Nashville need help, then a win
Nashville SC travel to San Jose on Saturday night with the Supporters’ Shield in sight. The math is simple but conditional. A win at the Earthquakes could clinch it before kickoff is even a memory, but only if Vancouver and Inter Miami both fail to win their earlier Saturday matches.
Nashville sit at 20-3-6 with 66 points, nearly certain to finish with the league’s best regular-season record. They are also chasing a bigger number: Inter Miami’s MLS record of 74 points, set in 2024.
The form is hard to argue with. Nashville have won four straight by a combined 13-1, the latest a 4-0 win over Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday. Hany Mukhtar, Sam Surridge and Andy Najar all scored inside the first half hour.
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San Jose are no pushover
The Earthquakes are 13-8-8 with 47 points, fourth in the Western Conference and five points behind leader Vancouver. They are unbeaten in eight, although only three of those were wins. The last loss came in late August, and they stole a 1-1 draw at Real Salt Lake on Wednesday when Jack Jasinski scored in stoppage time.
Preston Judd leads San Jose with 15 goals, four of them in his last five games. He has played the full 90 minutes in each of the past two matches.
Bruce Arena was blunt about the Salt Lake result. “You could say we kind of stole a point at the end of that game,” the San Jose coach said, noting how hard recent road results have been to come by.
Two names worth watching
Surridge and Mukhtar have combined for 32 goals this season. Cristian Espinoza, a former Quakes winger, has 14 assists, one off the MLS lead.
Nashville coach B.J. Callaghan credited a demanding dressing room. “I think guys demand out of each other,” he said, holding his players to a high standard as the finish line comes into view.
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