(NashvilleSC.com, 10.09.22)

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. — Nashville Soccer Club made history winning a club record 13th match of the season in a 1-0 victory over the Supporters Shield Champion LAFC on MLS Decision Day. With the victory, Nashville SC concluded the season tied for fourth place in the Western Conference, yet seeded fifth due to tiebreaker. Teal Bunbury earned the game-winning goal with Joe Willis setting a career-high 14 saves in the shutout victory, the most saves of any keeper in MLS this season. 

Nashville SC returns to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for its third consecutive season since joining the league in 2020, and becomes one of six teams in MLS to make the playoffs in all those three years. Following a special season that started with eight matches on the road, the Boys in Gold will return to Southern California next weekend to face the LA Galaxy in the First Round of the Audi 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs. Kickoff time and date of the match will be announced in the coming hours. 

Landon Donovan MLS MVP frontrunner Hany Mukhtar secured the league’s honor of the 2022 MLS Golden Boot, presented by Audi after scoring a league-high 23 goals. Mukhtar becomes the first Nashville SC player and first German player in league history to win the award. 

Mukhtar scored 21 of his 23 goals in the final 22 games of the season. His late-season surge culminated in a league-high 11 goals since the start of August with 10 of those coming at GEODIS Park. Mukhtar’s 23 goals are also a single-season club record and the most by an MLS player in a single season since 2019. Mukhtar has accounted for 44.2% of Nashville’s goals (23 of 52) in 2022, which is the highest percentage in MLS this season. Mukhtar finished as the league leader in goal contributions with 34. 

Mukhtar joins Carlos Vela (2019), Sebastian Giovinco (2015), and Jeff Cunningham (2006) as the only players since 2005 to win the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi and also record 10 assists in the same season. Nashville is the fifth expansion club since 2005 to have a player earn the honor within their first three MLS seasons. 

Mukhtar has been involved in over half of Nashville SC’s regular season goals (70 of 131) in club history and is the all-time leader in goals (43) and assists (27). Since the beginning of the 2021 season, Mukhtar has recorded 39 goals, the most of any player in MLS. He has recorded 62 goal contributions in that span, which is 19 more than the next closest player (Carles Gil, 43).