Nashville SC will attempt to move past the disappointment over their exit from the CONCACAF Champions Cup when they host D.C. United on Saturday night.

Nashville’s 1-0 loss on Tuesday night at Tigres UANL in Mexico completed a 2-0 aggregate defeat in the Champions Cup semifinals, keeping Nashville (7-1-2, 23 points) a match shy of reaching a second continental final in its history.

Saturday’s home clash will mark a fifth match in 15 days for manager B.J. Callaghan’s squad, which also hasn’t scored in its last three games across all competitions.

But after a strong start to MLS play overall, which still has Nashville four points clear atop the Eastern Conference, Callaghan believes the loss could rejuvenate his team.

“When it’s over, it’s over. So you kind of almost see a refreshed-ness in the group, that we know we have a full focus on MLS play and MLS play only,” Callaghan said. “We’ve got a great sense of hunger out of the Tigres game. And I think we just want to continue to fuel that kind of fire in our eyes, fire in our belly.”

Sam Surridge was the last Nashville player to score, registering his eighth and ninth goals of the season in the second half of a 4-2 home win over Charlotte on April 25.

And he’ll be part of an interesting subplot Saturday: the meeting of two of MLS’s most productive strikers since the start of 2025, with D.C. striker Tai Baribo expected to return from a thigh injury that has kept him out of his team’s last two matches.

Baribo has six goals for D.C. (4-4-3, 15 points) after leading Philadelphia with 16 a season ago. But even without the Israeli international, the Black-and-Red have looked much improved as they continued a four-match unbeaten run with consecutive victories, 3-2 at home against Orlando on April 25 and 2-0 at New York City FC last Sunday.

“It gives us this confidence boost,” D.C. manager Rene Weiler said. “We know that we are able to play good games against all of the teams in our league. But it will be a tough game. And of course we know how difficult it is to win games. It hasn’t changed after this win.”

Club-record offseason signing Louis Munteanu scored once against Orlando and twice in New York for his first three career MLS goals.

–Field Level Media

Kyle Isbel’s second RBI of the night came via a two-out single in the ninth, giving the host Kansas City Royals a walk-off 4-3 victory over the scuffling Detroit Tigers on Friday.

The Royals trailed 3-1 when they tied the game with three hits on the first five pitches of the eighth inning against Detroit’s Kyle Finnegan. Michael Massey opened the frame with a double to left-center field, and he scored on Isbel’s hit that turned into a three-bagger when the ball rolled under the glove and well past Tigers right fielder Wenceel Perez. Maikel Garcia followed an RBI single to center.

In the bottom of the ninth, Detroit’s Brant Hurter (4-1) retired the first two batters before Nick Loftin delivered a pinch-hit double to left field. One batter later, Isbel sent a slow bouncer through the left side of the infield to give the Royals a victory in this series opener and snap a four-game slide against the Tigers.

All four 2026 games between these teams have been decided by one run.

Keider Montero allowed one run, one walk and three hits over six solid innings for Detroit, which has lost four in a row.

Detroit opened the scoring against Kansas City starter Kris Bubic in the second inning when Riley Greene led off with a double into the right field corner for the first of his three hits. He went to third on Perez’s single and scored via Spencer Torkelson’s double-play ball.

Kansas City, though, evened things during its half of the second. Jac Caglianone doubled off the right field fence with two outs and came home on Isaac Collins’ single.

Detroit regained the lead in the sixth. With two outs, Dillon Dingler raced from first base all the way home on Perez’s double after Royals catcher Carter Jensen couldn’t hang on to the relay throw. Perez then scored on Torkelson’s double into the left field corner off reliever Nick Mears.

Bubic allowed three runs, four hits and four walks while striking out five in 5 2/3 innings. Teammate Lucas Erceg (3-1) pitched the ninth for the win.

–Field Level Media

The Portland Timbers and Sporting Kansas City will be searching for more consistency when they meet on Saturday night in the Pacific Northwest.

The Timbers (3-6-1, 10 points) have won two of their last four with defeats of LAFC and San Diego FC, a pair of teams expected to be among the Western Conference elite when the season began.

But manager Phil Neville has been concerned by the response to those victories, particularly last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Real Salt Lake that followed the win in San Diego.

The Timbers found themselves nearly out of the contest by the opening half-hour after early goals from Zavier Gozo and Diego Luna.

“It’s not a reflection of what I want from the team,” Neville said. “It’s definitely not a reflection of what this group of players are capable of. We’re taking one step forward and a couple back in the last month. We are seeing positive signs, but that consistency now needs to start coming very quickly.”

Despite a respectable 13-goal output as a team, only Kristoffer Velde (three) and Kevin Kelsy (two) have scored multiple times this season for the Timbers.

Kansas City (1-7-2, 5 points) faces the opposite problem. While striker Dejan Joveljic scored his fifth goal in last Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with the Seattle Sounders, his teammates have combined for only three.

That said, first-year manager Raphael Wicky hopes last weekend represents the beginning of a sustained improvement after a five-match MLS losing streak landed his side in the basement of the Western Conference.

In particular, Wicky was impressed by the response to going behind in the second minute, considering they had leaked 18 goals over that losing streak.

“I think the team reacted really well on that early goal, stayed in the game, stuck with the game plan, and was there for 90-plus minutes,” Wicky said. “And I think we felt that this was a pretty mature performance from the team. We saw some good football as well, attacking-wise. So this is what I want to see again.”

–Field Level Media