Nashville SC, eight points better than every other team in Major League Soccer, can become the first club to clinch a playoff berth when they host the Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
A win would be enough for Nashville (16-3-6, 54 points) to ensure its playoff spot with more than a month to go, though a draw combined with a number of other outcomes around the league can also do the trick.
One of Nashville’s three losses came to Chicago (11-7-6, 39 points) in April, when Philip Zinckernagel scored the fastest goal in Fire history 16 seconds into the match and Nashville went 90-plus minutes without finding an equalizer.
The difference is that Nashville played that one on the road. The Coyotes are an overwhelming 11-0-1 at home this season with 36 goals, an average of three per match.
As Nashville returns home after three straight away matches yielded only an 0-1-2 record, coach B.J. Callaghan was asked what gave the club its home-field advantage.
“It’s simple: The fans,” Callaghan said. “… The energy starts when we walk out of the tunnel and from the opening whistle, and they’re there when we need them in the 92nd, 93rd, 94th minute as a hand on our back.”
It also helps to have Sam Surridge, tied for third in the league with 15 goals after scoring a brace last weekend against Miami, and goalkeeper Brian Schwake, who has posted 11 clean sheets.
Chicago coach Gregg Berhalter is plenty familiar with Callaghan, who spent years as an assistant coach under Berhalter for the U.S. men’s national team.
“I think that Nashville has been the best team in the league this year. Points indicate that but also, I think, performance,” Berhalter said. “A very resilient group, they find a way to hang in there in games; a lot of late goals, don’t give up a ton. They have a lot of interesting movements both in build-up and finishing attacks. B.J. has done a great job.”
The Fire are a different team than they were in April. The addition of Polish star Robert Lewandowski (six goals in 10 matches) has helped them rise to fifth in the Eastern Conference. They had a seven-match unbeaten streak going until a 2-1 loss to the New England Revolution on Sunday.
“Coach said it best in one of our meetings,” defender Noah Allen said, “that we can respect them and give them the praise they ultimately deserve, but we shouldn’t be scared of them at all because we can beat them at the end of the day.”
–Field Level Media
