Nashville SC is making a title run at home — and it may go through Lionel Messi | Estes
For the better part of its four years of Major League Soccer existence, Nashville SC has fit in with the NFL and NHL teams that share its city.
The new team on the block has been pretty good. Playoff good.
Just not championship great.
Nashville SC has been more successful that you’d expect for an expansion team, had the league’s MVP in Hany Mukhtar and opened a nice, new stadium, but it hasn’t yet done anything to demand the attention of a wider populace in Middle Tennessee for a reason other than GEODIS Park being a fun spot to check out on a summer evening.
Even this MLS season, which started with high expectations, has seen Nashville start fast and then slump and settle into a likely playoff spot – but it’s not in serious contention for the top spot.
Then came the Leagues Cup.
It’s a tournament created to mix pro clubs from MLS with Mexico’s Liga MX. Seasons were halted for a month to play it out, and of the 47 to start, the field has dwindled to four clubs. After drubbing Minnesota United 5-0 in Friday night’s quarterfinals, Nashville SC is one of those four.
And that’s a big deal, the biggest yet for Nashville’s club. In the next week, it could win its first trophy. It could also qualify for a spot in the continent’s biggest club tournament.
Oh, and there’s Lionel Messi.
He might be headed to Nashville, too.
At the same time that Nashville SC was kicking around poor, short-handed Minnesota at GEODIS Park, Messi’s Inter Miami stomped Charlotte FC 4-0 on the other side of the bracket.
Both advanced to Tuesday’s semifinals. Nashville will host a very good Monterrey team. Miami has to get past a very good Philadelphia Union.
If each were to win, though, Nashville would host Messi’s Miami on Aug. 19 in the final. Were each to lose in the semifinals, Nashville would still host Miami for a third-place game with the last of three Leagues Cup qualifying spots into next year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup (the local version of Europe’s Champions League) at stake.
“You’re in a semifinal. If you’re not starting to think about silverware, you (have) something wrong,” Mukhtar said. “In general, the Leagues Cup is a great tournament for us, and … if you make it to the semifinal, you’d better win it all.”
Silverware would be nice for Nashville SC, of course.
So would a spot in a major CONCACAF tournament.
But getting Messi to GEODIS Park ahead of schedule – Inter Miami isn’t at Nashville for the remainder of the 2023 MLS schedule – for a match with significance and perhaps a trophy on the line, that’d be a can’t-miss, glittering affair in a place that adores those things. It’d put Nashville SC’s team – and not just its stadium – at the forefront of the city’s consciousness like never before.
We’ll see. I’m dangling the tantalizing prospect out there because it’s fun. And, well, it’s more interesting than dwelling on what happened in Friday night’s quarterfinal.
After Tuesday’s chaotic, shootout victory over Mexico’s Club America, Friday’s sequel was low-key. For a while, it felt like the stadium was on mute in comparison.
But then Minnesota’s D.J. Taylor was red-carded for a tackle in the 34th minute, and that was all she wrote for the visitors. Playing with an extra man the rest of the game, Nashville cruised, with five different players scoring in the next 20 minutes of game time.
“The position we’re in right now,” Nashville SC coach Gary Smith said, “the opportunity the guys have – and the guys have created – give them an opportunity now to really make a bit of a statement. Semifinals are always difficult games, but you know what? It’s great to be in it.
"We have a wonderful opportunity. We’re in good form. We’re confident. … Plenty to look forward to.”
Here in Nashville, we are accustomed to wonderful opportunities for our pro sports teams. We're just not accustomed to them taking advantage.
Just maybe, this next week will be different.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Monterrey? Lionel Messi? Nashville SC's biggest week ever has arrived
