By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Nashville SC has not only been able to survive its marathon season-opening road trip, they’re starting to thrive. They got a second straight victory Saturday night beating Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park. Defender Dave Romney got his first goal of the season off a set piece in the 51st minute from a service from Randall Leal, while CJ Sapong, a former member of Sporting Kansas City, got the game winner in the 68th minute. Romney once more played the entire 90 minutes, and through six games is the only Nashville SC player that hasn’t missed any time.
Hany Mukhtar got a a secondary assist on Romney’s goal, and has now gotten assists in three consecutive matches and four in his last five. Mukhtar is now tied for second in MLS in assists. Nashville also fortunately won despite missing a penalty shot. The game was also notable on several fronts for Nashville SC. Just as they did in Columbus, they gave Sporting Kansas City their first home less. The victory made them the only team in the Western Conference with three road wins. It was also their third comeback road victory in team history, and the first time tis season that they’ve scored two goals in a match. They have two road games remaining before they open their new stadium next month.
Nashville SC also is showing signs of an offensive resurgence. They had a season high 19 shots against Sporting Kansas City. Goalie Joe Willis had four saves for the second straight match and after allowing an early goal kept Sporting Kansas City off the scoreboard through the second half and extra time. Randall Leal made his 50th regular season start and got his 150th career MLS assist. Mukhtar got his 20th MLS, while Sean Davis got his first assist as a member of Nashville SC and Alex Muvi got his first of the season. Walker Zimmerman returned from his national team duties, wearing the captain’s band. Ethan Zubak made his Nashville SC debut as well.
The seventh game of the road trip will be Saturday against San Jose. It will be nationally televised on Univision, TUDN and Twitter (English audio). Fans can also listen to the call via the free iHeartRADIO app by searching Nashville SC for English and on all three El Jefe stations 96.7FM, 105.3FM, and 810AM for Spanish.
