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Nashville SC looking to pick up pieces in MLS after Champions Cup exit
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- Nashville SC looking to pick up pieces in MLS after Champions Cup exit
Maybe Nashville SC was shaken emotionally. Maybe it was shorthanded and tired physically. Maybe D.C. United was just that much better.
Regardless of why it happened, coach B.J. Callaghan didn't mince words about the 2-0 halftime deficit his team faced on May 9 at Geodis Park — the first time Nashville has trailed by multiple goals in 2026.
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"The entire first half was unlike ourselves," Callaghan said. "It wasn't how we prepared and how we planned, and I would say the first half was below our standard and unacceptable."
The second half, particularly the final 20 minutes, was more to Callaghan's liking. Nashville (7-1-3, 24 points) came back to tie D.C. United 2-2 on two late goals from substitute Warren Madrigal .
MORE: Pain, anger after Nashville SC eliminated by Tigres in CONCACAF Champions Cup
It was Nashville's first game coming off a 1-0 loss at Tigres UANL on May 5 in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The loss eliminated Nashville from the tournament, and defender Jack Maher , who has been with the club since 2020, said the morale in the locker room afterward was as low as he's ever seen it.
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No matter how impressive Nashville's Champions run — it beat Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the round of 16, then became the first MLS team to win at Estadio Azteca when it beat Club América in the quarterfinals — there was always the question of what's next. It has gone far in cup competitions before, having reached the 2023 Leagues Cup final and won the 2025 U.S. Open Cup , but its MLS form has dipped once those tournaments are over.
Nashville won just two of its final 12 games after the Leagues Cup in 2023 and was eliminated in the first round of the 2025 MLS playoffs by Inter Miami. Before waking in the second half, its play against D.C. (4-4-4, 16 points) seemed like a recurrence of the same problem — turning the page after deep tournament runs is never an easy task.
Nashville's schedule early this year has featured plenty of games and not much time between them. It's no different now, as it will travel to face the New England Revolution on May 13 before coming back to host Los Angeles FC on May 17. By then, it will have played seven matches in 23 days.
"We just continue to work and focus on the next game," Callaghan said. "We don't try to think about things that we don't control . . . The idea was to have a good performance and have an intense performance in front of our home crowd. We did that for only 45 minutes. We'll regroup, we'll recover, we'll review the game and we'll get ready to go to New England."
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Nashville still leads the Eastern Conference, but staying there going into the FIFA World Cup break in June won't be easy. New England is two points behind in second, and LAFC, which is third in the West, reached the CCC semifinals.
Nashville also is without some key pieces: Forward Sam Surridge remains "week to week" with a back injury, per Callaghan, and injured midfielders Eddi Tagseth and Patrick Yazbek aren't expected back before the break.
"The difference with this team and this group that we have right now is that we are a deep team," Maher said. "It doesn't really matter at this point who we're throwing out . . . We're seeing it with injuries and stuff like that. This group is really deep, and we're going to continue having that mentality, that belief, that it doesn't matter who we throw out on the field, the expectation is always to win."
Nashville will have to prove Maher's words true if it wants to buck past trends.
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Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on X/Twitter @Jacob_Shames .
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville SC turning page as it returns to MLS from Champions Cup exit
