Music City Soccer Club
By Dave Wasiolek
On a cold dreary morning in early February there was a hush over all of Nashville as it slowly awakened from its hibernation during the trials of the current season. However, entering the lot at the Rose Park fields, the stillness was broken by the clamor of a mighty commotion as if some titanic struggle was about to spill out of the stadium and roil the streets.
Not to worry, this was not some martial conflict but rather a tryout for The Music City Soccer Club (formerly the Nashville Knights). On this day, in this place, hope sprung eternal like daffodils through the late winter snow as some 60 men pursued their evergreen dream of playing professional soccer.
The Music City Soccer Club (MCSC) is Nashville’s representative in the Premier Division of the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL). The UPSL is a professional development league that has been in existence since 2011. It is the largest and fastest growing adult league in North America with over 400 clubs competing throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The UPSL is unique in American soccer in that it is the only high level league that participates in that time honored soccer tradition of promotion and relegation. This European flair to the league adds an element of excitement and tension to every match throughout the season regardless of where your team is in the standings.
Nashville’s Music City squad joined the league last year. As a testament to the talent that Nashville attracts, the squad finished in the top half of their bracket in just its first year by finishing strong and winning their last 3 matches by a combined score of 12 to 2. The guiding lights to the team’s success are club co-founders Mason Ghorbani, Delo Ebrahimzadeh, and Araz Khiziryan.
Mason has played soccer his entire life and expresses great passion for the game and giving back to his community. He is a highly successful businessman who believes strongly that our future lies in creating opportunities for our youth and helping them become strong ethical leaders.
Delo has been heavily involved in Nashville soccer since 2000, when his family immigrated to America from Kurdistan. He played soccer in college at Cumberland University, and has helped form teams like Peshmerga and Kurdistan FC, as well as organizing and playing in tournaments locally, state-wide, and nationally.
Araz, in addition to being a co-founder, is also the team’s head coach. He has enjoyed a fruitful coaching career for the past eleven years, including stints with Sporting Kansas City’s youth academy and Barcelona Academy. He studied psychology, so it should come as no surprise that he believes the mental and emotional aspects of the game are keys to success.
The founders and many of the coaching staff share a common history as immigrants who fled war-torn areas of the world when they were just lads to make Nashville their home. Given this shared background it is not surprising that in their own lives they saw soccer as a place of refuge from the trials and tribulations of life. As a result their passion is to bring this game, they see as an instrument of healing, to all who wish to play regardless of their means. To accomplish this dream they are working to build the quality of play at MCSC and advance through the US soccer pyramid. At the same time they are driven by the desire to expand access to high quality youth training with the hope that in the near future they will create an academy system that is close and responsive to the people, particularly those who might not otherwise have such opportunities.
This year the Premier Division squad will have close to 100 players trying out for one of the coveted 20 (or so) spots. While many of the players are from Nashville, dreamers are not limited to Middle Tennessee. As such, men have come from all over the US just for a chance to make the squad and keep alive their hopes of playing in the MLS someday as other former UPSL players have done.
Thus, if you are interested in seeing exciting, high octane soccer while also supporting the professional dreams of some amazing athletes, then come out to watch your Music City Soccer Club do battle this spring. To find out more about the MCSC team and their mission, see the links below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nashville-Knights-fu%CC%81tbol-club-102661075094416/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musiccitysoccerclub/
