Indy Eleven vs Sporting Kansas City - 2024 U.S. Open Cup Semifinal

Summary

- Opponent: Sporting Kansas City
- Location: Children's Mercy Park
- Attendance: 10,812
- Final Score: 2-0 L

- Starting XI: Sulte, Ofeimu, O'Brien, J., Chapman-Page, Stanley, Neidlinger, Quinn (C), Lindley, Blake, Martinez, Williams, A.

- Substitution: Musa 17' (Chapman-Page - Injury); Foster 77' (Neidlinger); Wootton 77' (Lindley); Collier 89' (Williams, A.); Guenzatti 89' (O'Brien, J.)

- Unused: Oettl, Mines

- Scoring Summary:
SKC - 14' Russell (assist Davis)
SKC - 35' Rosero (assist Walter)

- Bookings:

IND - Quinn 19' (Yellow)
SKC - Salloi 69' (Yellow)

- Referee: Rosendo Mendoza

- Adage goals: None

Thoughts and Opinions

Planned (but not permitted) BYB tifo - art by Jason Wyrick

The U.S. Open Cup, and a Cup Final, is a special tournament and game where the "little" guy has the chance to take on the "big" guy for a prestigious trophy. More often than not, the little guy never makes it to the semifinal game in this kind of tournament. In the MLS era, ten different lower division clubs (15 different times) have made it to a U.S. Open Cup semifinal game, most recently the Sacramento Republic during their run in 2022 when they made it to the Final. Twenty-eight years of MLS being involved in the tournament since 1996 (minus 2 Covid years), gives 26 tournaments times 2 semifinal games, times 2 teams per semifinal equals 104 teams who have stood at the exact same spot Indy Eleven was standing in before this game started. Which means that just over 14% of the time, one of the teams in a semifinal is a lower division team. Indy Eleven were the lone remaining lower division team in this tournament. 

That's how rare a Cup run is for a lower division team. 

Being a second division team, Indy Eleven technically qualified as the "little" guy in this matchup against Sporting Kansas City, a club that has won the tournament 4 times, the most recent in 2017. As I've stated on this site before (thanks to the history lesson from TheCup.us), the semifinal game isn't the farthest that a team from Indianapolis has made it in the tournament. The Indianapolis Inferno made it to the semifinal game in 1992, when they defeated the Scott Gallagher SC team from Saint Louis by a 2-nil score in the quarterfinal. The Inferno did it, though, in a non-MLS era. Only once since 1996 has a non-MLS team won the Cup (Rochester Rhinos in 1999). 

That's how rare a Cup run is for a lower division team. 

With tonight's 2-0 loss to Kansas City, Indy equal the Indianapolis Inferno's run, bringing Indy's record against MLS teams to 1W-1D-3L, but the run to the Final and a potential Concacaf bid end on a rainy, delayed night at Children's Mercy Park. 

A roughly 2.5-hour weather delay gave Indy plenty of time to build a bus PLUS a bunker and Indy parked that bus IN the bunker in the early stages of the game. Indy had both Stanley and Neidlinger on each side of the center backs, giving Indy a 5-4-1 look in their own half as the conceded possession, trying to keep SKC in front of them. All conceded possession led to a shot off the crossbar in the 11th minute, a goal in the 14th minute from Russell, a shot of the woodwork from a free kick in the 29th minute, and a second goal in the 35th minute. The bunker may have seemed necessary, but Sulte had to feel like he was on the wrong side of a firing squad.

As much success as Indy found in previous Open Cup games, they looked completely overmatched tonight in the first half. An 81% to 19% halftime possession advantage for SKC seems like the people keeping the stats felt sorry for Indy and gave them more possession than they actually had. That's how one-sided the first half was in this game. Whenever Indy did manage to make any brief forays into the SKC defensive half of the game, they were met with missed shots or offside calls, and not nearly enough support for Williams to do much with the chances. The bunker just didn't allow Indy to do much with the ball when they had opportunities. Combine that with Indy's lack of pressure on the ball giving SKC plenty of time to make whatever decision they wanted with the ball at their feet, and it was a long, late night for Indy and their fans.

Indy hasn't been immune to the Cupset over the years, losing on the road in back-to-back seasons to lower division amateur teams, but SKC clearly did not take Indy lightly the way that Indy has periodically done over the years. They came into this game looking to prove that even if their league season isn't going as desired, they were going to hang their hat on a run to the US Open Cup Final as a way to salvage the year and took Indy behind the woodshed for a beating in the first half. Sporting Kansas City came into the game struggling below the Western Conference playoff line with a 7W-6D-14L record, but with a 5W-4D-5L record at home (2-2-9 on the road). The way the first half played out, I don't think it would have mattered where this game was held. 

SKC was just better.

Oh, Indy made a better show of it in the second half, but SKC looked like they took their foot off the gas a little to help that surge in Indy's effort. Plus, and this can't be overlooked, Indy dug themselves a massive hole in the first half and really had nothing at risk by throwing guys forward in the second half. A 2-nil loss or a 3-nil loss still spells an exit from the Cup. I don't know what was said in the halftime locker, but I can imagine some "we're better than this," "I'm not going out like this," and "we have to hold them to a scoreless second half and see if we can pull one back." Had Indy scored a goal with some of their chances, in either half, the end of the game would have been intense. As it was, a stoppage time Sulte penalty kick save kept the loss differential at 2, and the team can look at the performance in the second half as things they can use as motivation for the remainder of the league season. 

Indy can be proud of the Cup run, but there's a reason why only four lower division teams have ever made it to the Final in the MLS era. It takes the right players, the right matchup, and probably some good old fashioned luck to overcome a higher consistent level of talent across the teams. 

Indy head home to league action again when they face the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Saturday at The Mike. Indy need to take the positives of the second half tonight and funnel that towards keeping a team below them in the Easter Conference table behind them. Indy's recent run of league form has been a mix bag that has included very few wins, but the team needs a win badly after the first two games in this 3-game week. The game on Saturday has the feel of the proverbial "6-point game."

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Blake by a wide margin gets tonight's GBGB. Indy had 10 shots with 5 shots on target. Blake had 6 of the shots and 4 of them were on target. His shots forced Melia into difficult saves. Blake looked, at times, like he knew that somebody was going to need to test SKC from long-range and he was unafraid to be that person. With the recent struggles from the Williams duo of hitting the goal from within the box (or within the 6-yard box in the case of Romario), goals are seemingly going to need to come from somewhere else. It looked like it was going to be Blake that provided that tonight, but he just couldn't find a way around Melia. 

Another honorable mention for Neidlinger. Let me remind you that he is AN. ACADEMY. PLAYER. starting in an Open Cup semifinal game. There were some moments where he looked overmatched by his MLS opponents, but he also didn't get completely run off the field. If we're looking for moral victories in this loss, one of them is that this kid is proving McAuley's faith in him is warranted.