Nashville SC are in rarified air this season.
With a firm grip on top of MLS’s Eastern Conference, they’re also in the semifinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup and within touching distance of a trip to the final.
After losing the home leg 1-0 last week to Liga MX giants Tigres, though, the ‘Yotes clearly have work to do, needing a win in Monterrey in one of the most intimidating atmospheres on either side of the border. The easy instinct for Nashville’s general manager and president of soccer operations Mike Jacobs might be to make excuses for his team, one still new to the upper echelons of the game on this continent. He doesn’t.
“To play among the elite teams in North America, for us to truly be one of those teams, you have to be at your best in games like that. And we were not on Tuesday."
Speaking exclusively with Backheeled in a wide-ranging interview last week, Jacobs went deep into the process of transforming the club into a front-foot, attacking team, parlaying last year’s U.S. Open Cup-winning campaign into sustained competition for silverware at the highest levels, and more.
Nashville SC's "significantly improved" floor
Nashville made waves this winter with the signing of winger Cristian Espinoza. One of MLS’s premier attackers for nearly a decade, the Argentine was a stunning inclusion in the league’s free agent pool after a bizarre set of circumstances saw his contract expire in San Jose. Jacobs and Nashville beat the rest of the league to his signature, and he’s been excellent on the pitch so far with four goals and five assists across league and Concacaf play already this season.
While a signing like Espinoza certainly raised Nashville’s ceiling, Jacobs says improving the floor was equally important, if not more so.
“We've significantly improved the floor of our group,” the club’s front office head said. “For us, understanding how many players we think a team that can compete for silverware needs, and then looking at BJ [Callaghan] and what he needs, and we have the kind of depth. From a coaching standpoint, obviously, he wants to have competition for places because he brings the best out of them, but for us to be able to absorb periods like we have now. I mean, we're in the middle of what's the fourth time this season we're going to play five games in 15 days.”
