Nashville SC Falls, 1-0, at San Diego FC
MLS Nashville SC

Nashville SC Falls, 1-0, at San Diego FC

Published on July 25, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Nashville SC News Release


San Diego, Calif. - Nashville Soccer Club fell 1-0 in a Supporters' Shield clash at San Diego FC Friday night, marking only its second loss since April 19. The Boys in Gold have gone 13W-2L-4D across all competitions and sit third in the Eastern Conference and Supporters' Shield standings, just one point shy of Eastern Conference and league-leading FC Cincinnati (48 points), going into a 15-day break from regular season play.

Six in month seven: Friday night's match capped a six match July for Nashville SC in which they went 4W-2L-0D across all competitions (Major League Soccer, Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup), improving their all-time July record to 10W-14L-5D.

Ciento cincuenta: Defender Andy Najar registered his 150th career MLS start (regular season and playoffs) as he logged 89 minutes at Snapdragon Stadium. The first-year Boy in Gold leads MLS for most goal contributions by a defender this season with 11 (goal, 10 assists) and is the second player in Nashville SC history to record 10 or more assists in a single season alongside Hany Mukhtar.

Got their game on, went, played: Three Boys in Gold arrived in San Diego by way of Austin, Texas as Sam Surridge, Mukhtar and Najar represented Nashville SC in the 2025 MLS All-Star Game. Surridge, who is in the midst of an MLS Most Valuable Player caliber season, also competed in the Skills Challenge earlier in the week and scored the opening goal in MLS's 3-1 win over the Liga MX All-Stars.

Next up: Nashville SC will host English Premier League Side Aston Villa in an international friendly at 4 p.m. CT on Saturday, Aug. 2 at GEODIS Park its first-ever match against a club from the Premier League, England's top tier division and the most watched sports league in the world. Tickets are on sale at NashvilleSC.com/tickets and Ticketmaster.com.

Notes:

Nashville SC:

is off to its best start through 25 MLS matches at 14W-6L-5D (47 points)

is 5W-5L-2D in MLS road matches this season

played San Diego FC for the first time in club history

is 0W-1L-0D all-time vs. San Diego FC (regular season)

is 72W-58L-62D all-time (regular season + playoffs)

is 29W-39L-29D all-time on the road (regular season + playoffs)

is 19W-17L-18D all-time vs. Western Conference opponents (regular season + playoffs)

is 24W-12L-12D all-time on weekdays (regular season + playoffs)

is 2W-2L-1D all-time on Fridays (regular season + playoffs)

is 8W-12L-5D all-time during July (regular season)

Julian Gaines made his third MLS appearance this season when he subbed in at the 90th minute

Andy Najar made his 150th career MLS start (regular season + playoffs)

Jeisson Palacios led the team with 91.1% passing accuracy (minimum 60 passes completed)

Jonathan Pérez returned to the starting XI after serving a suspension for yellow card accumulation July 19 against Toronto FC

Sam Surridge

is tied to lead the MLS Golden Boot race with 18 goals (also, Lionel Messi)

surpassed 5,000 career regular season minutes played at the 22nd minute

Joe Willis

made his seventh career penalty kick save, his second this season

has the second most shutouts in MLS this season with nine

is tied 10th all-time for regular season shutouts with 76

was voted Nashville SC Man of the Match

Patrick Yazbek led the match in distance covered with 8.71 miles

Box score:

Nashville SC (14W-6L-5D) at San Diego FC (14W-7L-4D)

July 25, 2025 - Snapdragon Stadium

Final score:

NSH: 0

SD: 1

Scoring summary:

SD: Chucky Lozano (A: Anders Dreyer, Jeppe Tverskov) 53'

Discipline:

NSH: Walker Zimmerman (Caution) 18'

NSH: Jeisson Palacios (Caution) 32'

NSH: Dan Lovitz (Caution) 69'

SD: Luca Bombino (Caution) 71'

SD: Jeppe Tverskov (Caution) 88'

Lineups:

NSH starters: Joe Willis; Dan Lovitz, Jeisson Palacios, Walker Zimmerman (C), Andy Najar (Julian Gaines 90'); Patrick Yazbek, Hany Mukhtar, Alex Muyl (Ahmed Qasem 72'), Eddi Tagseth (Gastón Brugman 72'), Jonathan Pérez (Jacob Shaffelburg 62'); Sam Surridge (Teal Bunbury 72')

Substitutes: Brian Schwake, Jack Maher, Bryan Acosta, Josh Bauer

SD starters: Pablo Sisniega; Ian Pilcher, Manu Duah, Luca Bombino, Oscar Verhoeven; Jeppe Tverskov (C), Onni Valakari, Anders Dreyer, Chucky Lozano (Emmanuel Boateng 76'), Luca De La Torre (Paddy McNair 90' + 1); Tomas Angel (Aníbal Godoy 66')

Substitutes: CJ Dos Santos, Jacob Jackson, Hamady Diop, Franco Negri, Aiden Harangi, Alex Mighten

Match officials:

Referee: Drew Fischer

AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt

AR2: Kali Smith

4TH: Servando Berna

VAR: Jorge Gonzalez

AVAR: Craig Lowry

Weather: 66 and clear

POST-MATCH QUOTES FROM NASHVILLE SOCCER CLUB AT SAN DIEGO FC

HEAD COACH B.J. CALLAGHAN

(On tonight's result) "I thought we were probably a little bit too high, not as nicely connected with our press. We were probably a little bit vulnerable in the back. San Diego's a really good team, and they attract you up, and I thought they did a good job running behind the backline. In the end, I still think we handled it okay. I thought we had some good possessions where we were able to kind of get ourselves in there, when we were able to switch the ball. But I thought we had to be a little bit more balanced, both from the left and from the right.

"

FORWARD TEAL BUNBURY

(On tonight's result) " Usually, when you're down a goal, I would say it changes quite a bit. But in the first half, being on the bench, I think we started off well putting good pressure on them. But a lot of credit to San Diego. I mean, for a team that's new in the league, they're consistently a great team. Coming out here playing against them, [I have] a lot of respect for them and how they want to play the game.

I think it was a little bit challenging to get in behind, to create chances, but I also think this is kind of a playoff atmosphere that we faced tonight. I think these games are going to start getting close like this. When you play a top team like that, it's going to be fine margins. And I think tonight, we just didn't execute. There was a little bit of a moment towards the end of the game that we had some opportunities, but I just don't think we were clinical enough. I think we kind of maybe kept it too late. So, we're going to have to get back to Nashville, get a little bit of rest here, but then we're gonna have to start learning from this and trying to take what we can from this game moving forward to try to correct some of the mistakes we made."

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Major League Soccer Stories from July 25, 2025


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