Know Thy Enemy: Revs vs Nashville Midseason Opener Edition
New England started their 2025 campaign against Nashville, so playing them again would seem to be a good time to reflect at the halfway point on the year.
The New England Revolution continue their 2025 MLS Regular Season against second-place Eastern Conference foe Nashville SC on June 25 from Gillette Stadium at 730 PM EDT on Apple MLS Season Pass.
A fitting start to the second half of the schedule, considering the Revs opened at Nashville, though I don’t think either team wants to reflect a whole lot on a 0-0 draw that saw a combined 4-for-25 shooting effort. Though both teams have come a long way since that game, with each team having a nine game unbeaten streak this year (Nashville’s currently active).
While Nashville’s midfield was banged up in that opening game, the Revs have been dealing with injuries up front seemingly all year. Leo Campana on and off the injured list, Luca Langoni going down for a lengthy spell, Tomas Chancalay coming back from a major injury, and Ignatius Ganago picking up a knock on international duty.
What has Nashville nine points ahead of the Revs (not counting two games in hand for New England) is a three game winning streak early in the year when they beat Portland, the Union in Philly, and Montreal, all in March, while the Revs struggled to pick up any result until early April. Both teams nine game winning streaks involved four wins and five draws, but I don’t know if there’s a signature win against a top team during either stretch.
BJ Callaghan demolishing his former USMNT boss Gregg Berhalter and the Chicago Fire twice by 7-2 and 2-0 scorelines probably felt really good though.
Obviously Nashville is led by a tremendous attacking duo in Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge, who have a combined 20G/10A so far this year against the entire Revs team that has 19 goals in MLS action.
Now, I do not think with the in-form top of the league defense the Revs have currently that they need the levels of production up front that Nashville is getting. I mean, Sam Surridge has six goals in his last four games and had a four-bagger against the Fire in April. The Revs haven’t scored four goals in a game as a team all year, so I don’t want to ask for too much; just the Revs being healthy with a chance at any consistency up front is enough.
I think the Revs can get by with their attacking trio up front (Gil, Campana, second striker) as the primary option by committee, like 25-30 combined goals the rest of the year. If the Revs can get a goal and a half combined average from the three guys that should be on the scoresheet the most, then the second half of the year should be successful.
Then the fullbacks as the second group because Miller and Feingold have been doing really well, and I want them to continue being very involved in the attack. Feingold and Miller getting 10 or more assists combined the rest of the way would be great. Ilay Feingold already has 3G/3A so far this year and ending on 5G/10A I think could get some Newcomer of the Year recognition, but obviously not enough to overtake strikers like Atlanta’s Latte Lath, Cincy’s Denkey, or San Diego’s duo of Anders Dreyer and Chucky Lozano.
And the rest of the supporting cast chipping in to the scoresheet as normal would almost certainly get this team into the playoffs and maybe even a borderline darkhorse.
I hesitate to say contender because we’d need to see a tremendously dominant stretch at some point that we just haven’t from this team under Porter. There are solid games and stretches, but rarely have I thought the Revs have been overwhelming opponents…well, outside of picking on Montreal because the Foot Clan are bad.
Now, we are joined again by our good friend Ben Wright now of his self launched SixOneFive Soccer site. We didn’t want to bother him for the opener because *gestures at everything* - but be sure to head over to their site for my answers to Ben’s questions, their NE-NSH game coverage and also USMNT Player Ratings and such from the Gold Cup.
TBM: That season opening 0-0 draw feels so long ago, what changes has BJ Callaghan made to get Nashville back on track and on a 9-game unbeaten run? I'm sure he enjoyed those two wins over Gregg and the Fire.
BW: Yeah, that feels like forever ago, huh? I think part of Nashville's success is due to having their players healthy – in that 0-0 draw their midfield was super banged up. The two midfielders were 19-year-old Matt Corcoran (making his first MLS start) SuperDraft pick Wyatt Meyer (making his first professional appearance). They did fine, but once Patrick Yazbek, Eddi Tagseth, Gaston Brugman and Bryan Acosta have started playing consistently, Nashville's midfield has been significantly better. And the whole team has gotten better, too. In all competitions, they're up to 11 games unbeaten (which ties their best-ever stretch set all the way back in 2018 in USL), and they're getting match-winning performances from all over the pitch. They also have a clear identity and repeatable ways to create chances. As crazy as it sounds, it feels like they're still nowhere close to their best under BJ Callaghan.
TBM: Sam Surridge and Hany Hukhtar are good at soccer, twenty goals combined between them leaving the rest of the team with the other twelve. Clearly Nashville can succeed with just these two but is there someone on the roster who can help carry the scoring load in the second half or a potential new signing in the works?
BW: To be honest, I'm not super worried about secondary scoring. They're scoring the goals because they've played the bulk of the minutes up top. Obviously, they're both really good players – two of the best attackers in the league – but I think the important thing is that Nashville are creating loads of chances for whoever is in front of goal. Ahmed Qasem and Jacob Shaffelburg can chip in with the occasional goal, and I think Jonny Pérez is really starting to break out in MLS. Ideally one of them finds some scoring form in the second half of the year, but I don't think it's a concern that Mukhtar and Surridge are so far ahead.
TBM: Nashville's currently third in the East, five points behind Philly, can this team make a run at the Shield or a deep run in November? What would make this season successful for Nashville?
BW: Yeah, I think they can absolutely make a deep run. I'm not sure they'll be able to hang in the Supporters' Shield race, but we're halfway through the season and they've already exceeded most of my expectations for them. Who knows? I think success is to continue to play at this level, be a real threat for MLS Cup, and make a deep run in the US Open Cup. For a team who's never won any kind of trophy, they're three games away from winning the Open Cup and qualifying for Concacaf. That has to be a huge priority.
Lineup/Injuries/Predictions/Etc.
I really like what NE is doing. I'm going to call this as a 1-1 draw.
Lineup (4-2-2-2, L-R): Willis; Lovitz, Maher, Palacios, Najar; Yazbek, Tagseth; Muyl, Qasem; Surridge, Mukhtar
Tyler Boyd and Taylor Washington are the two big injuries. Obviously Walker Zimmerman and Jacob Shaffelburg are still at the Gold Cup.