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Nashville SC suffers worst loss ever in 5-0 defeat to Los Angeles FC
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- Nashville SC suffers worst loss ever in 5-0 defeat to Los Angeles FC
Depending on your interpretation of intangibles, Saturday was either the absolute best or the absolute worst time to play Los Angeles FC.
LAFC, which has won back-to-back Western Conference championships and won the MLS Cup in 2022, came into its game against Nashville SC on a three-match winless streak, during which it failed to score in over 300 minutes.
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Slumps don't come with guaranteed end dates, but conventional wisdom teaches that teams don't break out of them quietly. And nothing about LAFC's performance was quiet. It routed Nashville, 5-0, at BMO Stadium behind a pair of goals by last season's Golden Boot winner, Denis Bouanga , and an equally lackluster defensive showing by the visitors.
Nashville (1-1-3, six points) suffered the worst loss in its history, an "honor" which had previously belonged to a 4-0 defeat at Atlanta United on Aug. 26, 2023. Saturday was the first time Nashville gave up five goals in a single game.
"The attitude of the group has been excellent up until tonight," said Nashville coach Gary Smith. "And I would even (say) there wasn't an awful lot wrong with our attitude, just some really poor passages of play that put us in a really tight spot."
Nashville's next game is at Geodis Park against the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew on March 30.
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Nashville can't stop LAFC in first 20 minutes
Saturday's first half was colored in shades of Nashville's most recent road contest .
After a stretch of 17 matches in which it never trailed by more than a goal, Nashville has faced multi-goal deficits in the first half of two of its last three games. That includes the CONCACAF Champions Cup round of 16 second leg on March 13 at Inter Miami, during which Nashville fell behind 2-0 after Lionel Messi 's goal in the 23rd minute. Saturday, LAFC (2-1-2, seven points) scored twice inside of 20 minutes.
"They have a tremendous amount of talent and quality in their group," Smith said. "We've played here before, it's a very, very difficult place to play. They play at a very high tempo, and we fell foul of that. ... When you come to these places, you've got to put 15, 20 minutes on the clock, and the game changes. We were unable to do that."
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In the ninth minute, Dru Yearwood 's bad pass gave the ball away and Taylor Washington couldn't clear the ensuing corner kick off the goal line, leading to a tap-in by Tillman.
Nine minutes later, Washington fouled Tillman in the box and Bouanga converted the penalty kick for his first goal of the season.
"The management of the game early on was dreadfully poor," Smith said. "Twice, we tried to play out of difficult circumstances and they just scored off the back of that, one from a dead ball and the other from the penalty spot. In those periods, you've got to show an awful lot more character, understanding, experience, management, and that wasn't shown the group, point blank."
Sam Surridge has goal called back
Like it did against Inter Miami 10 days ago, Nashville settled down after conceding its second goal. Smith sent players farther up the field, leading to chances like the one it got in the 36th minute.
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Shaq Moore sent a looping cross in from the right side, and Sam Surridge jumped over Jesus Murillo to head the ball into the back of the net. However, Surridge was called for a foul for using both hands to push off on the LAFC defender's back, resulting in the goal being wiped off the board.
"It was a very, very important point in the game," Smith said. "It was a period that we'd started to show a little more going forward, and at that stage of the game, 2-1 obviously changes the dynamic."
Nashville has had four goals disallowed in its last five matches, three for offside.
MORE: Nashville SC and Hany Mukhtar agree on contract extension through 2026 season
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Nashville plays with 10 men in second half
While Nashville found a measure of consolation against Inter Miami thanks to a stoppage-time goal from Surridge, there were no silver linings to be found after halftime in Los Angeles.
Despite the slightly more positive finish to the first half, things didn't take long to spiral. Bouanga was left all alone and scored on a precision finish past Joe Willis two minutes into the second half. Willis was shown a red card 14 minutes later when he came out too far to stop a transition opportunity by Cristian Olivera and got his hand on Olivera's shot just outside the penalty box.
Olivera wouldn't be denied in the 74th minute, scoring against a Nashville defense playing down a man. Edward Atuesta found the net on the game's final kick to write Saturday's game into an ignominious chapter of Nashville's history.
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Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames .
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville SC suffers worst loss ever in 5-0 defeat to LAFC
