In their 2025 Major League Soccer home opener, the New York Red Bulls host Nashville SC on Saturday at Red Bull Arena in the second match of the new campaign for both sides.
The defending Eastern Conference champions were beaten 1-0 by FC Cincinnati last weekend, while the Boys in Gold settled for a 0-0 draw with the New England Revolution.
Match preview
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Chances were a few and far between for the Red Bulls in their season opener last Saturday as they failed to score against an MLS side for a second match running.
That extended their regular-season losing streak to three games, all of which ended in defeat for them by just a single goal.
Sandro Schwarz saw his side go winless in their final five regular-season affairs at Red Bull Arena last year, though this club have not lost their home opener in this competition since 2022 (1-0 to Minnesota United).
On Saturday, the Red Bulls will try to avoid losing their opening two matches of an MLS campaign for the first time since 2021.
Dating back to the 2024 domestic campaign, the Red Bulls have lost their last six regular-season encounters when conceding the opening goal.
New York have never lost to Nashville SC in this competition, though their only victory against them in Harrison occurred in 2021 (2-0).
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Since entering the league in 2020, we have come to expect that Nashville SC will play defensively sound football, with an emphasis on destabilising the opposition's attack.
That is what we saw from BJ Callaghan's men on matchday one, as they held the Revs to just two efforts on target and have yet to concede a goal this year.
At the same time they have won just one of their previous six encounters in this competition, defeating the Chicago Fire 3-0 on Decision Day last season.
A year ago, they won four away games in the regular season, for the fourth time in their five MLS campaigns with their best road season regarding victories occurring in 2022 (seven wins).
At the same time, Nashville have come away with points in their last four regular season openers away from home, earning a 1-1 draw at the Colorado Rapids in 2024.
The Boys in Gold have failed to score in five of their six all-time meetings against the Red Bulls, netting just once overall, though they managed to hold them to a 0-0 draw in two of their three visits to Red Bull Arena.
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Team News
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In their season opener, the Red Bulls were without Ronald Donkor, who had a sore shin, while Serge Ngoma, Marcelo Morales, Kyle Duncan and Roald Mitchell all sat out with knee injuries.
A thigh issue kept Adri Mehmeti on the sidelines last weekend, and Wiktor Bogacz was unavailable as he recovers from a back problem.
On the Nashville side, Patrick Yazbek, Jacob Shaffelburg, Julian Gaines, Gaston Brugman and Bryan Acosta all missed their opening game due to thigh issues.
Meanwhile, Maximus Ekk and Tyler Boyd were both unavailable because of knee problems, leaving their status up in the air for this game.
New York Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Coronel; Eile, S. Nealis, Hack; Harper, Carmona, Edelman, Valencia; Morgan, Forsberg; Choupo-Moting
Nashville SC possible starting lineup:
Willis; Najar, Zimmerman, Maher, Lovitz; Perez, Corcoran, Tagseth, Muyl; Mukhtar, Surridge
We say: New York Red Bulls 0-0 Nashville SC
These are two sides that focus on defence first and foremost, and we expect this game to reflect that, with both teams likely to take a cautious approach so early into the new campaign.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
