Alex Muyl placed his hands on either side of his head in disbelief. Then he turned away, dropped his hands and softly shook his head.
It would have been the least climactic goal of Muyl's career; the stakes impossibly small for a game-winning penalty kick. But he surely would have liked to see the ball find the net.
Tuesday night in Foxborough, Massachusetts, even the lowliest of victories fell beyond Nashville SC's grasp. It fell to the New England Revolution, 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation, a result which knocked it out of the Leagues Cup.
Nashville had already been eliminated by the time Revolution goalkeeper Aljaž Ivačič pushed Muyl's penalty attempt to the side. Its 2-0 loss to Mazatlán last Wednesday meant it needed to win by at least two goals in order to advance to the tournament's knockout stages. Instead, Nashville could only manage a Sam Surridge tally in first-half stoppage time, dooming it to third place in Group East 5 behind New England and Mazatlán.
Leagues Cup rules state that every match has to end with a winner, and even though there was no practical purpose to the penalty shootout — New England had already clinched first place — it took place anyway. When Daniel Lovitz's final attempt for Nashville went wide of the post, it gave the Revolution an extra point in the group standings and an extra teaspoon of salt to pour in Nashville's wound.
Nashville, which technically snapped a seven-game losing streak dating back to June 29, won't play again until its MLS season resumes at home against Austin FC on Aug. 24.
New England scores three minutes into game
Nashville came into Tuesday having given up multiple goals in seven straight games, and those defensive issues reared their ugly head just moments after kickoff.
Jack Panayotou slipped behind both Patrick Yazbek and Shaq Moore on the left wing, received a through ball from Ian Harkes and sent a cross to the edge of the six-yard box. Brent Kallman slid but couldn't get a foot on the ball, and New England striker Bobby Wood did instead, beating Joe Willis for the opening goal.
Nashville fights back to tie
While no doubt aided by a Revolution side that was able to sit back and defend with a two-goal cushion, Nashville showed the most attacking vigor it's shown in well over a month. It had 54% possession, outshot New England 19-7 (5-3 on goal) and earned 15 corner kicks to New England's zero.
NSC struck in transition 46 minutes into the game, when Jacob Shaffelburg delivered a looping cross from the left wing to Yazbek at the far post. Yazbek knocked the ball down for Surridge in the middle, giving the midfielder an assist in just his second game with Nashville and Surridge his team-leading 11th goal across all competitions.
"We saw a team that responded from going down a little bit early, but a team that was committed to each other," Nashville coach B.J. Callaghan said. "As the game continued to go on, I think we got more and more comfortable. ... There was a lot of positives. The tempo of the game for us was able to pick up, we were able to start to get behind their back line as the game went on."
Had Tuesday's contest been a regular-season game, perhaps those positives would have shone a bit brighter in the moment. But before leaving Gillette Stadium, Callaghan, who began as NSC coach on July 22, did his best to emphasize them. His next task is to apply them to a Nashville team that sits 12th in the Eastern Conference, two points outside the MLS playoffs with nine regular-season games remaining.
"We came into the Leagues Cup with the objective of making progress and starting to build," Callaghan said. "We've been together for not even two weeks as a group. We wanted to play as many games as possible because we know that's a good way to continue to challenge ourselves and learn. That's not happening. ... Now we have just over two weeks to really focus on ourselves."
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Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
