The last stretch of Nashville SC’s season-opening eight-game voyage is around the corner.
Test No. 7 arrives Saturday afternoon when visiting the San Jose Earthquakes (3:30 pm ET | Univision, TUDN, Twitter), who are the last winless team in MLS, for the clubs’ first-ever meeting.
The Coyotes boast a solid 3W-2L-1D record so far, building towards a much-anticipated May 1 debut of GEODIS Park, their new 30,000-seat soccer-specific stadium. And now it’s about continuing this momentum, US men’s national team center back Walker Zimmerman said.
“You kind of get in that routine, that rhythm of playing on the road,” Zimmerman said. “You know it’s going to be an uphill battle every week, you know it’s going to be difficult with all the challenges that being on the road presents.
“But with that, we know if we can get enough points on the road during these eight games, when we come here at home, we’re going to have a schedule at the tail-end of the season that is heavily at home and that’s going to play into our advantage, and especially if we can make this place a fortress like we did at Nissan [Stadium] where we’re expected to win or go undefeated every single time we play here.”
That two-sided coin could work in Nashville’s favor, with an April 23 trip to the surging LA Galaxy their last road test before debuting their new home against the Philadelphia Union. They’ll have played nearly 25% of their season on the road by that point, then have six of eight at home across May and June. Since joining MLS as an expansion team in 2020, Nashville have gone 12W-1L-14D at home in the regular season.
Head coach Gary Smith's team has won two straight road games after beating Columbus Crew and Sporting Kansas City, all while star playmaker Hany Mukhtar awaits his first goal of 2022 to pair with his team-leading four assists (second in MLS). Even more in their favor, San Jose are off to their worst start in club history with just two points from these first six games.
“For us, we need to win at home the most games possible because we have now eight games on the road,” said Panama international midfielder Anibal Godoy, who played for the Earthquakes from 2015-19. “We take really good points to try and come here, these next two weeks to win enough [for when] we have so many games here at home. For sure if we win here at home we go to playoffs, we know no doubt.”
Speaking during a week when Nashville held an open training session for season ticket members at GEODIS Park, Zimmerman stressed the importance of not looking too far ahead. Though as excitement builds, they’re keenly aware of the massive advantage that awaits.
“If you don’t take points on the road, it’s going to be difficult to make the playoffs,” Zimmerman said. “Even though we know we have a great record at home, these road games are so important. To try and get some momentum heading into these home games is also huge. The fact we won the last two is big, but hopefully we can get some results in the next two weeks that'll make it where we’re going to be a ball that’s rolling downhill come May 1.”
