Acosta earns Fan of the Match

When Nashville SC came about, Abel Acosta didn’t know much about the team, but he wanted in. A member of the Assembly supporters group, he’s been named this week’s Nashville Soccer Supporters Trust Fan of the Match.

Acosta, who lives in nearby Murfreesboro, already owned season tickets for the Titans and once had a similar package for the Predators, and after mulling the decision briefly, it only made sense for him to get on board with NSC as well.

“It’s not too often that you get to see a team grow from the beginning,” Acosta said. “I’ll admit that I wasn’t really around for the NFC days, but speaking to it as a professional team, To me, that was exciting, and I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to see what it was about. After the first game I was hooked.”

Acosta can be found alongside his wife Gabby with the Assembly most match days, but that wasn’t always the case for the New Jersey native.

“I wanted to be in a better place to watch the game, but truthfully, it was my wife who got me to move to behind the goal,” Acosta revealed, chuckling. “When I watch, I like to sit down and try an analyze whats going on, but my wife is pretty into the whole rah-rah thing. We went over there and tried it one time and became kind of addicted to it.”

While born in America both Acosta and his wife share a Central American heritage, and they’re especially excited about the addition of Daniel Rios to the Nashville roster this season as it represents an enormous opportunity for the club to broaden its reach.

“It was kind of weird for us to not see a hispanic player last season, so seeing the club sign Rios was really important to us,” Acosta said. “I know I had friends that didn’t feel like they could relate to the team last season. My wife and I were very happy to see that change this year. We hope that as we get closer to MLS, we’ll start to see that Central and South American pipeline open up the same way it has for other clubs here.”

With Rios and a number of other exciting signings, Acosta is excited to see how the 2019 season will be play out, and he’ll have a pretty good seat for it as he can be found in the front row of Section 106 at First Tennessee Park every match day. He is this week’s NSST Fan of the Match.

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