Indy Eleven vs Cosmos - 02.14

- Opponent: New York Cosmos
- Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
- Attendance: 10,206
- Final Score: 1-1
- Starting XI: Nicht, Franco, Janicki, Norales, Hyland, Ring, Stojkov, Pineda, Mares, Brown, Richards
- Substitutions: Smart 72' (Richards), Keller 78' (Ring), Rugg 78' (Stojkov)
- Unused: Cardona, McKinney, Wojcik
- Goals: Mares 45'+ (assist Stojkov)
- Bookings: Stojkov 34' (Yellow), Norales 65' (Red)
- Adage goals: One - 45th minute

Six games in this series between the Eleven and the Cosmos over the last two years and we once again witnessed what has become the standard for them; another draw. In those six games, four of them have finished with the scoreline witnessed on Saturday with 1 - 1.  In fact, only once in this series have the teams been unable to find the net. Though no other meeting between the two teams can claim the title of having the second fastest response in the Eleven history.  When the Eleven gave up yet another in a long string of adage goals in the 46th minute, the Cosmos looked like they would go into the locker room with a 1 - nil lead. Yet, the Eleven found the back of the net themselves just 80 seconds later thanks to a ball over the top by Stojkov that Mares put nicely under Mauer to change the momentum going into halftime.

A second half that saw not only a yellow card, but three red cards, depending on the source. Some sources indicated that the card after the game to the Cosmos' Szetela was a yellow, while others indicated that it was a red card.  However, there wasn't any confusion about the other two red cards as the Cosmos' Guenzatti was given a red card after throwing a soft punch at Norales, who was given a red card for giving a Guenzatti a head butt, after taking offense to Guenzatti's flying elbows. So just as the Eleven had to alter this week's lineup due to Miller's yellow/yellow/red card ejection last week, this coming week's game against Atlanta is going to see yet another central defender combination. Indy Eleven's Team of the Week stable Norales let the emotion of the game get to him and we get to see the rarely (if ever) used combination of Miller and Janicki in the central defense.

The dual red cards provided a final 25 minutes of 10 v 10 and some interesting lineup changes for the Eleven as Coach Regan adjusted to the ejection and his bench options. As the @IndyElevenLive feed pointed out, the backline consisted of Hyland-Franco-Janicki-Smart. Not exactly the backline that we've come to anticipate, but one that did a good job playing out of the normal positions.

Whether it was the temperature or the minutes playing a man down, I once again wish that there was more urgency to the team in the waning minutes of the game. The Eleven seemed content to walk away with the draw and get a point from the Spring Champion. The last time I remember thinking that a good burst of speed and energy would be able to steal a win away from a tie was the Fort Lauderdale game where Lacroix's effort set up the play that resulted in Pineda's brace. I understand the Cosmos' being content with a tie on the road, especially since they already have a place secured in the playoffs, but I would like to have seen the Eleven pick up the pace at a couple moments at the end of the game. As close as the standings are from top to bottom, I have to admit that points are always a positive, but I think there could have been a win available.

Photos:

Highlights:



UPDATE
Congratulations Mares for being a Play of the Week nominee!


Congratulations Mares for having your goal selected as the Play of the Week!

Congratulations Mares for being selected to the Team of the Week!

Indy Eleven vs Fury - 02.13

- Opponent: Ottawa Fury
- Location: Ottawa
- Attendance: 4,327
- Final Score: 4-2
- Starting XI: Nicht, Franco, Norales, Miller, Hyland, Mares, Smart, Wojcik, Richards, Pineda, Rugg
- Substitutions: Janicki 62' (Wojcik), Brown 68' (Richards), McKinney 77' (Franco)
- Unused: Cardona, Keller
- Goals: Smart 33'; McKinney 90'+(assist Brown)
- Bookings: Smart 13' (Yellow), Hyland 16' (Yellow), Miller 34', 89' (Yellow/Yellow->Red)
- Adage goals: One - 35th minute

This is one of those games I don't want to write about and I'm sure the team wants to forget about too. So I'm going to get it out of my system today and move onto waiting for Saturday when the Cosmos come to The Mike. There's no pleasant way to say it. The team looked horrible. There were good moments throughout, but I can't think of a single player who sticks out as having a good game despite themselves. If any Indy Eleven player makes it onto this week's NASL Team of the Week, somebody is getting paid off by the Eleven front office.

An adage goal. One day I hope Indy Eleven fans can stop talking about these things. You can't go down early, claw your way back to a tie, only to give it back two minutes later. Two. Minutes.

Cory Miller.  The thing that fans love about him when he's playing well is his tenacity and that he plays with abandon. However, sometimes that abandon causes him to play on the edge of getting fouls and, by extension, cards. Today was one of those days. His second card was not smart and probably a function of continually playing on that edge.

Nicht looked like he was playing with his legs stuck in concrete. He literally stood immobile and watched Heinemann defeat two of his defenders on a long ball and then stood there rooted to the spot when Heinemann shot on goal. He made absolutely no play on the ball. With some of the saves we've seen him make this season, at least fall over and make it look like you've made an effort.

Set piece defense was horrendous.  The wall didn't even attempt an effort of stopping the Ryan free kick in the 35th minute. Everybody watched it go over the wall and into the back of the net. I'm calling it now that the second free kick in the 65th minute will be one of the NASL Plays of the Week. However, despite it being well struck, it should have been one that Nicht stopped. It seemed like he didn't place himself properly to defend it as a result of not trusting his wall to do their job and shading too far towards the middle.

Pineda missed a PK and it wasn't even close.

So that we don't all feel completely disappointed by this game, Dane Richards and Judson McKinney made their Eleven debuts and McKinney tallies his first goal. Don Smart got a start and a rocket of a goal, despite being 25 yards out with four defenders around him. McKinney's late 90'+ minute goal came off a header redirection from second half substitute Brown. The goal was important because #EveryPointMatters. Like I stated in my "What If?" post, every goal matters, and the McKinney goal in the 90'+ minute kept the Eleven from dropping one more spot in both the Fall and Combined standings.

They didn't get the point, but the second goal kept them a little closer to the top of the table and this early in the Fall Season, that's the silver lining of a really bad game.

Hightlights:

Indy Eleven vs Silverbacks - 02.12

- Opponent: Carolina RailHawks
- Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
- Attendance: 9,629
- Final Score: 2-1
- Starting XI: Nicht, Franco, Norales, Miller, Hyland, Ring, Stojkov, Pineda, Mares, Wojcik, Rugg
- Substitutions: Keller 23' (Ring - injury), Lacroix 65' (Stojkov - injury), Brown 85' (Wojcik
- Unused: Cardona, McKinney, Smart, Janicki
- Goals: Wojcik 54' (assist Hyland); Norales 56' (assist Pineda)
- Bookings: Wojcik 54' (Yellow), Lacroix 67' (Yellow), Miller 85' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: One - 42nd minute

First thing, this is one of my favorite game day posters so far and I put it up there with the Inaugural match poster against Carolina, the Ocean's 11 inspired poster against Tampa Bay, and the Popeye/Bluto poster against Minnesota. I decided to add a permanent page to my site that includes the game day posters and who designed them if I was able to determine it. I'll update as I'm able and as more posters are added.

I've also decided to add two new features to the site, both of which I'll highlight here before getting into my impressions of the game.  The first is a NASL Results Map.  Why?  I think they look good and are a good visual way to see how teams are trending. I'll update it weekly, but here's how it looks after Week 2:

The next new feature is a summary of the attendance throughout the league in a graphical form as well. The thing that I like about the graph is that it highlights both the home and away attendances and provides a summary of the "Total Team Draw" and how that relates to the total attendance of the league.  For example, in the Spring Season, the Eleven were the highest drawing home team by a decent margin, but were only the 8th highest drawing away team.  Due to the home fans, the Eleven finished the Spring Season as the highest drawing team. NY was the fourth highest home draw, but people tend to show up at their away games by a good margin, giving them a bump in Total Draw.

Not much data yet to figure out "what does it all mean?" for the Fall Season.  Though there is a disappointing trend if you're an Eleven fan and didn't like hearing the naysayers about the stadium and its attendance. The Eleven sold out every single game of the inaugural season; similarly for the first three games of the 2015 season. However, starting with the Tampa Bay game, not only have the Eleven not sold out the games, but they have trended downward. 10,226, 10202, and lastly dipping below the 10,000 mark for the first time in this week's game against Carolina. Whether it's a lasting trend or a just a blip will be determined in the upcoming weeks.  I would suspect, based on previous data, a game against the Cosmos will push that number back up for at least a week.

Kleberson tallied his first win as a coach on Saturday thanks to a couple of stellar second half goals by the team. Despite giving up a dreaded "adage" goal to Carolina's first half sub da Luz in the 42nd minute, Nicht made a great reaction save to close out the first half and give the team some much needed momentum going into the halftime break. Oh, and if there is a way to upset a supporter's section and team, taunt them after you score a goal.  As long as da Luz is in the NASL, that guy's not going to receive a warm reception when he plays against the Eleven.

Before the BYB smoke had cleared after Wojcik's 54th minute header tied the game at 1-1, Norales deftly finished a set piece service from Pineda in the 56th minute. This team has had some issues finishing throughout the Spring Season, but those were clinical. Though there were at least three more chances within the 6-yard box that could have easily made this game finish 5-2. Carolina had a shot rattle the crossbar towards the end of the game that could have tied it and was close enough that I wish Nicht had conceded the corner kick and pushed it over. I think he could have reached it, but thought it was going to clear the bar. As an Eleven fan, there's the constant thought of when the team is going to give up a costly goal and that looked to be that moment. Luckily, the ball forcefully bounced back into play and the Eleven survived for a well deserved, and hard-fought, victory and those missed opportunities didn't end up hurting them.

I think we've grown accustomed to the defensive stability that Brad Ring brings to the midfield so I hope his injury that forced him out in the 23rd minute isn't serious. I'm sure that whatever substitution game plan Regan and staff talked about during the week, a 23rd minute substitution was likely not in it. It was good to see Keller step in and settle into the game quickly. I don't recall any major mistakes by him in his substitution role.  Likewise, Stojkov's departure in the 65th minute looked to be a result of the high kick he received to his head so hopefully his injury isn't serious either. I thought he substitute Lacroix did a great job attacking the spaces with his speed. Actually, there were a lot of moments where the team found space around them and attacked forward forcing Carolina to retreat. Those moments created some very good chances.

While it was announced in the days before the game that Dane Richards will be joining the team on loan from New York Red Bulls, I wonder where and when he will fit into the team. They've shown a cohesion of late that makes the idea of drastic changes in the lineup unwelcome. Regardless of when he sees the field, and I would assume he will play sooner rather than later, the losses of Kleberson, Pena, McKinney, and the most recent injuries to Ring and Stojkov highlight the need for depth at all positions.

The team fell behind and worked hard to secure a win. That's something that doesn't seem like it has happened much with this team so maybe it's one more step in the maturation process of this team moving forward.  While early in the Fall Season, they still sit in that coveted 4th place to be able to give them a chance to be in the Championship. As I've written before, every point matters and three points are even better.

A dapper Interim Interim Head Coach Kleberson
(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

If you look closely, you can see Miller's hair tie being released from his man-bun.
(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

(C) Don Thompson

Highlights:


UPDATE:
Congratulations Norales and Wojcik for making this week's Team of the Week!

Women's World Cup - NYC Parade

I took some screen captures of the USWNT ticker tape parade thinking that some of them wouldn't look as good as I had hoped. Some did end up being a tad fuzzy after I converted them as best I know how to do, but I'm still going to include them here.  This was a cool thing for the USWNT to be able to experience less than a week after winning the World Cup.  You might notice that I had a favorite group. I also thought that I had captured everybody during the parade portion, but I don't see Abby Wambach in them. Though I did get her during the presentation portion of the activities.