If you’re reading this, it’s the morning of Saturday, February 25th. It’s probably a little wet outside, and you probably didn’t get as much sleep as you were planning on. Feels a bit like Christmas morning doesn’t it?

It’s opening day. In a few short hours, you’ll make the trek to GEODIS Park, from however far away, and hopefully find parking. You’ll walk in the gates, and see the yellow (gold?), blue, and white seats for the first time in months. You’ll be dressed in all black, and fired up. 30,000 of your closest friends will be there with you. The season will begin.

However, as much as I love being poetic about the first matchday of the season, we have some business to take care of first. The job of media people on the threshold of the start of any season is to make wild predictions that will probably look incredibly foolish by the halfway point.

Four Soundwave Soccer contributors stepped up to the challenge of making themselves look like complete idiots. Ronan, Reid, Noah and Trey. They were each asked to answer 10 questions about the season to come. Here are their answers.

1. What will Nashville’s finishing position in the East be?

Noah: I think Nashville will probably finish mid table, around the 5th place range as presently constructed. Midfield depth will once again be a problem, especially since everyone is a year older. Jacob Shaffelburg being in Nashville for an entire season will certainly help the attack, and we will see how it impacts team success over the course of a full campaign.

Reid: 6th

Trey: This team seems quite up in the air but Gary-Ball will have them getting results, however boring it may be. No true world-beater or exciting signings from my perspective this offseason, strictly signings to secure squad depth that needed to be addressed. Shaffelburg’s option being exercised and the Fafa signing do intrigue me however. Purely for the fact I expect Mukhtar to show out again, and one or both of Bunbury and Sapong have to improve on their poor form last season, they were historically snake-bitten. I say the Boys in Gold secure 5th in the East.

Ronan: I’m gonna be the one to take the high side here. I’m predicting Nashville to finish 4th in the East. It’ll be close, with, say, 2 points between Nashville and 6th, but I think Nashville gets a bit more lucky than they’ve been in past years.

2. Will Nashville make it out of their Leagues Cup group?

Noah: I think so. It’ll be tough of course, but I really like Nashville’s chances to make it out of the group.

Reid: Yes

Trey: Toluca sits 5th in Liga MX Clausura after 8 matches and if they continue their form they could prove quite the tough opponent. Rapids are an intriguing prospect going into the year, word from their camp in the preseason pegs them confident to improve and bringing in a handful of fresh faces from across the pond could be what they need to improve on their 10th place finish in the west last year. I believe it will be a tougher group than expected but Nashville would be quite the disappointment to lose a spot to Rapids, and should be attempting to top the group. That being said, I believe they comfortably get out of this group.

Ronan: So we have to get through Toluca, who have had a pretty solid start to the Clausura season and a Colorado team that’s going to be starting Kevin Cabral? Yeah, if we don’t get out of the group it’ll be supremely disappointing. Can we do anything past that? Who knows.

3. Will Nashville reach the final of any of the three trophies they’re competing for?

Noah: Unfortunately for Nashville, I don’t expect there to be any cup finals appearances this year with the team they have right now. New signings in the summer would go a long way to potentially changing that projection.

Reid: It’s possible, but I’ll say no.

Trey: Easiest answer to say is no. My heart wants to believe it’s possible, the Open Cup run was fun while it lasted and the match against Orlando was rife with horrible refereeing decisions, but I do not see a run happening this year. The squad isn’t fit to play without Mukhtar carrying and he cannot do it every single match.

Ronan: I’m gonna go out on a limb here. Last year’s Open Cup run showed me that Nashville is a team tailor made for cup competition. Not only does the club reach the Open Cup Final, they win.

4. Signing of the Season?

Noah: Easily the permanent signing of Jacob Shaffelburg. He brought an injection of pace that this older team desperately needed, and seemed to be a constant threat in most games he played in last season.

Reid: Fafa Picault. I see lots of great possibilities with him, and I believe Nashville will sign a striker in the summer, but it’s impossible to know who that striker might be.

Trey: Fafa Picault is the easiest answer here. He played for a horrendous Houston Dynamo side and was able to be a positive contributing factor more often than not. Whether he is a bench option or becomes a regular starter, I think he will be a contributing factor. Tyler Freeman is an intriguing signing if he can break into the starting fold. If the 20 year old from Loudon United can somehow replicate his form from his campaign USL-Championship he would be a welcome addition to a side desperate for young contributing talent.

Ronan: It’s gotta be Fafa Picault. I want to say Jacob Shaffelburg, but right now I know what I’m getting from him, whereas Fafa is like the mystery box I haven’t opened yet. I know Fafa has been one of the more underrated wingers in the league over the past few seasons, and that excites me, so I’m going to go with the toy I haven’t played with yet.

5. When does Adem Sipic make his first team debut?

Noah: If I had to guess for Sipic, I would say his only shot this season would be in the early rounds of the U.S. Open Cup, barring other injuries.

Reid: Next season, not this one.

Trey: My hope is sooner rather than later, he seem to be impressing Gary Smith during preseason. While my hope is he gets meaningful minutes in Huntsville to get professional games under his belt before making his MLS debut, I believe he come into the fold in the first half of the season if he is as exciting of a prospect as he is said to be.

Ronan: I see him being one of the players brought in for our first Open Cup game. If we’ve got a comfortable enough lead and we’re in, say the 80th minute or so, that’s where he makes his debut.

6. Who scores the most goals not named Hany Mukhtar, and how many do they score?

Noah: I think Randall Leal moving more centrally is actually going to help him in the goal scoring department. I will go with him as a potential surprise second leading goalscorer, with around 9 goals.

Reid: C.J. Sapong, scoring 10 in a redemption arc of sorts.

Trey: I predict Fafa holding to the “silver boot” for Nashville this season, right in that 10 goal area. While I hope I am wrong, I don’t expect Sapong or Bunbury to carry any weight this season.

Ronan: He’s not blue, he’s not green, he is somewhere in between, and he is scoring 12 goals to match his jersey number. Teal Bunbury.

7. Who is our leading assist maker going to be?

Noah: Jacob Shaffelburg.

Reid: Jacob Shaffelburg.

Trey: Without a doubt I say Mukhtar leads the club with assists this year. The hope is he is able to feed the ball to players who will finish their chances this season. Hany finished 2022 with 9.21 Expected Assists (xA) and I expect that number to stay the same or even improve this year.

Ronan: Here’s where Randall Leal shines. He tied C.J. Sapong last year for second with five assists, let’s say he gets 10ish.

8. When does Nashville sign a DP? Closest date to actual date wins

Noah: This is like throwing darts in pitch black, so I guess my dart landed on August 28th of this season.

Reid: July 30th.

Trey: Considering that Nashville still has a DP slot taken by a player out on loan and barring something completely out of left field, I don’t see a signing made until summer, with the assumption Ake Loba is either bought by Mazatlan or sold to another club after his loan spell (maybe Loba magically finds form in MLS and a DP signing isn’t anything to worry about but I’m not expecting much). If anything happens hopefully it will be late June/arly July. Knowing how slow the club is with signing players, July 31st is my guess.

Ronan: I’m gonna give you guys a full timeline actually. So let’s assume the DP slot is already open, or confirmed to be opening by the first day of the Secondary Transfer Window on July 5th. I predict we’ll first hear about Nashville being interested in whoever it is on July 12th, and the here-we-go confirmation comes on July 21st. However, the club themselves don’t announced until July 25th, my official guess.

9. Transfer fee? Closest to actual value wins

Noah: $3.5 million.

Reid: $7.2 million.

Trey: I believe that the next DP signing, if there’s one at all, will be a free transfer from overseas. Knowing how disappointed they were with the last major transfer, I predict management will look to sign someone experienced who will only hurt the wage bill and and not the transfer budget. Hopefully the signing is on the younger side with time to make a long lasting impact, but we know how much this club’s management loves their veteran players.

Ronan: We’re definitely not seeing Ake Loba money dumped on one transfer for quite a while in my opinion. This doesn’t, however, mean they won’t get close. Assuming we recoup some kind of money from Loba, let’s say right at $5 million.

10. Opening day score prediction?

Noah: I think we’ll see a relatively exciting match on Saturday, so I’ll go with a 2-2 draw. I hope that’s not just me picking with my emotions but the first game of the season is usually a crapshoot.

Reid: 1-1 draw, welcome to Garyball.

Trey: I believe this match will end 2-1 to the Boys in *Black* on Johnny Cash Night, christening the lovely new alternate kit with a dramatic late winner.

Ronan: Look, there’s no sugarcoating it. New York City are in a rebuild. Sean Johnson, Taty Castellanos, Maxi Moralez, Alexander Callens, Heber, they’re all gone. The Talles Magno as-a-nine experiment didn’t exactly work like expected last year. City Football Group is under investigation for their dealings with Manchester City, so I can’t expect the purse strings are wide open for NYCFC. I don’t think they’ll be very good this year, and so I’m predicting a 3-1 Nashville win with a brace from King Hany.