Three highlights from Nashville SC “Made in Gold” episode one

Over the weekend, Nashville SC’s talented in-house video production team released Episode One of its new Made in Gold series, a behind-the-scenes look at the club. 

Here are the three biggest highlights from the pilot episode. 

Nashville 2.0

Episode One, titled “A New Era” is a fitting launching point. 

The episode follows the club as Nashville begin preparations for its first full season with BJ Callaghan at the helm. Last season’s manager switch yielded an offseason of change with a plethora of new faces at the club. 

General Manager Mike Jacobs kicked off the episode highlighting what he has referred to as “Nashville 2.0”. 

“We had a certain level of success in our first four seasons. But even throughout those four seasons, we talked about how to take what we’re doing to the next step and take us from being a team that can compete in games against strong teams, to generally be a team that we think can contend for titles and cups, and to do that we thought we needed a different game model, some new players, a different manager, and we head into this season for the first time really since 2020, having the opportunity to do that.” 

In particular, Jacobs mentioned two key words to describe the Nashville 2.0 era:  “tension and intensity.”  With Callaghan at the helm ushering a sea change, Nashville want to bring a sort of pressure, on both sides of the ball, to their opponents.    

Jacobs declared, “we want to be a really hard team to play against. We want to make teams uncomfortable.” 

Toward the end of the episode, viewers got a glimpse into Callaghan’s first team meeting of the season. He stressed the opportunity these players have to write “Chapter Six” in the club’s history. It's clear that all players enter this offseason with a clean slate. It is the next few weeks of preseason which will determine which players meet that new club ethos of bringing tension and intensity. 

Players reported to a snowy Nashville

The episode highlighted the players as they reported to Nashville on January 11th, just a day after a winter storm dumped several inches of snow on the Midstate. In one shot, several inches of snow remain on the field also covering the teqball table. 

As players walked into the facility, a few remarked on the snowy conditions around them. 

Veteran goalkeeper, a St. Louis native, remarked, “Beautiful day, beautiful weather.” 

Others may not have been so keen. Back from holiday back home in his native Australia, midfielder Patrick Yazbek quipped: “Syndey sun to this, eh?” 

The players weren’t to stay in Tennessee for long. The following day, the Boys in Gold packed their bags and headed off to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida for a warm-weather start to preseason preparations. 

Staging

The most interesting segment of Episode One was a look at the logistical work behind the scenes necessary to move equipment from Nashville to Florida. 

The camera crew followed Equipment Manager Bentley Smith and Assistant Equipment Manager Chase Diggs as they gathered a collection of mini goals, dummies, training poles, and other gear utilized by the players and coaches alike throughout preseason camp. It's not just on-field equipment, either. The crew is shown loading items for the players’ lounge such as refrigerators and a ping pong table (that experienced a mid-transit mishap). 

For Smith, the logistics involved is the culmination of months of planning. 

“Before the end of the regular season, we’re already planning out preseason. Letting the charter company know what will be on the plane, letting the pod company know what will be in the pod, so they can get us the right size.” 

B.J. Callaghan further remarked: 

“There’s are a lot of logistics and a lot of planning that go in place.  You’re trying to move 50 to 60 people, you know, all around from the world, getting them into a location and then moving them to a different location and kind of setting up an optimal environment for performance and development for the players and the staff. So there’s a tremendous amount of work that goes behind the scenes. We have a tremendous staff here at Nashville….that work tirelessly and endlessly to make this as smooth as possible.”

While it is easy to think of a soccer club strictly in terms of the players and coaches on the training field, in truth, a modern, top-flight outfit is comprised of so many different people, each with an important role to play. Their work may never make a MLS highlight real, but team members like Smith and Diggs are vital in lifting the performance of those players and coaches by providing the tools they need to optimize their training. 

Nashville SC is a village, and it will take a village for the club to write a fairytale ending to Chapter Six in the club’s history.