Nashville SC returns to GEODIS Park on Saturday, Apr. 25, with a first-place hold on the Eastern Conference and a chance to keep stretching the gap when it meets Charlotte FC at 7:30 p.m. The rematch comes two weeks after Nashville beat Charlotte 2-1 and after a three-game road trip that ended with the club back home and back in control of its playoff path.
Nashville led the East with 19 points and six wins in eight matches, while Charlotte sat fifth with a game in hand and five points behind. A win would move Nashville within two points of the Supporters’ Shield lead, a sign of how quickly the club has turned its start into something more than a good April. The numbers from the first meeting help explain why: Nashville rested all three of its Designated Players across the forward line, yet still found the goals it needed from Eddi Tagseth and Patrick Yazbek.
Tagseth struck from well outside the box, and Yazbek finished in the 62nd minute to seal the result. Yazbek’s performance earned MLS Team of the Matchday honors, while the midfield pair entered the rematch with six goal contributions combined. Tagseth was one of only three Nashville players to start every MLS game of the season, alongside goalkeeper Brian Schwake and center-back Maxwell Woledzi, and Yazbek had started every Champions Cup match from the Round of 16 onward. Nashville did all of that while keeping its scoring output efficient and its back line tight, with the two clubs having allowed just 14 combined goals through eight matches.
That is why the rematch feels less like a routine home date than a test of how far Nashville’s depth can carry it. The first meeting came in the middle of a three-game road stand and between two Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal legs against Club América, and Nashville still came away with three road wins last week, including the first-ever by an MLS club at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. Now the question is whether the same group can keep the edge when the setting changes and the pressure rises at home.
Charlotte brings its own answer in goal. Kristijan Kahlina has 39 clean sheets and an average save percentage just over 74% since joining Charlotte in 2022, and he earned the ninth MLS Team of the Matchday honor of his career after making seven saves in a 2-1 win at New York City FC. Against a Nashville side that has already shown it can score without its Designated Players and win on the road in difficult places, Charlotte’s keeper may be the margin that keeps this one close.
The matchup has the feel of an early-season marker for both clubs, but Nashville arrives with the sharper edge and the better record. If it turns another strong performance into three points, the rest of the conference will have to keep tracking a team that is winning in more than one way.