Nashville SC came from two goals down to beat the New York Red Bulls 3-2 at GEODIS Park on Sunday, Sam Surridge heading a stoppage-time winner that tied the MLS single-season points record and knocked the Red Bulls out of the playoff race.
For 45 minutes, this looked like the afternoon the Shield winners finally switched off. Nashville had already wrapped up the Supporters' Shield, the Red Bulls arrived fighting for their postseason lives, and the visitors played like it. But two own goals dragged the hosts back into the game before Sam Surridge rose in the first minute of added time to write another line in a season that keeps breaking records.
Red Bulls strike twice after Schwake's penalty save
New York should have led even earlier. Cade Cowell earned a penalty on 19 minutes and took it himself, but rookie goalkeeper Brian Schwake read it expertly, diving to his right to push the shot away. The reprieve did not spark Nashville into life. On 34 minutes Adri Mehmeti threaded a ball through and teenager Julian Hall placed his finish into the bottom corner for his team-leading 13th goal of the season.
Seven minutes later the Red Bulls struck again, Cowell crossing for Rafael Mosquera to make it 2-0, and a famous away win was suddenly on. Nashville's response came at the perfect moment: in the 45th minute Andy Najar fizzed a cross in from the right and defender Tim Parker bundled the ball into his own net. As the Associated Press reported, it was the first of two own goals that would undo the visitors.
Disallowed goals, woodwork — then Surridge at the death
Nashville threw everything at the second half. Hany Mukhtar finished smartly only for the offside flag to intervene, then Surridge himself had a one-time finish ruled narrowly offside on 55 minutes. Maxwell Woledzi connected at the goalmouth and bounced his effort off the post, Cristian Espinoza rattled the woodwork too, and goalkeeper Ethan Horvath — who finished with seven saves — was nearly beaten often enough to sense what was coming.
It arrived on 81 minutes. Espinoza whipped another cross across goal and Julian Bazan, attempting a headed clearance, put through his own net. The goal was initially flagged offside before a lengthy VAR review overturned the call and levelled the match. Then, just after eight minutes of stoppage time went up on the board, Espinoza swung in a corner and Surridge met it unmarked at the top of the six-yard box, heading inside the left post for his 19th goal of the campaign. Espinoza's assist was a career-high 15th of the season, as Field Level Media noted.
So what — one game from history, and the end for New York
The numbers behind this Nashville season are now staggering. A ninth straight game unbeaten took them to 22-3-8 and 74 points, tying the single-season record set by Inter Miami in 2024 — with one match still to play. They finished their home schedule unbeaten at 15-0-2, a league-record 15 home wins and 44 home points. Decision Day on Saturday is now a shot at owning the record outright, a week after this site covered them lifting the first Supporters' Shield in club history.
For the Red Bulls, the consequences run the other way. The defeat, at 11-16-6, eliminates them from the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs — the founding club missing the postseason in consecutive campaigns for the first time — and, combined with Toronto's loss in Atlanta, it handed the Columbus Crew the East's final confirmed berth. This was no one-off collapse either: New York's season has lurched between nights like their 2-0 win over Inter Miami and afternoons like this one, and in the end the inconsistency cost them everything.
Beyond the Final Whistle: great teams win when they play well; champion teams win the games that are slipping away from them. Nashville were outplayed for a half by a desperate side, lost two goals to the flag and still found a way — that is not luck, it is the habit that has carried them to 74 points. Break the record on Decision Day and this becomes, statistically, the greatest regular season MLS has ever seen. The Red Bulls, meanwhile, are watching a founding-member era end with a whimper.
Will Nashville break Inter Miami's points record on Decision Day, or does the real test only start in the playoffs? Let us know in the comments.
