Nashville SC has booked its place in the postseason.
The Boys in Gold remained unbeaten at home as they claimed a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Fire on Sept. 19, becoming the league's first team to earn a berth in MLS Cup playoffs. Nashville also becomes the sixth team in the MLS expansion era to reach the playoffs in six of its first seven seasons.
Nashville coach B.J. Callaghan envisioned this level of success when he took over the club in July 2024 and credits a unified approach as having lifted NSC to these new heights.
"What you see here, the body of work that we have, is a testament to everyone involved," Callaghan said after the match at Geodis Park. "Aligning behind values and a vision that we all want to chase. And then you constantly use
that as filters on how we make decisions. Whether that's the way we want to play, the way we want to prepare, the way we want to recruit and scout players.
"It touches every part of our organization and we're aligned completely from top to bottom."
Nashville SC holds an eight-point lead over the Vancouver Whitecaps in the race for the Supporters' Shield, while its lead atop the Eastern Conference blossomed to 11 points. With the win over Chicago, NSC set a club record for points in the regular season with 57, along with records for most wins (17), home wins (12) and home goals scored (39).
But don't expect the celebrations to last beyond the night, with Nashville still hunting the Supporters' Shield trophy and further success upon the start of the playoffs.
"When you set out on a vision and you look at the season, the first milestone is you have to earn your way into MLS playoffs, if you want to reach ultimate goals," Callaghan said. "So for us it's a great moment to just take a pause and say, 'All right, the body of work is good enough that we were able to hit this milestone.' And you get back to work and worry about Toronto."
Sam Surridge opened the scoring in the first half as he tapped home a headed cross from Reed Baker-Whiting for his 16th MLS goal of the season. NSC then handled an early second-half surge from Chicago before finishing the match with two late goals from Cristian Espinoza and Hany Mukhtar.
It's believed to be the first time all three of Nashville's designated players have scored in the same match, with the trio now having combined for 37 goals and 22 assists across all competitions.
"The chemistry that we've built from preseason was really, really important for us," Espinoza said of NSC's front line. "Everything started in preseason. When you have amazing guys in the locker room ready to run and to fight for each other, that's what's made the difference between us and the rest (of MLS)."
Nashville SC has a week-long break before returning to action on Sept. 26 (7:30 p.m. CT) at Geodis Park against Toronto FC.
Harrison Campbell can be reached at hcampbell@usatodayco.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @hccamp.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Nashville SC became first MLS club to earn playoff berth
