Nashville SC plan to keep faith in their current leadership as they transition from the USL Championship to MLS by naming current head coach Gary Smith as their MLS manager, according to an ESPN FC report.
The 2020 MLS expansion side recently confirmed that they will carry the same name and colors, albeit with an updated crest, from the second tier into the top flight, and the same approach will apply to their technical staff, reported ESPN FC’s Jeff Carlisle on Tuesday.
Nashville subsequently issued a press advisory for a press conference on Wednesday morning at which the club’s MLS head coach will be named.
If accurate, it will mark the second stint in MLS for Smith, who coached the Colorado Rapids to the 2010 MLS Cup championship in a tenure that ran from 2008-11. Despite winning the Rapids’ only league title to date and accruing a winning record over the course of his tenure, he departed the club in contentious circumstances around disagreements over decision-making on player acquisitions.
The Englishman went on to manage Stevenage in his native country before returning stateside to coach NASL side Atlanta Silverbacks from 2014-16, then joined Nashville ahead of their inaugural USL campaign last year.
NSC racked up a 12W-9L-13D regular-season record in 2018 and qualified for the USL Cup Playoffs, where they fell to regular-season champs FC Cincinnati in a draw decided by a penalty-kick shootout in the quarterfinal round.
