Indy Eleven vs Colorado Springs Switchbacks - 12.03

Summary

- Opponent: Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 10,202
- Final Score: 2-3 L

- Starting XI: Sulte, Ofeimu, Hogan, Musa, Stanley, Murphy, Quinn (C), Bryneus, Blake, Foster, Kizza

- Substitution: Amoh 67' (Bryneus); Neidlinger 90'+1' (Foster)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Hunsucker, Lindley, McCoy, McRobb, O'Brien, J., Rendon

Scoring Summary:
IND - Foster 20' (unassisted)
COS - Micaletto 43' (assist Real)
COS - Micaletto 62' (assist Huerman)
COS - Dhillon 64' (unassisted)
IND - Quinn 90'+8' (unassisted)

- Bookings:

COS - Adams 7' (Yellow)
IND - Murphy 53' (Yellow)
COS - Ward 59' (Yellow)
COS - Romero 90'+5' (Yellow) - I don't think this was actually given to Romero, but rather Mahoney who was the one taking the goal kick and wasted time by moving the ball to the other side of the goal, but all the league data currently show it as having been given to Romero.

- Referee: Joshua Encarnacion

- Adage goals: Two

Thoughts and Opinions

The nature of the USL Championship is that players come and go frequently into and out of the league, but also, just as frequently, between teams. Tonight's game between Indy and Colorado Springs is no different. The Switchbacks have three players on their roster that have spent time in the Circle City, including Jonas Fjeldberg, last year's Championship Final MVP Juan Tejada, and the player that provided the assist to Eamon Zayed in the Miracle at the Mike in Duke Lacroix. Fjeldberg was the only one of the three who made the starting lineup, but all of the former Boys in Blue made the trip to their old stomping ground, and all three saw action. On the flipside, Indy have four players that have spent time in Colorado Springs; Amoh, Foster, Lindley, and Romario Williams. Amoh is the only player that was on the opposing team's roster last year so there's not a ton to be learned from each player's experiences with the other team, but it will definitely help for Fjeldberg and Tejada to have recently played on the Carroll turf. 

Based on my records, Indy Eleven doesn't come away with a victory very often in their home openers. With the exception of the 2019 and 2020 seasons under Coach Rennie where Indy pulled out clean sheet victories (1-0 against Hartford in 2019; 2-0 against Saint Louis FC in 2020), Indy has greeted their fans with a 2W-7D-2L record in their first game at the Mike/Lucas Oil Stadium. Since the two wins came in the Lucas Oil Stadium era, Indy have never recorded a victory in their home opener at Carroll Stadium. That trend continued tonight as the Colorado Springs Switchbacks scored three goals in about 20 minutes of game time, 2 of which came within 2 minutes of each other, to send the Indy fans home disappointed. Eleven Park continues to seemingly be in limbo, so there's always next year for Indy to get first home opener win in Carroll Stadium.

At some point, we're just going to accept that Coach McCauley's preseason statement of wanting the team to be "on the ball more" was just coach-speak to throw off the early season opposition. Indy has been absolutely dominated in the possession battle this year, but it hasn't been a major issue so far this season. In this game, Indy let the Switchbacks dictate the tempo early, with Indy providing timely counterattacks. When Indy did have some possession in the early stages, they managed to get free kicks and corner kicks for their efforts. Indy have scored 3 of the 4 goals coming into the game from set-pieces and Indy showed some different ideas with their corner kicks, playing short and then getting the ball up the sideline to Quinn to feed the ball into the box from a different angle. Indy ran the play in back-to-back corner kicks, so they clearly liked the result from the first attempt.

Photo: Don Thompson Photography

However, it was through the run of play that Indy put themselves ahead in the 19th minute. Stanley put a dangerous ball across the middle of the box that ran all the way through the box. Foster, on the opposite side of the field, slammed his left foot into the ball and put it between the post and Romero to give Indy the early lead. Seemingly somebody for Colorado Springs was deemed to have gotten enough of a touch on the ball that Stanley wasn't officially given credit for the assist, but his ball forced the Switchbacks to make a play, which they weren't able to do. 

Once Indy got on the board, Colorado Springs turned up the pressure even further and had several chances in the following moments. Indy weathered the storm and found some of their own opportunities, but it wasn't until the 43rd minute that the 1-nil lead was taken from Indy. Colorado Springs had to go to their bench early as Charlie Adams was unable to continue after picking up an injury. His substitute, Micaletto, blasted a shot that Sulte was only able to get a hand to, but the shot was too strong and the ball deflected off Sulte's wrist and into the goal for the equalizer. The Switchbacks nearly went into the locker room with a 2-1 lead, when a shot from Huerman in the 45'+6' hit the crossbar. Fjeldberg blasted the rebound back into the box, but it was blocked out for a throw-in. That would be the last of the play as referee Joshua Encarnacion sent the players to the locker room. 

Colorado First Half Heat Map

Indy finished the half with Colorado Springs have a 60/40 advantage in possession, but an even 2 to 2 on shots on target. Again, Indy being "more on the ball" is still not translating to actual possession, but Indy did limit the majority of the Switchback's possession to their own half and not in dangerous areas in front of Indy's own goal. When Colorado Springs did have good possession near Indy's goal, they did a lot with it.

Indy nearly put themselves back in the lead immediately after the halftime break with a lead pass from Bryneus that Kizza put off the post. The near-miss seemed to energize Indy as they spent the next few minutes entrenched in the Switchbacks' defensive third of the field. Indy had three corner kicks in rapid succession, all done as short corners like Indy had done in the first half. There must just be something that they feel they can do with a better angle, but Indy's corner kicks are requiring three players out by the corner, preventing two players from being near the box for recycling efforts. We'll see how the trend continues as the season progresses on whether Indy continues the short corners as teams start to defend against it.

Photo: Don Thompson Photography

In the 62nd minute, the Switchbacks used their own short corner that Micaletto shot/crossed into the box that nobody from Indy could touch and Sulte was leaning the wrong way expecting a touch. Despite his late reaction towards the direction the ball was actually going, the shot/cross turned into a shot/goal and the Switchbacks had finished the comeback. Immediately after the goal, Colorado Springs made a trio of subs, including Indy's former player Duke Lacroix. Known for his pace during his time in Indy, Lacroix's fresh legs attacked the Indy backline by quickly driving the ball at them. He then blasted a shot from distance that deflected off the first line of defenders, but bounced in a way that put Dhillon as the only player in a position to get to the rebounded ball. A cheeky chip over an on-rushing Sulte and Indy had gone from an opening day draw to a 3-1 deficit in the span of just 2 minutes. 

Shots - Final 24 Minutes

With a two-goal lead on the road, the Switchbacks were content to see out the game defensively. In the final 24 minutes of regulation and the subsequent 8 minutes of announced stoppage time, Colorado Springs didn't have a single shot towards the Indy goal, while Indy turned the game into one-way traffic towards the Switchbacks' goal. Indy finished the game with 17 shots, 11 of which came after the Switchbacks' third goal. It also meant that Indy finished with the possession advantage, but that's definitely skewed due to the bunker that Colorado Springs settled into at the end of the game.

Indy found a second goal in the dying minutes through a Quinn free-kick goal in the 90'+8', but it was a case of "too little, too late" and Indy's drizzle rain-soaked fans continue to hope for better out of the home openers. The goal does tie the record for the latest goal in team history, matching the late night, post-rainstorm 2015 goal by Kyle Hyland against Tampa Bay that salvaged a draw for the team, but couldn't salvage Coach Sommer's job. Coach McAuley's job isn't in as precarious of a position as Sommer's was that night in 2015, but the lose still stings given that the defeat ultimately hinged upon just a couple minutes of poor defending.

Post game, it's usually never good when the main talk is about the effort and fight of the team and not the positive result. Yet, as Quinn also pointed out after the game that fight and effort are things that are hard to teach. The things that went wrong defensively that led to the three Switchbacks' goals can be fixed. The fight to not give up can be more difficult to fix if the players in the squad aren't built that way. Quinn is definitely one of those players that's built that way, so if he thinks this squad is that type of squad, then this team is the kind that's going to keep fighting until the end. That's good news moving forward. 

However, what isn't good news, and is more concerning than an early season loss was that Indy made just two subs in the game. The first was Amoh coming in for Bryneus to give a more attacking threat after giving up the third goal, while the second substitution didn't occur until stoppage time when Neidlinger entered for Foster, who seemed like he had reached the end of his fitness for the night. When I asked about the lack of substitutes, Coach McCauley said the guys on the field weren't showing signs of exhaustion, that the team was on the ascendency, and that when he looked at the bench, it was really just one-for-one type subs and that he didn't think the subs would have changed the game, tactically. Indy's recent injury bug also forced his hand to go with the guys that started. The team lost "Rendon in the warmup. We lost Hayden White midweek. We lost Elliot Collier on Thursday. Romario's had his surgery on Tuesday, so we're a couple bodies short, but when get everybody back, I think we're okay." Not having Collier and Williams meant that there wasn't a change that could have provided "a different challenge for the opponent when two players come on that are different than what we got." Indy's depth is already being challenged early in the season. Hopefully it gets better and not worse. Williams had surgery so he's out for a couple of months based on reports, but hopefully the rest of the guys are shorter term injuries.

Indy came out on the wrong side in this one, but they'll get another chance next week against North Carolina, a team that Indy has historically had decent success against throughout the years.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Stanley Distribution

Foster scored his first goal of the season and Quinn scored a pretty good set piece goal (bringing Indy's total to 4 set piece goals out of 6 scored), so either of those two are worthy. I think, though, that I'm going to give tonight's GBGB to Aedan Stanley. He was constantly up and down the left side of the field, sending in 15 of Indy's 38 crosses and had an 85% passing accuracy in the Switchback's half of the field. Beyond that, it doesn't seem like he is going to get credited with an assist on Foster's goal, so he should get something, even if it's something as inconsequential as an award from this site.

Photos - Don Thompson Photography