The New York Red Bulls will look to extend their unbeaten home record when they host Nashville SC on Saturday in Harrison, N.J.
The Red Bulls are 5-0-2 in home matches, joining Los Angeles FC (7-0-2) and LA Galaxy (4-0-3) as the only MLS teams that have yet to drop a decision at home this season.
Playing on the road against the last-place New England Revolution last Saturday, the Red Bulls suffered a 1-0 upset loss. While New York (8-4-5, 29 points) had several regulars absent due to injuries and international duty, head coach Sandro Schwarz wasn’t using the thin roster as an excuse.
“It could be very easy to say after the game, ‘OK, we missed some players and something like that,” Schwarz said. “But to be honest, I was very angry and I was not satisfied with the performance from the whole team. Not … a player or two players or something like that, from the whole team.”
Emil Forsberg, Noah Eile and John Tolkin are expected to return to the lineup on Saturday. New York will still be without leading scorer Lewis Morgan and starting goalkeeper Carlos Coronel for international duty.
Nashville (4-5-7, 19 points) also is missing some key personnel, as Anibal Godoy, Jacob Shaffelburg and Shaq Moore are away with their national teams.
Nashville SC returns to action after a bye week, and their own 2-1 setback to New England on June 1. The loss ended a four-match unbeaten streak (2-0-2) for Nashville SC, who had conceded only one goal in those four matches.
Against the Revolution, however, midfielder Dru Yearwood said he felt his team “sort of reverted back to what’s been sort of a common theme this season — just giving up easy goals. It’s definitely something we want to iron out as quick as possible.”
Hany Mukhtar leads Nashville SC in goal contributions (four goals, six assists). Forward Sam Surridge leads Nashville with five goals.
The two clubs previously met in the season opener, a scoreless draw in Nashville on Feb. 25. New York has an unbeaten 2-0-3 record in five all-time meetings with Nashville SC.
–Field Level Media
