Nashville SC and New England Revolution get the ball rolling in the 2025 MLS campaign when they go head to head in the season curtain-raiser on Saturday night.
The Revs, who lost their final six league games on the road last term, will journey to Geodis Park looking to begin the season on a positive note and secure a fourth consecutive victory over the home side since June 2024.
Match preview
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Having featured in each of the four playoffs since their MLS debut in 2020, Nashville failed to secure post-season football for the first time last season, following a disappointing campaign in the regular season.
The Boys in Gold picked up just nine wins from their 34 league matches while losing 16 and claiming nine draws to collect 36 points and finish 25th in the Supporters' Shield standings.
Nashville's disappointing campaign was in no small part owing to their lack of firepower at the attacking end of the pitch, with just 38 league goals making them the second-lowest scorers among all 29 MLS sides.
B.J. Callaghan's men come into the new season with plenty of promise, particularly off the back of a solid pre-season, where they went unbeaten in five of their six warm-up games, claiming four wins and one draw while scoring 15 goals and keeping three clean sheets.
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Like this weekend's hosts, New England Revolution showed promise in pre-season as they finished unbeaten in five of their six friendly matches — claiming four wins and one draw — with a 2-0 loss against Atlanta United on February 8 being the exception.
The Revs will look to continue from where they left off in pre-season and put together strong early season form, coming off a hugely disappointing 2024 league campaign where they finished bottom but one in the Eastern Conference table.
New England Revolution lost 21 of their 34 MLS matches last term while claiming nine wins and four draws to collect 31 points and clinch 14th place in the conference, just one point above last-placed Chicago Fire.
While Caleb Porter's men netted the fewest number of goals in the league last term (37), they finished with the second-worst defensive record after shipping 74 — only San Jose Earthquakes (78) allowed more.
The Revs will be backing themselves to kick off the new campaign as they mean to go on as Saturday's clash pits them against an opposing side who have lost each of their last three meetings while failing to win eight of their most recent 10 clashes since October 2020.
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Team News
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Nashville remain without the services of experienced forward Tyler Boyd, who has been out of action since suffering a cruciate ligament injury last July.
Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge formed a formidable duo for the Boys in Gold last season, registering a combined 30 goal contributions in the league, and they will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
As for New England Revolution, Tomas Chancalay has been sidelined since May through a severe knee injury and the Argentine forward is out of contention for this weekend's clash.
Carles Gil is a doubt for the visitors, having missed the final two pre-season games due to a muscle problem, and the Spanish midfielder will be assessed ahead of Saturday's clash.
The Revs have completed several deals during the off-season, with the likes of Brayan Ceballos, Mamadou Fofana and 20-year-old defender Ilay Feingold in line to make their league debuts this weekend.
Nashville SC possible starting lineup:
Willis; Najar, Zimmerman, Palacios, Lovitz; Tagseth, Yazbek, Brugman, Muyl; Mukhtar, Surridge
New England Revolution possible starting lineup:
Ivacic; Bye, Fofana, Ceballos, Sands; Yueill, Abdullahi; Langoni, Gil, Ganago; Campana
We say: Nashville SC 2-1 New England Revolution
Having both endured a poor 2024 campaign, Nashville and New England Revolution will look to get one over the other this weekend as they know that victory here could spur them to a strong early-season run. The Revs have struggled to grind out results in their travels and we fancy Nashville to come away with the desired result in front of their home supporters.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joshua Ojele
