figures – e.g., Dave Romney and Daniel Lovitz in defense and Anibal Godoy in midfield. When it came to the offense, Nashville spent both big and wisely on one player – Hany Mukhtar, a future (and deserved) league MVP (2022) – but spent a couple seasons looking to squeeze more production than other teams got out of MLS journeymen like C. J. Sapong, Teal Bunbury, or even Alex Muyl and Fafa Picault. That’s not to say they haven’t tried to level up with bolder signings – e.g., I thought they’d landed a secondary scorer with winger Randall Leal, alas – but pinching pennies on the attacking side may have been Nashville’s first tradition. Have they moved on since? One could make a case for Sam Surridge as a first step – they (reportedly) paid $6.5 million – but he also came over after a shaky season in the English Championship. (And who can see what the future holds?) If Nashville has demonstrated anything, it’s how far a good defense goes toward getting reliable results and/or into the playoffs. Apart from a slip in 2024, Nashville has qualified for the playoffs every season since joining MLS, if sometimes only as a wild card, which, again, doesn’t count around here*…also, yes, wait for it. Consistency ain’t so bad, of course, and a good defense is great, but a team has to have a little something on the other end to win tournaments – and one player can’t shoulder the entire attack. Call it illustration, call it a quirky bit of trivia, Nashville didn’t even make the MLS Cup quarterfinals in Mukhtar’s 2022 super-season.
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| Sometimes sharing means you both win. |
When Surridge started off on a hot streak – didn’t cool off much either; he bagged 24 goals in 2025 (five helpers!) – Mukhtar looking reborn, and Edvard Tagseth playing at times like Norwegian Riqui Puig, Nashville looked like a team that had solved its biggest problem. They kept up with the best through June, even into July; 16 wins on the season argues they never really slowed down, but the road record hurt ‘em (5-9-3) and they never quite mastered the art of the draw, aka, splitting points in the regular season, aka, sending a game to the penalty-kick crap-shoot in the playoffs (Nashville lost 12, drew four in the regular and lost a lopsided first-round series to Miami). The defense was all right – allowed under the league average and so on – but 2025’s was Nashville’s worst defense besides the playoff-dodging 2024 team. (Though, by the numbers, that looked like more of an attack problem.) Joe Willis started every game in goal, Jack Maher missed only five starts, as did Daniel Lovitz and Andy Najar (who both posted great assist numbers seven and ten, respectively); Zimmerman, meanwhile, started just 16 and played in only five more. Tagseth started more than I thought, but Gaston Brugman missed more starts than Zimmerman and it looks like that left the main lift to Patrick Yazbek, who left me middling: I’m not sure what or how much that explains and plenty of teams would take six under for goals allowed, but that’s not Nashville’s norm.
Long-Term Tendencies v Recent Trends
Nashville fans have seen a lot of good defenses (5-for-6!) and far too much of Mukhtar trying to carry the attack all on his lonesome. Even in their best attacking seasons, 2021, they weren’t even 10 goals over the league average for goals scored; as much as 2025 improved on their regular, that streak continues. Back over in the win column, the defense recovered from that 2024 slump.
Players I Still Like/Additions So Far
I count a minimum of six solid players in the above – e.g., Surridge, Mukhtar, Lovitz, Najar, Tagseth, and Maher(? Willis?) – and that’s a good, largely present core. And that’s pretty much what they held on to – plus Alex Muyl (who’ll run his legs off) – as the foundation for 2026. In the loss column, Nashville let Zimmerman walk to Toronto, but that came after three years of missing (real) chunks of playing time. They also let go of Brugman, but they didn’t much of him in 2025; the same goes for Jacob Shaffelberg (off to LAFC) and, even more so, Tyler Boyd. The major replacements include Maxwell Woledzi (Ghanian CB who played his entire professional career in Scandinavia, top flight, mostly), what looks like a promising defensive prospect from Orlando, in Thomas Williams, a Costa Rican forward named Warren Madrigal (young; hasn’t done/seen much), and…drum roll, Cristian Espinoza. The big name, formerly of San Jose, brings with a him a good haul of assists (70 career) and a nearly perfect attendance record, Espinoza likely has three good-to-great, reliable seasons in him. Looking forward to seeing what he does with/to Najar, could be really good, could be guys tripping over each other. I’m here for both…
Historical Success(/Hysterical Failure)
Total Joy Points: 3
How They Earned Them (& *How This Is Calculated, for Reference)
MLS Playoffs/Quarterfinals: 2020, 2021
Leagues Cup Runner-Up: 2023
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