First takeaways from Austin FC at Nashville SC

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nashville SC turned a snooze-fest into an electric 3-0 win over Austin FC on Saturday night at Geodis Park, as Hany Mukhtar scored twice to overtake Verde star Sebastián Driussi for the Golden Boot race.

Frustration boiled over in the closing minutes, with Moussa Djitté earning a red card, and Austin FC suffering back-to-back losses for the first time since May. It was also the first time Verde had been shut out since a 1-0 loss to LA Galaxy on May 8.

How did it happen? Here are a few takeaways from the match.

Shaking things up

Josh Wolff was forced to make some lineup changes. For one, Maxi Urruti stayed home with hamstring tightness. Also, a tight turnaround following Wednesday night's rain-delayed loss to Portland meant that several guys could use rest.

The result was a first-of-its-kind XI that featured Jon Gallagher at right back, with Žan Kolmanič coming in to give Nick Lima a rest. Owen Wolff also subbed in for captain Alex Ring, and Danny Hoesen did his best to fill Urruti's shoes.

The result was a mixed bag. Austin controlled the game for most of the first half, with more than 60% possession. However, the end product was lacking. For the first time since June 30 in Charlotte, an Austin FC match reached halftime scoreless. And Verde has now been held scoreless in the first half two games running.

Let's start with the midfield duo of Wolff and Dani Pereira, which felt sort of like the first time your parents let your little brother stay home alone. Dani is used to this, but without Ring around to babysit, it was on Wolff to provide enough support both for Pereira and the attack. I thought he did well.

In 54 minutes, MLS stats from Opta showed Wolff completing all of his passes, but losing out on five duels. He played mostly safe with the ball, and made some aggressive plays including one in the 14th minute that nearly led to a scoring opportunity for Driussi, if not for an intervention by Walker Zimmerman.

Pereira had his moments, and most of them were good. He even took some chances to get forward, including a 50-yard run with the ball that resulted in ... a poorly struck shot that missed the target. That kind of summed up the first half.

The fullback experiment was also fine, until it wasn't. Kolmanič and Gallagher played well, save for a couple of giveaways by Gallagher that he cleaned up himself, in the first half. They looked overwhelmed once Nashville started pushing the tempo after halftime.

Cascante had the worst error on the first Nashville goal, letting Zimmerman get in front of him on the corner kick. But if not for Gallagher sending the ball out for a second corner rather than clearing his lines, that play wouldn't have happened. And Kolmanič was slow to recognize the two-time MLS Defender of the Year coming straight at him.

As for Hoesen, well, he didn't score. And he's still never scored in an Austin FC match that he started. He finally started to get some service toward the end of the first half, resulting in a couple of close calls including a play where he used some fancy footwork to get into the box, eventually resulting in Nashville clearing the ball off the line.

It's hard to argue, after starting the same XI for six-straight matches, that the changes — however necessary — didn't have an effect on the performance.

A new MVP

We've been touting Driussi as the MVP favorite for nearly half the season now. It felt like a foregone conclusion, and he still might win it. But on Saturday, Mukhtar took the lead. He scored twice and had an assist, moving past Driussi for the Golden Boot with 21 goals.

Meanwhile, Driussi was held to only three shots. 

There's still plenty of time left in the season, and Mukhtar has to come to Driussi's home at Q2 in just two weeks, but tonight was pretty convincing from Mukhtar. Just watch for yourself.

Time to worry?

It's rare in an MLS season, even for the best teams, to run through a season like Austin has. Rough patches tend to pop up, however hard you try to avoid them.

You just don't want them to happen leading into the playoffs. And right now, Verde is in danger of letting that happen.

Austin had not lost back-to-back matches since May 14, when it followed that 1-0 loss to LA with Pereira's red card game at Real Salt Lake. (After that, it went to LAFC and won 2-1.)

The season is heating up. Austin FC is in a comfortable position, well ahead to finish second in the Western Conference. But it's not time to get comfortable, and that should be the lesson learned tonight in Nashville.