Seven Games, 14 Points: Nashville SC Is Chasing the Best Regular Season in MLS History
Six years ago, Nashville SC was a brand-new expansion club sharing an NFL stadium and trying to convince the league that a Music City soccer team could be more than a footnote. This October, it is the team everyone else is measuring itself against. With seven regular-season games left, Nashville has the arithmetic of history on its side.
After 27 matchdays the club has 18 wins and 55 goals, and it sits 10 points clear of the league's next-best team, which has a game in hand, and 14 points clear of the second-place side in the Eastern Conference. The number that matters most now is 74. That is what Inter Miami collected in 2024 (22 wins, 8 draws and 4 losses), the highest single-season total in MLS history. Nashville needs 14 of the 21 points still available to match it, and 15 to pass it.
What the finish looks like
The run-in starts Saturday, Oct. 10, with a night match at Austin FC. Three more wins after that would lock up the top seed in the East, and the Supporters' Shield, the trophy for the league's best regular-season record, would not be far behind. The club's own math points to Wednesday, Oct. 28, as a possible clinching night, when Philadelphia visits for one of three regular-season home games left on the schedule.
Based on the league's published schedule as of Oct. 8, the remaining slate runs like this:
- Sat., Oct. 10: at Austin FC
- Wed., Oct. 14: home vs. Sporting Kansas City
- Oct. 17-18: at San Jose
- Sat., Oct. 24: at CF Montréal
- Wed., Oct. 28: home vs. Philadelphia
- Halloween weekend: home vs. the New York Red Bulls
- Sat., Nov. 7: at FC Cincinnati on the final day of the regular season
Kickoff times vary by source and can change, so confirm each match time with the club before you go.
The MVP conversation
A season like this tends to produce individual hardware, and three of Nashville's Designated Players are in the conversation: Cristian Espinoza, Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge. Of the three, Mukhtar is the clearest candidate for league MVP. How the award race plays out may depend as much on the final seven games as on the 27 already in the books.
Heading to a home match
Home games are played at GEODIS Park, the soccer-specific stadium on the fairgrounds site that opened in 2022. With two weeknight dates and a Halloween-weekend game on the schedule, plan the evening ahead: our Nashville parking guide covers where to leave the car, and visitors making a night of it can compare rooms on our Book Your Stay page.
Image: illustrative, AI-generated – not the actual location.
