Nashville, hungry to stay on record pace, squares off with Cincinnati

Nashville SC will try to maintain its record-setting pace on Saturday night when they host an FC Cincinnati side coming off a rare home slip-up.

Nashville (15-2-4, 49 points) has won three straight in MLS since being eliminated from the Leagues Cup, extending its lead to 10 points over Inter Miami in the Eastern Conference and nine over the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Supporters' Shield race.

If the Coyotes continue at this pace, they'll finish with 79 points, shattering the MLS record of 74 set by Miami two seasons ago.

And with sustained strong performances, including Sam Surridge scoring 12 goals and Cristian Espinoza contributing 10 assists, manager B.J. Callaghan insists there will be no letup now that Nashville has a comfortable lead in its regular-season pursuits.

"Our environment is that we're constantly going to try to improve and get better. And that doesn't really move to much the way we go about our weeks, based on winning and losing," Callaghan said Friday. "For us, we've got a great group of guys that are also trying to improve individually and unit-wise collectively, and we're still a humble and hungry team."

Cincinnati (8-6-7, 31 points) has its own elite performer in Evander, who is mounting an MVP candidacy with 13 goals and 11 assists through 20 appearances.

But manager Pat Noonan's group was held to a 1-1 home draw by the short-handed Seattle Sounders on Saturday, dropping points to a visiting team for just the fourth time this season.

Kalani Kossa-Rienzi's equalizer came against a short-handed Cincy rearguard, with Noonan electing to rest defender Matt Miazga and defensive midfielder Obinna Nwobodo at the end of a stretch of seven games in 22 days across all competitions. Nwobodo did enter the game for the final five minutes of the contest.

The manager stood by the choice particularly regarding Miazga after a result that dropped his team to sixth in the East, a point behind Charlotte and three behind New England.

"I think it was still the right decision there," Noonan said on Thursday. "It's easy to look at a result or the play of the selected 11 and say what was right or wrong. But just from a physical standpoint, we managed Matt. That was planned, and I think to have him available for the lead-up to Nashville made sense."

--Field Level Media