Nashville SC Defense Squanders In 4-3 Loss To Toluca

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Alex Muyl. Photo: Courtesy of Nashville SC

The Boys in Gold have found themselves in murky waters after falling 4-3 to Liga MX squad Toluca in the Leagues Cup at GEODIS Park on Thursday (July 27) night.

Nashville started off well with a fast paced offense between the work from Jacob Shaffelburg and Fafa Picault. But it was Walker Zimmerman who headed in a goal in the third minute off of a stellar Dan Lovitz corner kick to give Nashville the lead.

But in the 27th minute, Toluca’s Marcel Ruiz responded with a spectacular goal off of a short cross in front of the net to tie it. From here, it quickly became relevant that Nashville’s defense was under constant pressure from the Mexican club’s quick pace offensive pushes up the pitch.

NSC scored off of a Picault goal in the 37th minute but the moment was shutdown once again in the 41st minute by another Ruiz goal. But it was in first half stoppage time that Nashville SC’s defense really hurt the club when Alex Muyl was called for a handball in the penalty box and Toluca was awarded a penalty and then scored taking a 3-2 lead into halftime.

“I don’t think we can say that everyone’s really right on the button right now,” said head coach Gary Smith on the team’s defense. “That could be fatigue at this stage of the season, we can certainly say that the climate has affected the way the players go about their business for 90 minutes. There’s also choices on when to trap players, some of the communication that goes on, and there’s a lot of breakdowns at the moment.

“They made absolutely the most of it. The first goal that we saw at halftime from the throw-in, through a group as well-versed as this one is, it’s hugely disappointed. I’ve not been involved in too many games with this group where we’ve conceded four goals and we’ve gone in front but lost the game. And we’ve done both in one evening. That’s not a good sign, and there’s an awful lot that we can do to improve that. I’m sure we will.”

Teal Bunbury replaced Muyl at the start of the second half but continued to struggle to put the ball in the net. His inability to score when in position has added to frustration, adding insult to injury, game after game, loss after loss.

In the 61st minute Robert Morales extended Toluca’s lead to 4-2 off of another goal in which Nashville’s defense should have prevented. Here, the frustration became overwhelming and the yellow cards began to fly. Bunbury was carded twice resulting in a red card in the 86th minute.

Luke Haakenson was able to cut the lead to 4-3 in the 70th minute but Toluca’s ball control and ability to stifle any NSC offensive creativity ultimately led to their win.

Nashville currently sits in second place in the group with three points and 0 goal differential. They will go through to the next round as long as Colorado doesn’t defeat Toluca by more than one goal. If Colorado loses, draws or wins in penalties (the winner in penalties is awarded two points) Nashville would go through.

Tie-breakers in the Leagues Cup are determined first by head-to-head then goal differential and then by yellow cards.

The Boys in Gold will have to wait to see if they move when Toluca plays Colorado on Monday, July 31st at 8:30 p.m..

Steven Boero
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