Nashville SC 1 Atlanta United 1

Saturday 18th May 2024 – MLS Eastern Conference – Geodis Park, Nashville

Such is the geographic distances in the US that this game was considered to be a local derby. Whilst it is only a 40 minute flight from Atlanta to Nashville, the two cities are some 250 miles apart. But that didn’t stop Atlanta, who are the best supported team in the MLS, bringing a sizeable support to Tennessee.

My travel to Atlanta had been booked prior to the MLS fixtures being released. My “home” for 5 days in May would be the Georgia World Conference Center, slap-bang next to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the 70,000+ indoor arena, home to Atlanta United. It was disappointing to discover on fixture release day that United would not be at home, but would be at Nashville SC, the newest franchise in the league, and as close as they could be.

Forty minutes after departing the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, we were touching down in Nashville, Tennessee. Fun fact for those wishing to visit The Volunteer State – the only animal that is legal to shoot out of a moving car via the window is a whale. Good luck finding one of those in land-locked Tennessee!

Whilst the game was an early 12.30pm kick-off, I still had a couple of hours to explore the city centre. And in truth, that would simply be a walk down the legendary Broadway Street, also known as Honky Tonk Highway, a long strip of bars which have live music playing all day long, and where the careers of such musical legends as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Gretchen Wilson.

The bars were rammed at 10.30am, with cowboy boots, daisy dukes and Stetson’s as far as the eye could see. Small groups of football fans shared elbow room with Hen/Bachelorette Parties, Stag Do’s and weekenders making the most of the liberal licensing hours.

It was hard to drag myself away but I had a game to get to. Nashville Sporting Club had been awarded an expansion franchise back in December 2017, to join the MLS at the start of the 2020 season. A few months after being awarded their franchise, the newly formed Nashville SC played their first game, losing 3-1 to Atlanta United in a friendly.

Unfortunately, legal wranglings, spiralling costs and COVID meant that the construction of the new stadium in the Fairgrounds area to the south of the centre, didn’t start until 2020, just weeks before they began their life as a MLS club, meaning they had to play for the first two seasons at the Tennessee Titan’s Nissan Stadium in the city centre – just across the bridge from the end of Broadway Street, which must be an amazing pre-match experience when the NFL is in town and 69,000 fans pile out of the bars for the game.

Finally, Geodis Park opened in May 2022 as a 30,000 capacity venue, making it the largest football/soccer specific stadium in North America, for the moment at least. It’s a similar affair to a number of other US “soccer” stadiums (Red Bull Arena, Mercy Park in Kansas City and the Shell Energy stadium in Houston), with two tiers of seating/safe standing, on three sides and then a main stand with corporate boxes and facilities on the other side.

I hopped out of my cab and followed the fans, the majority of which were bedecked in the yellow home shirts. The noise of the cicadas in the trees was deafening, but it wouldn’t be the sound they created, rather the sound they caused which would be the issue.

Experts predicted over a trillion of the harmless bugs would be emerging from their 12+ year hibernation in the US over the coming weeks and they were everywhere. They look like hornets, with red eyes but flew almost sleepishly around, landing on people, getting caught in peoples hair or even in one instance, up a trouser leg. You heard the yelps and the screams throughout the afternoon.

I don’t think I have ever been to a ground where so many fans are wearing so many different designs of replica kits. Despite being less than 4 years old, I counted over fifteen different shirts including one that was covered in Marvel Studios logos and one specifically designed to commemorate the military. At a rough estimate, I would say 30% of the home fans wore a shirt.

The Atlanta fans arrived en-masse, with their own band heralding their progress around the concourse to their seats in the upper tier and we were ready for some action. Except we wasn’t.

“Kick-off” was 12.30pm. At 12.37pm the teams finally left the pitch after their warm up. At 12.41pm, the flags were unfurled and four minutes later, the teams emerged to a fanfare of fireworks and a military helicopter buzzing overhead. 12:49pm the toss was carried out and finally, at 12:51pm we were underway. What exactly is the point of putting a kick-off time for these games?

Two days before the game, Nashville fired their head coach Gary Smith, who had been with them since day 1, and his assistant, former Leicester City winger Steve Guppy. Despite a win at Toronto in midweek, there was a feeling among the fans he had taken them as far as he could.

It wasn’t the best of games. Nashville probably just edged the first half and went in 1-0 thanks to a hotly disputed penalty after Hany Mukhtar went down easily after a challenge from Atlanta’s keeper Brad Guzan. The midfielder slotted home the penalty after a lengthy VAR check.

The away side equalised ten minutes into the second half when Tristan Muyumba squared the ball to Bartosz Slisz, whose shot from the edge of the box found the back of the net.

I wandered down from the upper tier to the safe standing area behind the goal for the final ten minutes. There, four pairs of “capos” were trying to get the crowd going, using the enthusiasm of primary school teachers and large signs, like a game of pictionary to engage with the fans. Quite bizarre.

The official crowd was just over 28,000 but that must have been based on tickets sold/handed out rather than the actual attendance as it was some way short of that. Cleverly, with the seats being yellow and dark blue, the colours of the shirts of the team, it did give a slightly enhanced feel to the crowd.

I was heading straight back to the airport for my flight to Atlanta. To say it was chaos on the roads outside was an understatement. The club had a designated ride share area for Uber bookings. A great idea, except the traffic control from the local police was preventing any drivers getting anywhere near. A minor grumble on an excellent day trip though.