Indy Eleven vs RailHawks - 01.22

- Opponent: Carolina RailHawks
- Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
- Attendance: 10,285
- Final Score: 1-0 L
- Starting XI: Nicht, Frias, Norales, Miller, Hyland, Franco, Kleberson (Captain), Pena, Pineda, Ambersley, Jhulliam
- Substitutions: Johnson 59' (Hyland), Smart 67' (Jhulliam), Mares 81' (Kleberson)
- Goals: None
- Bookings: Smart 90' (Yellow)













This game came down to the number one.  One touch too many or one touch too few and one goal too many and one goal too few.  I thought that the cohesiveness by the Eleven was missing and it resulted in guys continually taking one extra touch to get a good pass or shot and not getting either.  Or taking a shot or pass when one extra touch would have set themselves for a better, more effective, effort.  And the dreaded one major defensive lapse resulted in a goal for the RailHawks.

One of my favorite things from these recaps was my screen captures of the New York game where I detailed how the team gave up goals against the Cosmos.  There was only one goal in this game, but it demonstrates how quickly things can turn for this team.

In one of the few moments where I felt Franco overplayed the ball, he found himself trying to chase down the offensive player.  Yet, Norales is in a good position on his man, Miller is tracking his man while being in a position to help Franco, and Frias is in a position to eliminate the pass out to the wing.

I'm not sure why Miller decided to pinch in as much as he did at this point, but it let Albadawi get some space around him before Frias could close in on him.

Pass is made to Albadawi and Norales, Miller, and Franco are all occupying one player while Frias continues to track down Albadawi.

Frias overplays the initial touch by Albadawi...

Perfect shot back across the goal between a mass of defenders.  However, even if it had taken a deflection or if Nicht had been able to get a touch on it, there were two unmarked Carolina players at the back post ready for a tap-in goal since four Eleven players collapsed onto the ball.

A ninety-minute game came down to 5 seconds worth of questionable defense.  That's disappointing because, overall, I thought the defense did a pretty good job of keeping their shape and covering for the mistakes.  Most notably the Norales save when Miller overplayed the ball in the 30th minute.

Other items of note:

• Cory Miller is a beast in the air.  Has that guy been beaten yet on a ball played through the air?
• Hyland continues to play well, even with his move to midfield due to the injury to Smith on Friday.
• "Where's Waldo?" could have been retitled "Where's Kleberson?" for this game.  I don't think he had more than a dozen touches in the entire 80 minutes he played and that might be generous.  

Two more opportunities remain to get that elusive first home win and they just happen to come against Minnesota and San Antonio, the top two teams in the league.  Maybe the team can get a win in NYC to give themselves some confidence before heading back for the final home stand.

Update: Norales was selected as part of the Team of the Week.  Congrats!