Nashville SC keep rolling against Texas teams. After a 3-1 win in Houston last week, the Boys In Gold cruised to a 3-0 win over FC Dallas at Nissan stadium.
In Houston, head coach Gary Smith fielded a heavily rotated side. Back at home in Nashville, he returned to his preferred 4-4-1-1 and close to a first choice eleven.
With Dom Badji still out injured, and Daniel Ríos and Jhonder Cádiz only fit enough to make the bench, Abu Danladi started up front, with Derrick Jones behind him.
Nashville came out of the gates hot, controlling the game for most of the first half. They made that dominance pay in the 19th minute. After a goal-saving tackle from Walker Zimmerman, the Boys In Gold broke quickly. Randall Leal and Derrick Jones exchanged a quick pass in midfield, before Jones returned the ball to the Costa Rican DP. The young winger took a touch before hitting a low drive towards goal, which took a deflection on its way to the bottom corner.
Nashville continued to press for another goal in the first half, coming close a couple times before the break. In the second half, Dallas began to test Nashville’s goal. Brian Acosta put a header just wide, and Jesus Ferreira hit the side netting with a well-hit volley. It looked like Dallas was close to pulling level.
Jhonder Cádiz had other ideas. The substitute found himself in space outside Dallas’s box, and tried a speculative effort. Again, Nashville benefited from a bit of luck, as his strike took a deflection off of Bressan and in.
If luck had a hand in the first two goals, the third was all skill. Daniel Ríos picked up a pass from Leal just outside the box, and drove into the box, leaving Ziegler on the floor before thumping home at the far post.
After struggling to score goals all season, Nashville have scored six goals in their last two matches. The win propels Nashville into 8th place in the MLS Eastern conference, just one point behind New York Red Bulls, and with a game in hand on most of the sides around them.
It’s a quick turnaround for Nashville. They’ll take on New England Revolution at Nissan Stadium in Friday night. A win would see them level on points with New York City FC in sixth place.
Stats
Shots: Nashville 12 – 11 Dallas
Shots on goal: Nashville 6 – 6 Dallas
Expected goals: Nashville 1.23 – 0.82 Dallas
Goals: Nashville 3 – 0 Dallas
Possession: Nashville 42.5% – 57.5% Dallas
Yellow cards: Nashville 1 – 2 Dallas
Red cards: Nashville 0 – 0 Dallas
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This team continues to impress me. While I wasn’t as concerned with us not turning shots into goals, it seemed like we were struggling to even create chances during our “post-South East” slate of games. Hopefully we’ve finally turned the corner with everyone finally starting to get comfortable with each other and not look lost in the final third. Think we should shock someone in the playoffs assuming this form stays.