Sam Surridge scored four goals and Nashville fixed the brand of the franchise for the biggest margin of victory on Saturday, beating the Chicago Fire visiting 7-2
Hany Mukhtar added two goals and a pass for Nashville, while Jeisson Palacios also scored.
Nashville (5-4-1, 16 points) opened the scoring in the 14th minute after the defender of Chicago Jack Elliott was called to a fault on Jacob Shaffelburg, causing a penalty kick. Surridge propelled the ball in the middle of the goal of giving Nashville an advance of 1-0.
Nashville doubled his advance in the 22nd minute when defender Palacios went to the right end of the Mukhtar Sweging cross and sent a powerful head towards the goal. The header caught the goalkeeper of Chicago Chris Brady by surprise, giving the Colombian his first goal with Nashville.
Chaos came off a few minutes after Palacios’ goal. Shaffelburg brought the ball into the field of a counterattack and launched a cross to Alex Muyl. His diving head then found Mukhtar opened at the rear post, and Mukhtar typed in an open shot to bring Nashville’s advance with three goals.
Nashville found its fourth goal in the first 31 minutes of the match, launching Chicago’s defense in disarray. Mukhtar started an impressive sequence of passes when he finished a donation with Andy Najar (three assists).
Najar found Mukhtar open in the middle of the box, which clinically split its shot in the lower left corner.
Chicago (3-4-3, 12 points) conceded another penalty just before half-time when Omari Glasgow and Surridge collided while fighting for a cross. After a brief Var check, the referees confirmed the penalty. Brady plunged in the right direction, but the Surridge penalty escaped the tense hands of Brady and rebounded in front of the line for an advance of 5-0 in the ninth minute of the downtime.
A few minutes after restarting, Najar sent a long bouncing ball to a stable overridge, which beat its marker in a footing before feeding its shot in the lower right corner to do it 6-0 in the 50th minute. He added a fourth later, moving on a long najar ball and turning the ball in the corner below the 57th minute to crown the scoring for the hosts.
Phillip Zinckergengel obtained Chicago on the board in the 64th minute when he curled up a free kick outside the box on the Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis at a tight angle. Hugo Cuypers scored seven minutes to later complete the scoring in the match.
– field level media