Sam Surridge is back in the starting XI at a moment Nashville SC can turn a strong season into something sturdier. After making his first start in any competition since April 7 against Atlanta on Friday and playing the full 90 minutes, he goes into Wednesday’s match against CF Montreal with Nashville trying to stretch its unbeaten run to 10 games.
The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jul. 22 at GEODIS Park, and the reason it is drawing attention is simple: Nashville sits first in MLS with 36 points through 15 games and is still the only side yet to lose at home in league play in 2026. A win would keep that home mark intact and add another layer to a season that already has Nashville looking like one of the league’s most complete teams.
Surridge is part of why. He was voted an MLS All-Star for a second-successive season, and he has the most goals for Nashville against Montréal after a May 2024 hat trick and a late score that rescued a road draw last October. He remains near the MLS scoring lead, but there has been a small stall in the flow of his season: he has not scored in five of his last six appearances. That is the kind of detail that matters when a team is chasing history and the forward expected to finish chances is still trying to find the cleanest version of his form.
CF Montreal arrives carrying a different kind of number. It has surrendered 31 goals through 15 games in 2026, a mark that gives Nashville room to press if the game opens up at GEODIS Park. Nashville’s own back line has been a major reason the club is sitting on top of MLS, and Brian Schwake has been central to that stability in his first season as a starter. He sits second in clean sheets, has faced 17.21 expected goals on target and has given up 11 goals, with only three of those conceded leading to dropped points. That is how a team gets to this point in July: not by accident, but by repeatedly turning danger into something survivable.
The lingering question is whether the returning Surridge can turn this into one of those nights. Nashville has already shown it can protect a lead, absorb pressure and keep its run moving. If it does that again Wednesday, the unbeaten streak becomes 10 and the gap between a good season and a record-setting one gets a little harder to ignore.
