Sam Surridge scored his MLS lead-tying 18th goal to push Nashville SC past visiting Toronto FC with a 1-0 victory on Saturday night.
Surridge’s first-half tally pulled him even with Lionel Messi, who scored his 17th and 18th goals earlier Saturday in Miami’s 5-1 home win over the New York Red Bulls.
With first-place FC Cincinnati also winning its match at Real Salt Lake on Saturday but Philadelphia settling for a draw vs. Houston, Nashville (14-5-5, 47 points) moves into a tie for second place in the Eastern Conference.
Nashville SC won their second straight and sixth out of seven, and have lost just once in their last 18 in all competitions dating back to April 26.
Goalkeeper Sean Johnson made four saves to keep Toronto (5-12-6, 21 points) in the match, while Joe Willis kept his ninth clean sheet while not having to make a single stop.
The Reds were shut out for the first time in six games, scoring in the last three despite the departure of Italian attacking stars Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne at the beginning of July.
Two of Johnson’s best stops came against 2022 MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar.
The first of those came in the 28th minute when the German attacker unleashed a left-footed shot from the edge of the penalty box that appeared bound for the bottom right corner.
Unfortunately for Johnson, the rebound of his fine sprawling stop rolled only as far as the feet of Surridge, who finished before the keeper could regain his footing to attempt a second save.
Toronto FC thought they had a precious chance to level the score when referee Sergii Boiko ruled Walker Zimmerman had hauled down Deandre Kerr in the penalty area in the 60th minute.
Boiko was summoned to the replay monitor, and after a review, it was ruled the foul had occurred fractionally outside the box, resulting in a direct free kick.
Johnson had another exceptional one-on-one save on Mukhtar in the 79th minute. On the other end, Toronto got into a few promising positions late but failed to make Willis stop any of their seven total shots.
–Field Level Media
