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Nashville SC draws Atlanta United in first game without Gary Smith
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- Nashville SC draws Atlanta United in first game without Gary Smith
Nashville SC began the post-Gary Smith era with a 1-1 draw against a shorthanded Atlanta United side Saturday afternoon at Geodis Park.
Hany Mukhtar scored his third goal of the MLS season in the 40th minute before Bartosz Slisz answered with a long shot in the 55th minute, preventing Nashville (3-4-6, 15 points) from taking full points even against an Atlanta team missing stars Thiago Almada and Giorgios Giakoumakis.
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Smith was fired after Wednesday's 2-0 win over Toronto FC , with player development coach Rumba Munthali stepping in as interim coach.
"I thought guys were brave, guys were organized, with the little time we had to prepare," Munthali said. "I thought guys were up for the challenge, extremely positive with each other, and there's a lot of positives to take from this game."
Rumba Munthali changes formation in first game as Nashville coach
The most noticeable difference with Munthali was the formation he used. Nashville, which had played with three center backs for much of the last month of Smith's tenure, lined up in a 4-4-2 with Walker Zimmerman and Jack Maher in the middle and Daniel Lovitz and Shaq Moore at fullback. It's the same backline NSC used through much of 2023.
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Moore and Zimmerman, who are both working their way back from injuries, played 45 and 64 minutes, respectively.
"I wanted us to be organized, keep our shape," Munthali said. "A staple of our club is to be sound defensively, so I wanted to make sure we continue that even if there's a little bit of alteration. I also like to be brave and try and take risks and play with confidence. Even offensively, you saw guys doing that and trying to express themselves."
Hany Mukhtar opens scoring on penalty kick
When Mukhtar steps up to the spot, the outcome is essentially predetermined. He's now converted 15 of 17 penalty kicks during his time in Nashville, and 13 straight since his last miss in April 22.
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Mukhtar earned his own penalty while going after a through ball from Tyler Boyd . Brad Guzan came out to try and collect the ball, and Mukhtar had to dive over the Atlanta goalkeeper to avoid a collision, which constituted a foul and yellow card on Guzan in the eyes of referee Drew Fischer. Mukhtar's penalty froze Guzan to the spot.
Nashville creates chances, Atlanta finishes
Mukhtar was as offensively engaged as he's been all season, winning multiple free kicks and hitting the post from 30 yards out to start the second half. He led all players with five total shot attempts.
Nashville outshot Atlanta 12-10, generated 1.8 expected goals to Atlanta's 0.9 and had five shots on goal to Atlanta's one, but that was all the visitors needed. NSC failed to clear the ball from their defensive third on two occasions leading up to Slisz's goal.
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MORE: What to know about Rumba Munthali, Nashville SC interim coach with Gary Smith fired
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 draws Atlanta United in first game without Gary Smith
