Nashville SC needs to do some soul-searching if they want to be in top form as the season begins.
But after a 2-1 loss to Lexington SC in the final preseason game on Feb. 14 at Joda Park, head coach BJ Callaghan didn’t seem overly concerned about the outcome.
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Nashville nearly dominated possession against Lexington from the second division of the USL, but gave up two goals due to unforced errors. In the 42nd minute, goalkeeper Xavier Valdez failed to control a routine return pass and handed the ball directly to the Lexington forward. With 10 minutes left in the game, Nashville turned the ball over again and scored the winning goal for Lexington.
“Mistakes happen,” Callahan said. “We were more concerned with how we responded to the mistakes. I thought the whole team responded pretty well and just went back and continued to do the same as we did.”
Nashville scored its only goal in the 55th minute on a poor pass from the Lexington goalkeeper. Hany Mukhtar intercepted a pass and assisted on Cristian Espinoza’s close-range shot.
“In the first half, I thought we moved the ball too slow, didn’t move well and missed opportunities and gaps,” Callahan said. “The pace was better in the second half, the intensity was better. Overall, it was probably a good performance in terms of some of the things we’ve been working on. But at the end of the day, I think guys probably still need to step up and perform at a higher level.”
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Nashville SC prepares for CONCACAF Champions League, MLS opening game
Nashville finished with 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie in five preseason games and fell to 9-8. Its first official match will be a CONCACAF Champions League first-round tie at Atlético Ottawa on February 17, and it will host the New England Revolution on February 21 to kick off Major League Soccer competition.
Nashville started with a strong lineup, with Mukhtar, Espinoza and Sam Suric in attack, Eddie Tases and Patrick Yazbek in midfield, and Dan Lovitz, Maxwell Volez, Jason Palacios and Andy Nadja in defence. With the exception of Valdez and Ahmed Kassem (replaced at halftime by Joe Willis and Shaq Muhammad, respectively), Nashville’s starters played most of the game.
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“The main drill is to have the next group of guys run 75 minutes so that when we go into Ottawa, every player is ready to run 90 minutes if they need to,” Callahan said.
Jacob Shames can be reached via email at jshames@gannett.com and X/Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
This article originally appeared in Nashville Tennessean: BJ Callaghan, Nashville SC not worried about loss to end preseason
