Indy Eleven at Louisville City FC - 12.27

Summary

- Opponent: Louisville City FC
- Location: Lynn Family Stadium
- Attendance: 9,785
- Final Score: 2-0 L

- Starting XI: Pruter, Zalinsky, Ofeimu, Schaefer, Musa, Murphy, Lindley, Blake, Quinn (C), Rendon, Williams, R.

- Substitution: White 63' (Zalinsky); Amoh 63' (Murphy); Bryneus 78' (Ofeimu); Soumaoro 78' (Rendon)

- Unused: Sulte, Kizza, O'Brien, J.

- Scoring Summary:
LOU - Dia 36' (assist Lambert)
LOU - Davila 58' (unassisted)

- Bookings:

LOU - Perez 63' (Yellow)
LOU - Las 72' (RED)

- Referee: Servando Berna Rico

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

If Indy Eleven fans are honest with themselves, this was the result that most people expected from this game. Indy's win against the top team in the Western Conference last week against FC Tulsa might have given some people hope that Indy could duplicate that result against Louisville this week. I was not one of them. Louisville has been on a different level than everybody this year and even more so when at Lynn Family Stadium. Louisville came into the game with only one loss in league play, and hadn't lost a home match in league play in 22 games, dating back to June of 2024. Indy's victory over Tulsa last week also meant that Louisville wasn't going to overlook Indy. Indy has shown that they can, periodically, compete against the best teams (beating Tulsa twice as an example), and with the Players' Shield in the Louisville players' sights, they were going to make sure that they weren't overlooking Indy. 

Indy did manage to give Louisville a better game than many might have expected, despite the 2-nil score line. The final stats are likely skewed a bit thanks to the straight red card on Louisville's goalkeeper Las in the 72nd minute when he took out Williams preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity, giving Indy a man-advantage for the final 20-ish minutes. Las took out Williams just outside the 18-yard box with no other Louisville player anywhere in the vicinity. It was one of those fouls where Indy would rather be awarded a goal rather than seeing the opposition get a red card. Since that can't happen and given the way Las took out Williams, a second game suspension beyond just the one-game suspension from the red card would be nice to see. 

Looking at the first half stats though, Indy was giving a good show of themselves against the soon to be official Players' Shield winners for the second year in a row. 

Unfortunately, we're at the point in the season were silver linings mean next to nothing. Indy needs positive results, preferably wins, while simultaneously seeing losses from the teams behind them in the table. To that point, if you thought you could hear a frustrated groan in the ether coming from Indy around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday evening, that was the Indy coaching staff and players when Noah Fuson of Rhode Island FC scored a 90th minute game-winning goal to allow them to once again jump over Indy for that 8th and final playoff spot. The rankings have been fairly consistent for much of the past few weeks, but Indy and Rhode Island have made the playoff line look your grandmother's embroidery cross stitch. Neither team has an easy game in the final three-game stretch, and Rhode Island has to play Tampa Bay, who are just two points behind Indy, meaning they're not out of the running either. All three teams need points from the final three games if they want to secure the final playoff spot. 

A part of me would rather see Indy not make the playoffs, because 1) do they really deserve to be there, and 2) squeaking into the playoffs in 8th place likely just means that Indy fans will have to watch Louisville beat Indy for a 3rd time this season. Not sure which is worse; not making the playoffs or making the playoffs and immediately losing to Louisville.

Indy return to action next week in Pittsburgh, and if Indy do want to make the playoffs, then they need a better result in Highmark Stadium than they had in Lynn Family Stadium.

 

Indy Eleven vs FC Tulsa - 12.26

Summary

- Opponent: FC Tulsa
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 9,512
- Final Score: 2-1 W

- Starting XI: Pruter, Zalinsky, Ofeimu, Schaefer, Musa, Quinn (C), Murphy, Lindley, Blake, Kizza, Williams, R.

- Substitution: Rendon 60' (Williams, R.); Amoh 60' (Kizza); O'Brien, J. 81' (Murphy); Zalinsky 81' (White); Soumaoro 90' (Blake)

- Unused: Hunsucker, Sulte, Collier

- Scoring Summary:
IND - Schaefer 8' (assist Murphy)
IND - Blake 68' (assist Quinn)
TUL - Diallo 80' (assist Goldthorp)

- Bookings:

TUL - St. Clair 33' (Yellow)
IND - Murphy 45'+1' (Yellow)
IND - Zalinsky 51' (Yellow)
IND - Pruter 88' (Yellow)
TUL - Dalou 89' (Yellow)
IND - Lindley 90'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: John Matto

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

Not a lot of teams have beaten FC Tulsa once the calendar switched from May to June. Since that time, Tulsa has a 9W-6D-2L record, with one of those losses coming a few games ago at Colorado Springs and the other loss coming in a 2-1 loss against Indy Eleven in late July in the Jagermeister Cup. In the same timeframe that Tulsa has played so well, Indy has been more up and down, with a 8W-2D-9L record, with both "draws" resulting in a win and a loss as both results took place in the Jagermeister Cup. So while officially Indy has two draws in that stretch, realistically, they're 9W-0D-10L. So Indy knew coming into the game that they have the ability to beat Tulsa at The Mike, but their run of results has not been what Tulsa has been able to achieve the past 4 months. Yet, an early goal in the first half and a 2nd goal in the second half provided Indy with a 2-1 win over the leaders in the Western Conference.

In the opening minutes, Indy looked like the team that wanted to get the maximum amount of points out of the game, pinning Tulsa back into their half of the field. It didn't take long for Indy to find a free kick that they thought they could be a dangerous attempt on goal. As has been the case all season, Quinn and Murphy were the two Indy players standing over the ball as the rest of the team made their way into the box. Murphy put a ball to the six yard box that Schaefer managed to just touch with his head to find the far net; much like his assist last week, without the touch from a different player. In under ten minutes, the goal gave Indy an early lead. 

Half - Shots

After the goal, Tulsa seemed to realize that the teams' current forms weren't going to matter and began to tilt the field in their favor trying to equalize to keep their superb run-of-form intact. While Indy controlled the first part of the half, Tulsa controlled the middle portion, and then the two teams were fairly even in the final third segment of the half. Despite a 9 to 2 shot advantage for Tulsa in the half, the two teams went into the halftime locker room with Indy maintaining their early 1-goal advantage thanks to their one shot on target finding the goal while Tulsa's one shot on target resulted in a Pruter save. Indy's multiple blocks helped keep that halftime clean sheet.

FRISBEE DOGS!!!

The middle part of the first half that Tulsa dominated was duplicated as the teams returned after the halftime time break. The field was entirely tilted in their favor. Until... 

Until the 68th minute when second-half substitute Rendon held up the ball nicely. At which point, Indy's midfield did what they do. Rendon backheeled a ball to Lindley who one-timed a cross into the box. The ball cleared everybody, but quickly found Quinn. Aodhan took a touch before getting the ball to Blake near the six-yard box who promptly put himself in 2nd position in team history for goals scored trailing just Eamon Zayed for that 1st position, but now finds himself 1st in goals scored in the team's tenure in the USL Championship. The goal reminded me of the goal in July against Rhode Island where a decisive and quick balls from Lindley, Blake, and Quinn resulted in a goal by Amoh. The difference tonight was that the three midfielders took care of the final shot.

Up by two goals, Indy fans knew the game wasn't in the bag. This season has shown that until the referee blows the final whistle, anything can and will happen. With 10 minutes remaining in regulation, Tulsa did find their goal to make the final moments and stoppage time interesting. Indy's defense held and after 6 minutes of stoppage time, Indy pulled over yet another victory over the top team in the Western Conference.

As a fan, that might be the most frustrating about Indy this season. The talent is there. The results can happen. They just haven't been able to string together enough 90-minute performances to put themselves in a better position in the standings. Before the Louisville game at the end of August, Nicholas Murray with the league wrote a feature on the team that indicated that the team was leading the league in dropped points. At that point, they had dropped 17 points from winning positions. Indy then took a lead on Louisville before conceding three goals and losing, which would bring their total to 20 points dropped from winning positions. Independent of anything else, if Indy had 20 more points, they would be sitting at 52 points, firmly at the top of the table. Yet here we stand hovering at the playoff line. For the moment in the last playoff position thanks to tonight's results. 

Indy's final four games include road games against Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Orange County and a final home game against Loudoun. Indy's going to need to duplicate tonight's result as many times as possible in those four games to be able to squeak into the playoffs to likely face Louisville in the first game of the playoffs. Indy head south of the Ohio River next weekend to figure out if they can compete and beat the leaders in the Eastern Conference after taking down, again, the leaders in the Western Conference.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

It may be repetitive and it might be a bit of a cop-out, but the midfield of Blake, Lindley, Murphy, and Quinn once again get tonight's GBGB. I considered giving it to Sunday's winner in Schaefer for his continued effort and getting the goal, but the Indy midfield was solid on both sides of the ball tonight and kept showing why this team should be in most games. 

Photos: Don Thompson Photography

Indy Eleven vs Birmingham Legion - 12.25

Summary

- Opponent: Birmingham Legion FC
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 10,375
- Final Score: 2-1 W

- Starting XI: Pruter, Zalinsky, Musa, Ofeimu, Schaefer, Lindley, Murphy, Quinn (C), Blake, Kizza, Williams, R.

- Substitution: White 65' (Zalinsky); Rendon 77' (Kizza); Collier 77' (Williams, R.); O'Brien, J. 90'+3' (Quinn)

- Unused: Hunsucker, Bryneus, McRobb, Soumaoro

- Scoring Summary:
BHM - Vassell 12' (unassisted)
IND - Kizza 54' (assist Quinn)
IND - Ofeimu 60' (assist Schaefer)

- Bookings:

BHM - Travis 33' (Yellow)
BHM - Turnbull 90'+3' (Yellow)

- Referee: Alyssa Pennington

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

Indy has reached the point in their season where every game is vital to get as much out of it as possible. With Birmingham coming to town on a short week (though helped out by the Wednesday-Sunday gap versus the Wednesday-Saturday gap that today's game provided for them), and Birmingham's place below Indy in the table, this afternoon's game was a proverbial 6-point game for Indy to keep themselves within arm's reach of the playoff line while keeping Birmingham firmly in Indy's rear view mirror. Both teams came out of the gate clearly getting the message from the coaches that their respective seasons could be coming to a close sooner than either team wanted. Birmingham found an early goal from a spectacular free kick from Vassell from just outside the box, but the game remained wide open looking like there were going to be multiple goals possible. In the end, there were just two more goals with Indy pulling back two goals for a 2-1 win at home.

As the first half progressed, the energy from both teams remained, but very limited came out of the effort. The two teams had a combined 1 shot on target, which was Vassell's free kick goal in the 12th minute. When referee Alyssa Pennington blew the halftime whistle, the teams went into the locker rooms with Birmingham content to absorb pressure (Indy held a rare 60%/40% possession advantage) and counter, with Indy unable to unlock the pressure to get ay kind of legit attempt on target.

Within 10 minutes, Indy found their equalizer with some of their best interplay all game as they worked their way up the field, eventually resulting in a Quinn pass/cross along the 6-yard box that Kizza simply redirected into the goal. Indy then doubled their lead just six minutes later from a set piece near the right touch line. Quinn put the ball into a good place, Schaefer flicked it along with his head, and Ofeimu followed Kizza's lead and simply redirected the ball into the goal. At that point, the two teams had three shots on target and all three had resulted in goals. If the game was wide open in the first half, the game turned frenetic in the moments after Indy's second goal. Indy knew they needed the third goal to give themselves a cushion, while Birmingham knew they needed to push to try and get something out of the game.

Shots - Post 72nd Minute

Birmingham's substitutions in the 72nd minute flipped the field and they became the aggressor. Now it was Indy's turn to absorb pressure and counter. With a 2-1 lead for the home side, it became squeaky bum time for the Indy fans. Having witnessed multiple games this season end in shared or lost points after having a lead, a single goal differential lead has felt far from secure this year. 

Yet, neither team mustered another shot on target after those substitutions. Birmingham had just two shots, one that rolled precariously close to the post and out of reach of Pruter, but was Birmingham's closest thing to a shot on target the rest of the game. As the whistle blew, the two teams combined for 3 goals and 3 shots on target; neither goalkeeper was credited with a save.

Indy's win pushed them back into 9th place in the table after having Tampa Bay vault over Indy on Saturday night with their draw against North Carolina. It's tenuous, but Indy's win keeps them in the discussion for the final playoff spot from the Eastern Conference. Indy return to action this coming Saturday for the penultimate home regular season game of the year when FC Tulsa returns to The Mike to try and avenge their Jagermeister Cup loss to Indy. Since their May 3rd loss to Orange County, Tulsa have lost just three games (1 to Indy in the Jagermeister Cup, 1 to Birmingham also in the Cup, and 1 to Colorado Springs a few weeks ago) and have become the 3rd team to qualify for this year's playoffs, so Indy's gauntlet to close out the season doesn't get any easier. 

The Game Beckons Game Ball

One of the new faces in the back line kept drawing my eyes tonight. Schaefer gets tonight's GBGB because his play stuck out to me as being effective. Looking at the statistics, it was good to see that my eyes didn't fail me. Schaefer didn't lose a single duel; he was 10 for 10 in duels won and 4 for 4 in aerial duels won. Throw in his assist on Ofeimu's goal, his 4 tackles, his 10 clearances, and his 2 interceptions, while not conceding a single foul, verifies that the loanee from FC Cincinnati 2 had a solid enough game to get the game's GBGB.

Photos - Don Thompson Photography

Indy Eleven vs Rhode Island - 12.24

Summary

- Opponent: Rhode Island FC
- Location: Centreville Bank Stadium
- Attendance: 8,498
- Final Score: 1-0 L

- Starting XI: Pruter, Zalinsky, Ofeimu, Schaefer, Musa, Rendon, Lindley (C), Blake, Murphy, Foster, Williams, R.

- Substitution: Amoh 78' (Williams, R.); Kizza 79' (Murphy); Collier 85' (Zalinsky)

- Unused: Hunsucker, McRobb, O'Brien, J., Soumaoro

- Scoring Summary:
RI - Own Goal 64' (Musa)

- Bookings:

IND - Ofeimu 19' (Yellow)

RI - Herivauz 23' (Yellow)
IND - Musa 45'+2' (Yellow)
RI - Fuson 54' (Yellow)
RI - Mabika 88' (RED)
IND - Amoh 90'+2' (RED)

- Referee: Rodrigo Albuquerque

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

Based on nearly every single statistic of the game shown on the Match Center, this game should have finished in a nil-nil draw. Possession was nearly equal. Passing accuracy, passing in opponents' half, crosses, were all nearly equal. Shots, shots on target, blocked shots, and shooting accuracy were all exactly equal. 

Yet, one mistake, rather one mishit ball from Musa that found the back of Indy's own goal became the deciding moment in the game. Two teams who have bounced back and forth with each other from one side of the playoff line to the next found themselves in a physical midfield battle for control of the tiebreaker between the two teams should it come to that late in the season. As it stands after tonight's 1-nil victory by Rhode Island, both teams are even on Head-to-Head (1W-1L), even on Goal Differential in head-to-head (1-nil, nil-1 results), Wins in Regular Season (7), and Goal Differential in Regular Season (-7). The difference, that pushes Indy back on the wrong side of the playoff line is that Rhode Island has one more draw than Indy to give them one more Total Points. 

With all three of Indy's new signings in the starting lineup, Indy's defensive effort was admirable, with the obvious notable exception of the goal scoring counterattack. Coach McAuley likes to talk about the performance not matching the result and I think this game was a prime example of this. Indy deserved a point on the road tonight. Indy's final six games are a daunting stretch with two games against the Conference leaders (Louisville and Tulsa), a game against a third-place team (Loudoun), and a game against a playoff team (Pittsburgh), with only two of the six games against [current] non-playoff team. However, even Indy's final opponent in Orange County is just barely out of the Western Conference playoff race. It's going to take a spectacular stretch run from Indy to make this year's playoffs. 

Indy return to action at home next Sunday to face Birmingham, another one of the teams currently below them on the table. It's absolutely vital that Indy pick up three points from the game or they may find themselves out of the playoff race even before they face the tougher opponents.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

With three new faces in the back line and goalkeeper, Indy needed to a solid effort in the midfield to provide cover in front of the new players. In what became a defensive battle, the trio of Blake, Lindley, and Murphy once again proved their worth even in the loss. Their leadership and effort deserved to be rewarded with a draw, but they'll have to make due with getting the GBGB again.