Nashville SC vs New York Red Bulls Prediction: First win for Nashville.

Nashville SC will get the reward of hosting the first league game of the new season and their first opponent will be New York Red Bulls. With all preparations now over, both clubs can look ahead to the new season with hope for a positive start. 

Nashville SC were involved in the CONCACAF Champions League Round 1 match against Moca FC and they won by 3 goals to nil. New York Red Bulls are expected to offer a much tougher opposition compared to Moca FC, but Nashville SC can feel positive over the win as they prepare to start the season.

The New York Red Bulls failed to make any significant improvement in the course of the preseason as they ended the campaign in a defeat. It is however unclear how their preseason form will affect their performances in the new season, but it surely raises some concern for the team and the fans.

Nashville SC

Nashville SC ended in 12th place last season with no significant achievement by the end of the season. They accumulated 49 points in 34 games and in the course of the season they had 13 wins, 10 draws and 11 defeats. As expected, Nashville were involved in the preseason campaign to prepare for the new season. They played 5 preseason games and they had 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat. After the preseason, they played in the CONCACAF Champions League and they defeated Moca FC by 3 goals to nil. 

Nashville SC coach Gary Smith deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation in the game against Moca and it yielded the desired results. Hany Mukhtar, Sam Surridge and Tyler Boyd were all on the scoresheet. Gary Smith might be tempted to retain the formation in the opening game against New York Red Bulls once again. 

Ahead of the new season, Hany Mukhtar will be a key player no doubt. He had a significant impact on the team last season, scoring 15 goals and registering 9 assists across the MLS. Also, latest recruit Wobbens Pacius is expected to play a huge role in the midfield for Nashville this season. The 22-year old Canadia scored 10 goals and registered 3 assists in 28 matches for Forge FC last season.

New York Red Bulls

The Red Bulls of New York will travel to Geodis Park for their first match of the campaign. They managed to snatch a narrow win last season when they faced Nashville in that venue, courtsey of John Tolkin’s late goal from the penalty spot. The Red Bulls have a good reason to feel confident ahead of this opening game after going unbeaten in their 2 visits to the Geodis Park.

New York Red Bulls however are yet to convince the fans that they are ready for the new season after such a poor end to the Preseason friendly games. They played 6 games during the preseason and they had 2 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat. While that result may not be the end of the world, there's still a huge doubt over what style of play the team will benefit from in the coming season.

Red Bulls manager Troy Lesesne often favored a 3-1-4-2 formation last season but we might see a different setup from Sandro Schwarz who was replaced by Troy Lesesne.

Elias Manoel and Omir Fernandez were both joint top scorers with just 6 goals in the whole of last season and that indicates that Nashville SC might need more firepower in the attacking line. Nashville SC added a few players to their roster ahead of the new season. Among them are Denis Gjengaar from Odds Bk and Emil Forsberg from RB Leipzig. 

Head to Head

According to the h2h data, Nashville SC and New York Red Bulls have played only 5 games against each other. New York Red Bulls won 3 games and 2 games ended in a draw.

Analysis and Predictions

Nashville SC have no excuse not to get the win in this match. New York Red Bulls are clearly not looking like a proper team at the moment and they should be an easy target for any decent team. 

According to the h2h, New York Red Bulls are unbeaten in all 5 meetings and they did not concede in the last 3. All 5 meetings ended with less than 2.5 goals and New York Red Bulls scored first in 4 of the last 5. There were also less than 4.5 cards in 4 of the last 5 meetings between both clubs.

• Home Win or Draw and Under 3.5 Goals at 1.71 Odds
• Home Win or Draw and Under 3.5 Goals at 1.71 Odds
• Home to Win 1-0 at 7.00 Odds