Nashville SC vs. Charleston Battery: NSC earns a rain-soaked point

NASHVILLE — On the walk into First Tennessee Park, you had a pretty good idea what this match was going to look like. With rain pelting Nashville all afternoon and into the evening — across town, Vanderbilt’s football game was delayed — the field was going to be soggy. Even with the Nashville Sounds wrapping up their season the first week in September, the infield grass was still not prepared to handle the amount of moisture cast upon. A messy game probably played into Nashville SC’s hands against Charleston Battery, who came into the match fourth in the Eastern Conference, where the 10th-place hosts once aspired to be.

Sure enough, the two goals in the match came on set pieces, the ball finding its way into the net each time after the defending team struggled to clear the ball. Unfortunately for Nashville, those goals were evenly split between the two sides.

Nashville’s came in the ninth minute, with Liam Doyle mis-hitting a header on the other end of a Michael Reed free kick. Then, 6'5 Tucker Hume, I kid you not, bicycle kicked the ball into the back of the net.

Charleston keeper Odisnel Cooper didn’t exactly cover himself in glory here, touching the ball with his gloves before letting it trundle across the goal line.

The next 12 minutes could have gone a lot better for Nashville. In the 24th minute, the Battery won a free kick outside the NSC penalty area. Matt Pickens punched away the save, but Tah Anunga was there to head home the rebound and equalize.

Perhaps worse still, in the 30th minute, Lebo Moloto exited the game with what appeared to be a serious injury to his leg. Brandon Allen came on to replace Moloto, but Nashville being without its best player in the final five matches, desperately needing points to make it into the playoffs, would not be good.

NSC appeared to catch a break in the 60th minute when Charleston’s Patrick Okonkwo was shown a straight red. But despite controlling possession for the remainder of the match, NSC weren’t able to muster a single shot on target in the entire second half. Attacking into the rain-soaked infield for the entirety of that period probably didn’t help.

Nashville is still in 10th place after the 1–1 draw on Saturday night, missing an opportunity to move into eighth and into a playoff position.