Off note: Nashville SC 1, Chicago Fire 0

Nashville, Tenn. — Sometimes, you can't you just can't quite get in tune.

The Fire traveled to Nashville looking for their first-ever win in Tennessee’s largest city but again fell short, falling 1-0 to their hosts off a goal by Sam Surridge. Despite radical changes to both teams since the Fire last traveled to GEODIS Park, the result was painfully familiar, even if the margin was slimmer than in some of the previous matches.

The game put the struggles of both teams on full display, as skilled plays from players on both sides disappeared into mediocrity and neither team seemed to have firm designs on what to do as they approached the team’s opposing goal.

Part of it might have to do with absences: For the second game in a row, Fire Head Coach Frank Klopas had to juggle his lineup: Team-leading scorer Hugo Cuypers wasn’t available, attending to his wife and newborn son. Also unavailable were defenders Rafael Czichos, Andrew Gutman and Carlos Terán, all having fallen to injuries over the past week – only Terán in match play – and Brian Gutiérrez, the team’s brightest playmaker, wasn’t deemed fit to start after injuring himself prior to the team’s game last Saturday.

Given the constraints, the team’s somewhat improvised played out of a now-familiar 3-5-2 formation, giving a start to Georgios Koutsias, who had scored four goals in past five matches across all competition for the Fire, alongside Tom Barlow, fresh off his first tally of the season.

Nashville had fewer notable absences but played out of an somewhat unfamiliar 4-4-2 diamond, marking the first time since B.J. Callaghan diverted from a 4-2-3-1 since taking over as head coach in July.

In the opening quarter hour, neither team seemed able to gain any real purchase on the game in the opening quarter hour – an apparent advantage for the Fire, who had previously been down by three goals in that time in their second-most recent trip to Nashville.

Soon after, however, Nashville struck: Hany Mukhtar, the MLS Golden Boot winner two years ago but a player whose production has dropped significantly this season, had a burst of speed up the touchline to play a cross to Sam Surridge, who had a looping header across the goal that Fire netminder Chris Brady wasn’t able to get a touch on the shot, which arched perfectly for the Nashville forward. Surridge, a 6’3” forward, played the header over Arnaud Souquet, the 5’10” converted full back playing centrally in recent matches.

Fire Head Coach Frank Klopas, however, wasn’t ready to blame the French defender on the play, saying “I felt it was a soft goal. It has nothing to do with Souquet. I mean, we have three center backs. When you have three center backs I think the outside guys have to be at times able to play… The ball floated up in the air. I think we could have done a better job, all of us as a team, to do better on the play.”

After the goal, the hosts felt sated, uninterested, largely, in attempting a repeat, either of the three goals they scored the last time the Fire visited, and, as if on cue, the Fire, down by a goal, seemed to wake up.

In the 29th minute, the Fire were able to progress the ball down the field, with Gastón Giménez playing the ball from the center circle, making its way Kellyn Acosta at the left touchline and quickly switching it  to Maren Haile-Selassie. The Swiss winger played a cross into the box, which found its way to Georgios Koutsias after a bounce. Koutsias settled the ball off his chest getting a shot away, but the ball had too much power and the attempt sailed high and to the right of Joe Willis’s net.

The Fire had another chance in the 36th minute, when Haile-Selassie played again played it into the box. The ball was headed by Barlow towards the the net, causing Willis to sprawl but the ball worked to Giménez a few yards out of the penalty arc who shot it – straight into the bread basket of Willis, who had found time to recover his positioning.

The Fire would get no closer, ending the half at 1-0. On the restart, Klopas brought on Brian Gutiérrez and Allan Arigoni for Kellyn Acosta and Tom Barlow, but the subs failed to really make an impact as once again, neither team seemed to really have strong designs on the opposition net early in the half.

Over the course of the second frame, however, the Fire once again grew into the game, but didn’t really get a clear shot on net until the 68th minute, when Arigoni had an attempt off the Fire’s first corner of the night, but his shot – from close to the penalty spot – fell well wide of the Nashville goal.

The Fire kept trying, but resorted to shots from distance – Giménez from the Fire’s half in the 83rd minute, Arigoni from the near side of the center circle a minute later – to no avail. With time running out, Chris Mueller, an 69th minute substitute for Ariel Lassiter, had the last chance for the Fire, a shot from just outside the six yard box that sailed above and to the right of Nashville’s net.

In the end, the Fire doubled the hosts on shots, 10 to five, had more shots on target but were once again unable to come up with real chances close to goal. After the game, Fabian Herbers said that “I think overall was a good game, so I think In a way, we can be proud the way we played but ultimately, we come away with a loss so it’s a tough result, but we keep our heads up and go to the next one.”

As a result of the loss, the Fire are now three points behind Nashville and in 14th place in the 15 team Eastern Conference. With four games left, the team remains, incredibly, the same four points out of a postseason spot that they were before the match, but now need not only to get results but to move their way past a host of teams to break the team’s postseason drought.

They won’t have much time to regroup – the team's next match is in Montréal on Saturday.