Indy Eleven vs Racing Louisville - 02.05

Summary

- Opponent: Racing Louisville
- Location: Lynn Family Sports Vision & Training Center
- Attendance: -
- Final Score: 2-0 W

- Starting XI: Reason, Sexton, Bahr, Watson, Kugler, Kraszula, Rogers (C), Hershfelt, Chester, Soderstrom, K., Whitsett

- Substitution: Sexton 60' (Chatterton); Isger 60' (Chester); Matsuhisa 60' (Soderstrom, K.); Williams 60' (Whitsett); Houweling 82' (Watson); Vanegas 85' (Kraszula) 

- Unused: Edwards

- Scoring Summary:
IND - Whitsett 12' (Assist Rogers)
IND - Whitsett 55' (Assist Chester)

- Bookings:

LOU – Huckaby 30’ (Yellow)

LOU – George 62’ (Yellow)

- Referee: ?

- Adage goals: None

Thoughts and Opinions

For whatever reason, Racing Louisville puts zero effort into streaming their W-League team's games, so I have nothing to go on in this article other than some periodic tweets from the Indy Eleven Live Twitter account. In light of that, this will be brief, and we're going to focus on big picture.

Indy jumped out to an early lead on Racing thanks to a Whitsett goal in the 12th minute. Whitsett doubled the lead about 10-minutes after the halftime break, and then rode out their lead to the finish line. With half of their season complete, Indy hold the series lead with Racing (The Barrel [Women's Edition] stays in Indy), and Indy have to play Lexington and St. Charles twice, and Kings Hammer once. Four of those five games will be at home at Grand Park, and Indy have already beaten all of those teams by a combined 12-0. It's never over until its over, but the past two games against Racing Louisville were the two games that looked like they might decide the division and Indy came out on the right side of those games. Kings Hammer has played Indy well the past two seasons, so Indy need to not overlook them, but tonight's game was a major hurdle that was successfully cleared.

Indy return to Grand Park on Friday night for the third game in a week against Lexington, who Indy beat 3-nil on May 21st in Lexington. Then Indy will get a few days of recovery and training before playing another 3 games in a week's span. Indy's depth and deep roster will likely come into play in the next couple of weeks. Tonight we saw (or didn't see...) the first appearance of Maddy Williams in a substitute role off the bench. I expect to see more of those kinds of things in the upcoming games.

For now, Indy fans can celebrate the series win over Racing.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Without being able to see any of the game, it's difficult to select a player for the GBGB. However, when a player scores twice, chances are they played well. So without much to argue against it, Maisie Whitsett gets tonight's GBGB. Whitsett already has two braces on the season, and five goals total in five games, putting her in 3rd place in club history behind Soderstrom's and Williams' double-digit efforts from last season (which Soderstrom has added to twice this season...). If she can stay at this average, she might tie Williams' season total in fewer games played.