Nashville SC is set for its first road test of the season on Saturday night when it travels to Utah to take on Real Salt Lake, pres. by Renasant.
The Boys in Gold are one of three remaining unbeaten sides in Major League Soccer after a 2-0 win over New England Revolution last Saturday. They’ll face a Real Salt Lake side that’s won two of its first three matches to start the season.
Here’s everything you need to know for Saturday’s tilt in the Rockies.
Date: Saturday, May 15
Time: 8:00 p.m. CT (Pre-Match Show), 8:30 p.m. CT (Kickoff)
Location: Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, Utah
TV: MyTV30
In-Market Stream: NashvilleSC.com/stream
Out-of-Market Stream: ESPN+
English Radio: ESPN 94.9
Spanish Radio: El Jefe 96.7
Momentum Shift – The Boys in Gold are coming off a strong four-match homestand to start the season, capped off by a 2-0 win over New England last Saturday. In that win, Head Coach Gary Smith switched around the team’s formation and starting squad with two strikers up top in Dominique Badji and CJ Sapong. It paid dividends.
While that change in formation helped spark the victory, Smith said all options are on the table against Real Salt Lake this weekend.
“Each game presents a very different challenge,” Smith said. “This weekend with an RSL team that are very good at home and play their home field advantage extremely well, it may lend itself to something slightly different. We’re trying to build a group here that has strength and depth in all departments. And last weekend gave us a little bit of a peek behind the curtains of what it looks like to have two up top and what that pairing can offer us.”
Muyl-ing Good - Winger Alex Muyl is coming off of one of his best performances in a Gold shirt, having scored his first Nashville goal in the win over New England.
The goal clearly meant a lot to Muyl, who has started 18 matches for Nashville SC since joining the club last August. It also meant a lot to the team as it extended its unbeaten run to four. Muyl says he hopes to keep that desire to keep building on the road in Salt Lake City.
“We do really well when we have our back against the wall,” Muyl said. “We haven’t been bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I think we know we want to do more. Having that feeling of three ties, we wanted to get wins. I think it brought out the best in us and hopefully we can continue with that.”
Go West, Young Boys in Gold – This will be the first time Nashville SC faces Real Salt Lake in its MLS history, in addition to being the club’s first and only road match to a Western Conference opponent in 2021. In the shadows of the mountains, Smith will give his players the tools needed to take its home form on the road, according to winger Randall Leal.
“This is the key for the team: to keep doing the same like we did at home,” Leal said. “We know that we maybe cannot play the games like we do at home because when we play away it’s a little bit different. We have to wait a little bit on the teams and see what they want to do. But I think the proposal of our coach is to always try to press high and try to score first.”
