How Nashville SC turned Geodis Park summer woes into winning ways in Year 1

• Nashville SC is set to play its final home game of the 2022 MLS regular season, completing its first year at new stadium, Geodis Park.
• Nashville was 3-4-5 in MLS at Geodis Park through Aug. 14. Since then, the Boys in Gold are 3-0-1, outscoring their opponents 12-2 in that span.
• Nashville is fourth in the Western Conference and can clinch a playoff berth and home-field advantage.

"It's frustrating to go down 1-0. I feel like that's been a theme of ours, especially at home this year," captain and midfielder Dax McCarty said after the game.

It was the sixth game in which Nashville conceded the first goal at home since opening its 30,000-seat stadium in May. And if it wasn't conceding first at home, it was conceding late, blowing leads: May 21 against Atlanta United, July 3 against the Portland Timbers and July 30 hosting the Vancouver Whitecaps. Nashville went 3-4-5 in its first 12 MLS games at Geodis Park with an even-goal differential, briefly teetering below the MLS Cup playoffs line.

That changed one week after the Minnesota loss. Nashville's 4-0 drubbing of FC Dallas was the first of three straight home wins, all by at least a three-goal margin. There wasn't a switch to flip for Nashville. It was a team who endured 18,000 miles on the road for its first eight games, used to managing those games and not getting beaten, rather than attacking. Coming home, filled with pressure and elation, Nashville took the summer to figure out who it was going to be in its new home.

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"There were some growing pains," said left back Dan Lovitz. "Trying to find a way to actually inject the natural energy of opening a new stadium — the fans and the venue and what all that meant and represented and, more importantly, what it felt like on game days at home — how that was going to really manifest itself into our approach and how we went about playing.

"Like I said, there were definitely some growing pains, but we never really thought the sky was falling in any way, shape or form."

Nashville's summer woes at Geodis Park made a dent in the Western Conference standings. Sitting in fourth place with a 12-9-11 record (47 points), Nashville is tied with Minnesota for the most home losses (4) and has the least home wins (6) among the seven teams in the current playoff picture.

A win or draw on Sunday against the playoff-eliminated Houston Dynamo would mean ending 2022 with five straight home wins and potentially a clinched playoff berth.

To Nashville, MLS Cup playoffs action would be the standard. To MLS, it'd be historic. A 2022 playoff berth would make Nashville just the fifth club in league history to make the playoffs in its first three years of existence. While playing at Nissan Stadium in 2020-21, it won two playoff games, reaching the Eastern Conference semifinals each year. Making a run with home-field advantage at Geodis Park hits differently for players who've been around.

"We felt like Nissan was a really nice place for us to play and sort of set our identity and express ourselves in that way," Lovitz said. "But it's always different when you have a place that's exclusively yours to call it home.

"It's been a really nice adjustment for us to really understand what the team means to the city," he added.

As it stands, Nashville would host the LA Galaxy in Round 1 of the playoffs. It faces the No. 1 seed in the West, Los Angeles FC, on the final day of the regular season.

Nashville needs positive results in both games to ensure playoff soccer in October. The Galaxy, Portland Timbers, Minnesota United and Real Salt Lake are all within four points of Nashville. The team is leaning into its postseason experience not only to clinch but to possibly reach as high as third in the West and host Round 1 at Geodis Park.

"We know what playoff games are like. We've had the benefit of having two years in them, having wins and losses each year," Lovitz said. "… We're in a conference where there's a ton of fun places to play, but we want to make sure we're the ones hosting when the time comes for as many games as possible because we know how important that is."

For stories about Nashville SC or Soccer in Tennessee, contact Drake Hills at DHills@gannett.com. Follow Drake on Twitter at @LiveLifeDrake. Connect with Drake on Instagram at @drakehillssoccer and on Facebook.