Nashville SC continued their strong preseason form with a 4-1 win over D.C. United on Wednesday, with a heavily-rotated squad pulling ahead late in a 120-minute match.
The XI
BJ Callaghan made several changes to the lineup. While the backline and wide midfield areas were unchanged, he rotated the forward and central midfield groups. Adem Sipić and Jacob Shaffelburg started up top, with newly-signed Matt Corcoran and 2023 SuperDraft pick Wyatt Meyer partnered in midfield.
Nashville SC Starting XI vs DC United: Willis; Lovitz, Maher, Zimmerman, Najar; Meyer, Corcoran; Muyl, Tagseth; Sipić, Shaffelburg
— SixOneFive Soccer (@sixonefivesoccer.com) 2025-02-12T16:12:03.676Z
Heavy rotation happened in the second half and 30 minute extra time period. Brian Schwake replaced Joe Willis at the half, with Taylor Washington, Jeisson Palacios, Chris Applewhite and Josh Bauer coming in as well. Central midfield and forward remained the same, while Jonny Pérez and Isaiah Jones came in on the wings.
In extra time, Xavier Valdez, Kevin Carmichael, Bryan Acosta and Ethan O'Brien all got on the pitch, with Huntsville City FC players Christian Koffi, Gio Miglietti and Blake Bowen also making appearances. Additionally, Teal Bunbury made his first preseason appearance as he continues to rehab from surgery.
"A lot of what we're dealing with now is almost individualizing some plans here to make sure guys are fresh and prepared to actually train the week leading into the New England game," Callaghan said after the match. "Each guy's now worked a tail end of a preseason and each player was sort of managing on an individual basis so that we can try to feel the strongest, the strongest, healthiest and the most complete team that we can when we open it up."
Hany Mukhtar, Sam Surridge, Patrick Yazbek and Gastón Brugman did not feature.
On the pitch
Edvard Tagseth opened the scoring after just five minutes. Hosei Kijima equalized for D.C. shortly before halftime, but Taylor Washington got a rare goal just before the full-time whistle to make it 2-1.
In extra time, Nashville pulled ahead. Isaiah Jones found the back of the net from a Jonny Pérez assist, and Josh Bauer iced the result with a late goal to make it an emphatic 4-1 win.
Up next
While score-lines matter little in preseason, and even less in heavily-rotated, stop-start matches like this, it's always encouraging to see goals. Through five preseason matches, Nashville have scored eleven goals and allowed just one.
"Probably from the lineups, you can see that ourselves and DC are working through a couple of different variations of things and partnerships, so I don't think we put a lot of stock in the score line," Callaghan said. "Our focus was on the performance and some of the things that we've been working on here leading us into the home opener. I think we walked away satisfied is the best way to say it."
"I think what we did show is for the entire 120 minutes, regardless of whose number it was called, we were able to meet the objectives and play the way we wanted to play," he continued. "And that was from the group that started the game through the substitutions and even, again, a great testament to the club alignment that we're trying to build here, having three Huntsville guys come up and play as well. They didn't miss a beat. So really a complete performance for the entire club."
The Coyotes will finish out their 2025 preseason slate on Saturday with a trip to Austin FC.
