Preview | Nashville SC vs. LAFC - 2026 MLS Season

Sunday, May 17 | 5:00 p.m. PT

🏟 | GEODIS Park - Nashville, TN

🖥 | WATCH: Apple TV | Coupang Play (Korea), SpoTV (Korea), Local Bar Partners

📻 | LISTEN: 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, SiriusXM FC 157 KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), & KYPA 1230 AM (Korean)

LAFC wraps up its two-game road swing with a high-profile match in Nashville against East-leading Nashville SC at GEODIS Park on Apple TV’s Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire.

The match pits this year's Concacaf Champions Cup Semifinalists from MLS against one another and is the only game on the league's 15-game slate this weekend to feature two teams in the top eight of the Supporters' Shield standings.

The Black & Gold stands in fifth place in the Western Conference standings and eighth place in the Shield race, with 21 points and a record of 6W-4L-3D.

Nashville – after a sixth-place finish in the Eastern Conference in 2025 and a Round One playoff exit (falling to eventual champs Inter Miami two games to one in their Best-of-3 series) – has gotten off to a scorching start in 2026, losing just one of its first 12 league matches and currently sitting atop the Eastern Conference and in third place in the Supporters' Shield standings with a record of 8W-1L-3D. 

Like LAFC, Nashville advanced all the way to the Semifinal round in Concacaf Champions Cup before falling to one of Mexico’s biggest clubs – in Nashville’s case, Tigres.

Both teams have seen a dip in form recently as their game schedules have become congested with Concacaf matches.

“Sometimes there are moments that are just difficult for a team and don’t go your way,” LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said after Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat in St. Louis. “Right now we’re in a moment like that. I told them just now in the locker room, I know everybody is disappointed, but how you went about the game, how you answered in the game, how you pushed the game, how you looked for the goal all the time, there are a lot of things to build on.”

David Martínez scored his fourth goal of the regular season against St. Louis and his eighth in all competitions in 2026, building on what has already been a breakout season for the 20-year-old winger-midfielder. Last year Martínez scored six goals in 37 appearances across all competitions.

SCOUTING NASHVILLE

Led by third-year head coach B.J. Callaghan, Nashville has scored 26 goals this season and conceded only eight, for a goal differential of plus-18. No other Eastern Conference team is in positive double digits in goal differential. (The next-closest club, Chicago, is at plus-8.)

While All-Star striker Sam Surridge (nine goals) has been nursing a back injury, 21-year-old Warren Madrigal has filled in admirably by scoring five goals, including one against New England in Wednesday night’s 3-0 road win. Midfielder Bryan Acosta scored his first two goals of the season in New England; both were assisted by team assist leader Cristian Espinoza, whose 7 helpers are one behind league leader Son Heung-Min of LAFC.

Club captain and 2022 MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar has put up double-digit goal tallies in four of his six full seasons.

Rookie goalkeeper Brian Schwake has started every regular-season match for Nashville this year, logging six clean sheets in his 12 MLS starts, and five more in eight Concacaf Champions Cup starts. 

Unbeaten at home (4W-0L-1D), Nashville’s road win in New England this week extended the club’s regular-season unbeaten streak to six games (4W-0L-2D).

RETURN TO TENN.

LAFC forwards Tyler Boyd and Jacob Shaffelburg (below L and R, respectively) will face Nashville SC for the first time since departing the Tennessee club to sign with LAFC in the offseason. Shaffelburg spent the previous four seasons with Nashville SC, making 107 appearances across all competitions, contributing 14 goals and 17 assists, and playing a key role in Nashville’s first-ever trophy, the 2025 U.S. Open Cup.

THE SERIES

LAFC holds a 2W-1L-1D edge over Nashville in their four prior meetings, scoring eight goals to Nashville’s three. The Black & Gold is unbeaten in its two prior trips to GEODIS Park (1W-0L-1D). Its last visit was a 1-1 draw on April 22, 2023, in which Shaffelburg played the final 22 minutes.

The clubs’ most recent meeting was a 5-0 LAFC win at BMO Stadium on March 23, 2024, which included a goal by Timmy Tillman and a brace by Denis Bouanga. That match marked Hugo Lloris’ fifth start in an LAFC shirt and his second clean sheet. The 2018 World Cup champion has gone on to record 31 more regular-season shutouts since then, including an MLS-best eight this year.

LAFC’s only loss to Nashville, a 1-0 home defeat on Decision Day 2022, marked the Black &Gold’s final loss of that calendar year. LAFC responded by reeling off three straight wins in the 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs to claim its first league championship.

LAFC WILL WIN IF

It can relax, regenerate, and study some film during the three days between Wednesday night’s result in Missouri and Sunday night’s kickoff in Tennessee. LAFC has played more matches (21) than any other MLS club across all competitions this year—and it has done so in a span of just 86 days, including the FIFA international break in late March. That’s one kickoff every 4.1 days on average.

That schedule has come at a cost, including a lack of time together on the training pitch. But it’s a price that LAFC is willing to pay given its constant pursuit of championships on multiple fronts. The club is on track to play at least 50 games in all competitions for the fourth straight year, something no other MLS club has done more than once in that span.

NASHVILLE CAN WIN IF

Espinoza remains a thorn in LAFC’s side. For the last eight years the 31-year-old has been one of the most underrated attacking weapons in MLS, with 39 goals and an eye-popping 84 assists since he entered MLS in 2019. Five of those goals have come against LAFC.

Over his last three years in San Jose, Espinoza has been the best Argentine attacker in the league not named Lionel Messi. Since joining Nashville this past offseason he has been the engine in Nashville’s ascent.