Nashville Metros

Nashville Metros

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Full name	Nashville Metros
Nickname(s)	The Metros
Founded	1989
Dissolved	2012
Stadium	E. S. Rose Park Nashville, Tennessee (final)
Ground Capacity	5,000
Owners	Lynn Agee Martin Maciel Devinder Sandhu
Head Coach	Brent Goulet (final)
League	USL Premier Development League
2012 (final)	4th, South Atlantic Playoffs: DNQ
Website	Club home page
Home colors Away colors

The Nashville Metros were an American soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1989, the team most recently played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the South Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The Metros were the longest continuously operating soccer club in the United Soccer Leagues before their last season in 2012.

In recent years, the team played its home games at Ezell Park and E. S. Rose Park.

History

File:Nashville-Metros.png

Original logo

The Nashville Metros were founded by Lynn Agee and Devinder Sandhu and began indoor play in the Sunbelt Independent Soccer League in 1990. Due to a lack of facilities, the team played their entire first season on the road, before settling in Smyrna. The Metros continued to play indoors until 1996, but only managed to win six matches in six seasons. During much of the same period, the outdoor team played in the USL's amateur Premier League with significantly better results. Nashville's first winning season came in 1995 with a 12-6 record and their first playoff appearance. The 1996 team witnessed the Metros' Pasi Kinturi score a league-leading 19 goals as he was named that season's league MVP.

The Metros moved up to the second division A-League in 1997. After several years of playing at various high school and municipal stadiums in Nashville and Franklin, the team settled into their new home at Ezell Park. Nashville made their first U.S. Open Cup appearance in the 1998 tournament where they routed the third division Delaware Wizards before advancing to face the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer. A heavy underdog, the Metros pulled off the upset of the tournament with a victory over the first division club in front of an ecstatic home crowd. Nashville eventually fell in the quarterfinals to MLS' Dallas Burn.

In 1999 due to financial circumstances, the club was forced to reorganize. The side was renamed the Tennessee Rhythm and moved from Nashville to Franklin, but returned to their original venue in 2001, reverting to their original name at the same time. This time period featured an unsuccessful rematch against the Dallas Burn in the 2000 U.S. Open Cup and a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2001 tournament. In 2002 the Metros moved down from the A-League to the Premier Development League, mainly due to Ezell Park’s substandard facilities, such as the lack of a press box.

Beginning with their first playoff appearance in 1994, Nashville made eight postseason trips over the next 11 years. The club's fortune began to fade in 2005 when they began closing current eight-year playoff drought.

Players

Final roster

Source

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 0 GK James Holt 2 DF Sambou Tamba 3 DF Beh Leandre Pacome 4 DF Samba Amadou Bah 5 DF Gift Ndam 6 MF Ebrima Njie 7 MF Elijah Yazdani 8 MF Mandou Bojang 9 MF Kieran McFadden 10 FW Francisco Maciel 11 MF Edwin Bryan 12 DF Nick Dykes

No. Position Player 13 DF Jomo Cromwell 14 FW William Dugger 15 MF Osiris Valle 16 MF Stefan Vaziri 17 FW Omar Abdiaziz 18 MF J. J. Jackson 19 DF Matthew Reed 29 FW Victor Galicia 77 MF Abdikadir N Mohamed 20 DF Jose Cardenas 21 MF Keegan Terry 23 FW Malang Fatty 30 GK Jordan Werner

Notable former players

• See also: All-time Nashville Metros roster

This list of notable former players comprises players who went on to play professional soccer after playing for the team, or those who previously played professionally before joining the team.

• Jay Ayres
• Kainoa Bailey
• Kalin Bankov
• Trevor Banks
• Jon Busch
• Danny DeVall
• Gabe Eastman
• Albert Edward
• John Jones
• Pasi Kinturi
• Steve Klein
• Tony Kuhn
• Jamel Mitchell
• Richard Mulrooney
• J. P. Rodrigues
• Daryl Sattler

Year-by-year

Year	Division	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Open Cup
1991	N/A	SISL	4th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not enter
1992	N/A	USISL	5th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not enter
1993	N/A	USISL	6th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not enter
1994	3	USISL	5th, Midsouth	Divisional Semifinals	Did not enter
1995	4	USISL Premier	3rd, Eastern	Divisional Semifinals	Did not qualify
1996	4	USISL Premier	4th, Eastern Northern	Division Finals	Did not qualify
1997	2	USISL A-League	2nd, Central	Division Semifinals	Did not qualify
1998	2	USISL A-League	1st, Central	Conference Quarterfinals	Quarter Finals
1999	2	USL A-League	6th, Central	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2000	2	USL A-League	5th, Central	Did not qualify	2nd Round
2001	2	USL A-League	4th, Central	1st Round	2nd Round
2002	4	USL PDL	4th, Mid South	1st Round	Did not qualify
2003	4	USL PDL	3rd, Mid South	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2004	4	USL PDL	4th, Mid South	Conference Semifinals	Did not qualify
2005	4	USL PDL	5th, Mid South	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2006	4	USL PDL	5th, South Atlantic	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2007	4	USL PDL	7th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2008	4	USL PDL	7th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2009	4	USL PDL	7th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2010	4	USL PDL	7th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2011	4	USL PDL	5th, Southeast	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2012	4	USL PDL	4th, South Atlantic	Did not qualify	Did not qualify

Indoor

Year	Division	League	Regular Season	Playoffs
1990/91	N/A	SISL Indoor	9th, Southeast	Did not qualify
1991/92	N/A	USISL Indoor	4th, Southeast	Did not qualify
1992/93	N/A	USISL Indoor	4th, Southeast	Playoffs
1993/94	N/A	USISL Indoor	6th, Southeast	Did not qualify
1994/95	N/A	USISL Indoor	4th, Mid South	Did not qualify
1995/96	N/A	USISL Indoor	7th, Southeast	Did not qualify

Honors

• USISL A-League
  • Central Conference Champions (1): 1998

Head coaches

• Greg Petersen (1998–1999)
• Brett Mosen (2000–2001)
• Andy Poklad (2002–2004)
• Rico Laise (1999, 2007–2008)
• Richard Askey (2009)
• Obed Compean (2005–2006, 2010)
• Ricardo Lopez (2011)
• Brent Goulet (2012–present)

Stadia

• Stadiums in Nashville and Franklin, Tennessee; (1990–1996)
• Stadium in Franklin, Tennessee; (1999–2000)
• Ezell Park; Nashville, Tennessee (1997–1998, 2001–2011)
  • Siegel Park; Murfreesboro, Tennessee 5 games (2007–2010)
• E.S. Rose Park; Nashville, Tennessee; (2012)

Average attendance

Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from the historical match archive at http://www.uslsoccer.com/history/index_E.html.

• 2005: 307
• 2006: 392 (8th in PDL)
• 2007: 361
• 2008: 308
• 2009: 162
• 2010: 215
• 2011: 349

External links

• Official PDL site