Goals and Highlights: Nashville 3-1 Orlando in MLS 2021

We hope you enjoyed our coverage of Nashville vs Orlando City in the MLS Playoffs. Keep checking back on VAVEL.COM for updates throughout the day.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL FOR NASHVILLE! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL FOR THE SEMIFINALS! NASHVILLE WILL BE IN THE NEXT ROUND OF THE MLS.

Nashville is close to qualifying, but Orlando City is going all out for the equalizer.

This is how Mukhtar put the second goal on the scoreboard for Nashville. 

En el primero tuvo fortuna, pero en este... VAYA GOLAZO de Hany Mukhtar, por favor. El alemán va sobrado de calidad, marcando un doblete para remontar a Orlando y poner a Nashville SC por delante. Ya son 18G + 12A para él. ¿〽️VP de MLS en 2021? #EveryoneN pic.twitter.com/6H6CvKoDWo

— Mario Reinoso (@MarioReinoso17) November 24, 2021

GOOOOOOOOOL FOR NASHVILLE!
Mukhtar headed towards goal from midfield and dribbled past the defenders and fired a shot that Pedro Gallese couldn't stop. 

Yellow! Méndez gets a yellow card for a hard foul on Anibal Godoy. 

Orlando City close! Mendez hits a right-footed shot with his right foot into the top right corner but Zimermman saves a shot from a corner kick.

Free kick for Nashville! Godoy is again fouled and gets another scoring chance for the home side.

The second half begins between Nashville and Orlando City, one of them will have to go for the win. 

At the end of the first half at Nissan Stadium, Nahsville and Orlando City are tied 1-1 at the moment. 

Finaliza la primera mitad en el Nissan Stadium, Nahsville y Orlando City empatan 1-1 al momento.

What a scare! Nashville had scored the second goal of the night after a rebound given by goalkeeper Pedro Gallese, however, an offside leaves the play as invalid.

Dangerous opportunity for Nashville. Godoy is fouled and gets an indirect free kick for the home side. 

This is how Mukhtar tied the match. 

GOL de @NashvilleSC 🥳
Mukhtar le pega y el balón se desvía en un defensa para bañar al arquero. Juego nuevo.#MLSenFD con @SirJohnLaguna @marianot19 @rodwallace22 pic.twitter.com/ZjW8NPOO8u

— FOX Deportes (@FOXDeportes) November 24, 2021

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL FOR NASHVILLE
Muhktar ties the match with a great goal from outside the box that leaves Gallese with no chance. It's a tie!

From a corner kick, Dike scored after breaking free and beating the entire Nashvile backline. Orlando wins it 1-0. 

GOL de @OrlandoCitySC 🥳

Dike se eleva por los aires y anota el primero ante Nashville. #MLSenFD con @SirJohnLaguna @marianot19 @rodwallace22 pic.twitter.com/jQESsAE4oQ

— FOX Deportes (@FOXDeportes) November 24, 2021

GOOOOOOOOOL FOR ORLANDO CITY. 
Dike rises highest and shoots inside the box to put the visitors ahead. 

Indirect free kick in favor of Orlando City, Anibal Godoy commits a foul on Dyke in the middle of the field.

Free kick for Orlando City in their defensive zone, Nashville starts to attack slowly. 

The match between Nashville and Orlando City kicks off, both teams are looking to advance to the conference semifinals but to do so they will have to overcome this first hurdle. 

In a couple of minutes we will start with Nashville vs Orlando City, a duel corresponding to the MLS Play-Offs.

Orlando City enters this match on the heels of a 0-2 MLS victory over the Montreal Impact in their most recent outing.

In that match, Orlando City achieved 45% possession and 10 shots on goal with 3 shots on target. For Orlando City, the goals were scored by Mendez (55') and Dike (86'). reached 12 scoring chances with 3 on target.

In their last six meetings, Orlando City has scored a total of 9 goals. Orlando City has also scored on each of those occasions. During that span, they have suffered 7 goals scored by their opponents.

Nashville will play this match coming off a previous draw, 1-1, in MLS versus the New York Red Bulls.

In that match, Nashville had 60% possession and 11 shots on goal with 4 of them on target. The scorer for Nashville was Mukhtar ('37). On the opponent's side, New York Red Bulls reached 14 scoring chances with 5 shots on goal. Gomes Neto ('1) was the scorer for New York Red Bulls.

Under three goals per game were scored during 5 of the last 6 meetings in which Nashville saw action. Regarding the distribution of goals during this period, their opponents scored a total of 7 while Nashville got 9. Of course, it won't necessarily hold true for this match.

Nashville SC is coming off a strong win against Inter Miami (1 - 0) which was played at home, while Orlando City is coming off a strong win against Atlanta United (1 - 3) which was played away.

Looking back over their previous head-to-head meetings, starting from 8/26/2020, there has been very little difference between these teams, with Nashville winning 1 of those meetings, Orlando City 1 and 4 being draws at the end of regulation time.
In total, 19 goals were shared between the two clubs in these matches, with 9 going to Nashville and 10 being Orlando City's. This gives us an average goals per game value of 3.17.
The last league match between these clubs was on MLS Matchday 44 on 10/31/2021, and the final score was Orlando City 1-1 Nashville.
On that occasion, Orlando City controlled 55% of possession and took 14 shots on goal with 2 shots on target. The scorer was Dike ('18).
On the other side, Nashville had 14 shots on goal. Mukhtar (53') scored.
The match was refereed by Allen Chapman.

This is how the Orlando City team will take the field in search of a place in the conference semifinals, the Purple Lions will be looking to win as visitors. 

These are the eleven men that Nashville's D.T. sends to the field to look for the qualification to the next round. 

Nashville's Daniel Rios has missed the last three games with an ankle injury, and the forward is also expected to be absent on Tuesday.
After missing the last game against the New York Red Bulls, David Romney will return for the last three.
Hany Mukhtar has scored three goals in his last four appearances, and will partner CJ Sapong on the front line.
Meanwhile, Orlando will be without the trio of Rio Hope-Gund, Adam Grinwis and Raul Aguilera Jr, who are all absent due to injury.
After being an unused substitute for the final game of the regular season, Nani is expected to return to the starting lineup for Tuesday's matchup.
Dike will lead the line for the visitors, and enters the match in fine scoring form after netting seven goals in his last nine appearances.

Orlando City finished the qualifying round in sixth place in the East, with 51 points, having a campaign of 13 wins, 12 draws and 9 defeats, scoring 50 goals and conceding 48.

It has a more unbalanced game, mainly in its defensive control. Even so, away they finished with the third best campaign in the East side, with 5 wins, 5 draws and 7 losses, but with 21 goals scored and 30 of their 48 goals conceded in the competition conceded away from their stadium.

Team that plays with 2 midfielders, 3 build-up men and one man up top. They can play more aggressively, but end up having problems in their defensive transitions.

The Orlando City fans are showing up at Nissan Stadium with all the attitude to support their team today, and they'll be cheering until they burn their throats!

Talk about support on the road 💜💨 #LightItPurple | #MLSCupPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/WsezSd8Vhz

— x - Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) November 23, 2021

The team finished the qualifying round in third place in the Eastern Conference, with 12 wins and 18 draws, and positioning itself as one of the most difficult teams to beat in the league, with only 4 defeats in 34 games. It stands out mainly for its great defensive solidity, conceding 33 goals and finishing the qualification phase as the best defense of the East side of the competition. In addition, playing at home they were the only team that did not lose a game, finishing the first phase with 8 wins and 9 draws.

It is also true that in some moments they end up having difficulties in this propositional game, and this high number of draws at home confirms this theory. It comes from 3 draws in a row playing at home and sometimes their opponents tend to give possession to their team, which ends up losing that ability to play in transition.

An example was in the last home game, against the New York Red Bulls, in which they had 60% possession and many problems in their offensive construction, ending the game with few scoring chances created, in a tactical structure that contained 5 men in the first line of marking and this lower game of their opponent, did not allow spaces for progression, mainly on the lateral bands, which is a weapon.

This is how the Nashville players are arriving to the vicinity of Nissan Stadium, with all the attitude and fashion style. 

Turtleneck season 🐢 pic.twitter.com/QQwGt4pkYV

— x - Nashville SC (@NashvilleSC) November 23, 2021

The wait is over, the Major League Soccer playoffs are back. This time it will be Nashville's turn to host Orlando City at Nissan Stadium, both teams will be looking to qualify to the next round of the MLS playoffs. The winner of this match will face the Philadelphia Union. 
 

Do not miss a detail of the match with the live updates and commentaries of VAVEL. Follow along with us all the details, commentaries, analysis and lineups for this Nashville vs Orlando match.

This is the start time of the game Nashville vs Orlando of 23th November in several countries:

Argentina: 21:00 PM

Bolivia: 19:00 PM

Brazil: 21:00 PM

Chile: 20:00 PM

Colombia: 19:00 PM

Ecuador: 19:00 PM

USA (ET): 20:00 PM in TUDN USA

Spain: 2:00 AM

Mexico: 19:00 PM

Paraguay: 20:00 PM

Peru: 20:00 PM

Uruguay: 21:00 PM

Venezuela: 19:00 PM

Dearly Dike will be the player to follow for this match, the American native of California played 18 games this season, which gave a total of 1325 minutes completed, on 10 occasions he managed to score and only once he generated a scoring opportunity that ended in an assist. He also belongs to that small group of players who did not receive a yellow or red card, in fact, he scored on the last day of the regular phase to give his team the three points, so Dike could tip the scales in favor of the lions at any moment of the match.   

MLS soccer star and a wall for Nashville's center back, Walker Zimmerman, is one of the most decisive players on the field for the American side when it comes to defending. Since his arrival in Nashville, the American native of Georgia has played 1,417 minutes, in which he has appeared 19 times in the starting lineup, scoring twice and receiving a yellow card twice. After playing in the last game and being one of the important men in the Nashville team, Zimmerman could be the one to put the balance in favor of the yellow team and put them in the next stage of the MLS Play Offs.

P. Gallese; E. Mas, R. Jannson, Antonio Carlos, Ruan; J. Méndez, Júnior Uso; B. Michael, M. Pereyra, S. Van der Water; D. Dike.

J. Willis; A. Johnstone, E. Miller, W. Zimmerman, J. Maher, D. Lovitz; A. Muyl, A. Godoy, R. Leal; H. Mukhtar, C. Sapong.

Nashville and Orlando City have met on a total of 6 occasions (1 win for Orlando City, 4 draws and 1 win for Nashville) where the scales have not tipped to either side, so this will be one of the most evenly matched duels in the Major League Soccer Play Offs. In terms of goals, in the six matches played since 2020 there have been goals, with 19 goals in total, 10 goals in favor of the home team and 9 in favor of the home team. Their last duel dates back to matchday 8 of the current season, the match was played in the city of Orlando where both teams drew by the minimum goal on the scoreboard.

Nissan Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is used primarily for American soccer and is the home field of the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL) and the Tennessee State Tigers of Tennessee State University.

Nissan Stadium is located on the east bank of the Cumberland River, and has a seating capacity of 69,143. Its first event was a preseason game between the Titans and the Atlanta Falcons on August 27, 1999. Since opening in 1999, it has been known by several names, including Adelphia Coliseum 1999-2002, The Coliseum 2002-2006, and LP Field 2006-2015.

On the other hand, Orlando City has gone from strength to strength so far this season and everything seems to indicate that they will be looking to continue with the same rhythm to seek a place in the next phase of the MLS play offs. They are also in high spirits after having beaten Montreal away, so it will be an important mission to get on the Nissan Stadium turf and get the third place team out of the tournament. The Lions finished the MLS regular season in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 51 points from 13 wins, 12 draws and only 9 defeats. They also registered 50 goals for and 48 goals against, a figure that makes them one of the most sensitive defenses in the Play Offs, so it will be of vital importance to enter Nissan Stadium with a defensive wall, as their rivals are one of the most powerful offensive teams in MLS.

The Nashville squad will seek to make the home advantage count in their favor to show it on the field and on the scoreboard to have an advantage over their rival from minute 1, the team of the six ropes ended the season in third place in the general table of the Eastern Conference with 54 points that were the product of 12 wins, 18 ties and 4 defeats, also recorded 55 goals for and 33 goals against, a statistic that leaves them with a positive difference of 22. Likewise, it is worth remembering that this is one of the most consistent teams that have been presented lately in MLS, also, they will seek to get back to the next Skotibank CONCACAF Champions League competition since they were one step away from advancing to the final in the most recent competition, but for that they will have to dream big and with the Major League Soccer crown.

The most important part of the road has arrived for both clubs, the regular season is over and now there is nothing left but to fight for the title, however, to do so they will have to pass the first obstacle which is the first round of the Play Offs and thus have the opportunity to access the MLS conference semifinals. There are already rivals waiting for them, so the public is waiting to see who will deserve to be alive for another round of the season. In their last match Nashville drew with New York RB, a team that curiously was already eliminated against Philadelphia Union, on the other side of the coin, Orlando defeated the team from Montreal without any problems.

The Nashville vs Orlando match will be Nissan Stadium, in Nashville, USA. The kick-off is scheduled at 20:00 pm ET.

My name is Luis Miguel and I will be your host for this game. We will provide you with pre-game analysis, roster updates, and news as it happens live here on VAVEL.