GEODIS Park will be rocking Tuesday night as the Boys in Gold take on a familiar foe.
Nashville SC reached the Round of 16 by beating FC Cincinnati 5:4 in a penalty shootout after ending regulation time level at 1-1 following a 64th minute set piece goal from Aníbal Godoy. Injury time substitute goalkeeper Elliot Panicco and veteran midfielder Dax McCarty emerged heroes after they made the only penalty stop and converted the final penalty kick, respectively.
Nashville SC has faced off once before with Club América on Sept. 21, 2022 as part of a Leagues Cup Showcase, where the high-scoring affair went to penalties after the two sides ended regulation level at 3-3. Nashville SC won 4:2 in penalties for its first-ever shootout victory.
Date: Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: GEODIS Park (Nashville, TN.)
Radio: 104.5 The Zone and the 104.5 The Zone App
Concacaf's best – Nashville SC defender Jack Maher speaks on the quality of players between MLS and Liga MX and the importance of playing to Nashville SC's strengths heading into the next match.
“I think that we have a lot of quality players likewise in the MLS, but it's a whole nother ball game,” said Maher. “It's just preparing for players that have different tendencies that you're really not used to seeing day in and day out. I want to think back to the Toluca game. Their outside backs were incredible dribblers of the ball. They were able to sort of break us down numerically by dribbling past, whether it was a winger or something like that. And that sort of creates this big domino effect that does add up, trickling down to the backline in other areas. So being very disciplined and being very compact and just realizing that it's not just a 1v1 game out there. We got 11 guys and we're going to do our best to withstand any press that they have, and hopefully they do end up coming a bit higher up the field and then we get the ball to guys like Godoy, guys like Hany and in transition, we've been so dangerous. So, that sort of plays into our strengths as well.”
Pieces coming together – Head Coach Gary Smith gives an update on key players availability.
“We get Teal returning from suspension," said Smith. "Jacob will be in a better place to be part of this game in whatever way, shape or form I see. And Sam will definitely be included. What, where, and how he is used is yet to be determined. But, you know, that would be a huge boost for the group as well.”
