One club is on the verge of clinching the Supporters’ Shield with weeks to spare, while the other is the frontrunner for the Wooden Spoon.
Nashville SC host Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday night in a matchup between the teams with the best and worst records in Major League Soccer.
Nashville (19-3-6, 63 points) owns a 12-point lead in the league standings and a 14-point cushion on second in the Eastern Conference. According to the league, the Coyotes can clinch the East’s No. 1 seed Wednesday with a win or draw and some help; they could also have the Supporters’ Shield wrapped up after Saturday’s game at San Jose.
“Our goal is to continue to perform each and every day to an elite standard, with the idea of trying to become elite,” coach B.J. Callaghan said Tuesday. “And for us along the way, these milestones are all important, they’re all important to try to achieve, but we know the only way to do it is by continually just focusing on things that we input.
“We know that three points (Wednesday) night in front of our home crowd moves us closer to achieving bigger goals.”
While Sam Surridge (16 goals) and Hany Mukhtar (14) have formed a potent one-two punch, Nashville has dominated defensively, allowing an MLS-low 22 goals in 28 matches, with goalkeeper Brian Schwake tied for the league lead with 12 shutouts.
And Nashville is nearly perfect at home — 13 wins and one draw in 14 matches.
Before figuring out how to beat the league’s best team, Sporting KC (6-18-4, 22 points) are first concerned with maintaining their recent form.
“We’re trying to prepare our team and paint them a picture of Nashville, not knowing if (Callaghan) has a different plan (Wednesday),” Kansas City coach Raphael Wicky said. “That’s why it’s more focus on ourselves, keep doing what we do, work with our principles, work with our positioning.”
SKC are 2-2-1 in their past five matches, and on Saturday they rallied out of a two-goal deficit to draw the Portland Timbers 3-3. Justin Reynolds and Andre Luiz scored in the 70th and 73rd minutes to pull even; it was Luiz’s second goal of the day.
“The team has responded well when there (were) setbacks in many games, and maybe that’s just growing together. Maybe that’s more experience for certain guys,” Wicky said. “… It’s maybe just learning and growing together and sticking to the plan when something doesn’t go well.”
SKC still occupy the league’s basement, two points below CF Montreal with six matches to go.
–Field Level Media
