Indy Eleven vs Fury - 03.21

- Opponent: Ottawa Fury
- Location: Ottawa
- Attendance: 6,139
- Final Score: 1-1 D
- Starting XI: Busch, Palmer, Falvey, Janicki, Vukovic, Smart, Ring, Paterson, Mares, Gordon, Zayed
- Substitutions: Torrado 64' (Mares), Youla 67' (Paterson), Lacroix 77' (Gordon)
- Unused: Cardona, Ubiparipovic, Keller, Miller
- Goals: Ring 64' (assist Zayed)
- Bookings: Smart (Yellow)
- Adage goals: Two

Fear has officially set in for me for the Championship. There are still 11 games remaining (5 home, 6 away), but as it stands right now, the Championship doesn't go through Indy. That means an away win is required to bring home the Soccer Bowl trophy and that has not been a strength of this team. Win at home? Check. 9W-2D-0L. Win on the road? No check. 1W-6D-3L. I wish I could point to the silver bullet that will fix the road win struggles, but the best I can do is say that they seem "off."

There were struggles with defending, with first touches, and with dribbles. As the Ottawa commentators stated during the game, there were stretches by both teams where nothing seemed to happen. Some of that was a result of the above said struggles by the team. The stats show that this was an even game, but the eye test again showed that the Eleven were not the better team for long stretches of the game. That's disappointing considering that the Fury list 9 different players as injured and were coming into the game on a four-game winless streak (LLLD).

The Fury were out-of-sync themselves as pass after pass was missed, overshot, or poorly communicated. The Fury had a perfect look at the goal in the 37th minute off a set piece that would have given them an earlier lead if it hadn't been for a poorly played first time shot by Rosebloom and a last ditch recovering defensive effort by Palmer to send the ball wide. Even after multiple viewings of the Fury's 59th goal by Stewart, I'm still not sure how Busch misplayed the set piece kick from Williams.

There's just something about the road games that causes this team to not be as successful as they are at home and despite continuing to get points on the road, at some point, they are going to have to win when they aren't at Carroll Stadium. I, personally, would feel better about it if they figured it out prior to The Championship starting. A mid-week game at New York would be a good way to start, but I'm not sure that I see a win coming until the end of the week when Tampa comes to town.

Update:

Highlights: