Indy Eleven to League One?

A couple weeks ago, Athletic Club Boise was announced as making the jump from USL League One up to the Championship for the 2027 season. With the announcement, Kartik Krishnaiyer from Beyond the 90', asked a very simple question, with a less than simple answer. "Why is a team paying an expansion fee to jump divisions when an open sporting ladder is supposedly right around the corner?"

Looking around the world, at teams that hover in the middle of their division for extended periods, I have to wonder if that plays into their thinking and Kartik's article suggests as much. Going down divisions can be simple. Getting back up can be much more of a challenge. By putting themselves into the Championship early, they get to see the level of competition before the promotion/relegation arrangement gets started. So when pro/rel makes its way to the USL pyramid, they're ready to compete, at a minimum, at the Championship level and not have to work their way up from League One. It does have other ramifications which Kartik discusses in detail, but where you start in the pyramid can go a long way to where you stay in the pyramid depending on how you spend.

Which gets me to the actual point of this article, which you've likely already guessed was going to be more Indy Eleven-centric based on the title. 

Indy Eleven have been a USL Championship team since 2018. For nine seasons, the Indy Eleven have been considered by many to be one of the premier organizations in the league, despite its less than consistent results and playoff appearances. Of the eight previous seasons in the league, Indy has made the playoffs half of the time, but have been bounced from the playoffs in the first round in three of the four seasons (2018 - Louisville 4-1; 2023 - Charleston 5-0; 2024 - Rhode Island 2-3), with the lone exception being the 2019 season where the team made the Eastern Conference Final. Indy's ability to make this year's playoffs could push them just above or just below .500 in their ability to play games beyond the league season.

And yet, this year's team feels like it's not fully prepared to be in the USL-C, despite its tenure and its current spot in the table. They currently sit in 7th place in the Eastern Conference, but with a roster and some results that give off League One vibes. In fact, this season, thanks to the U.S. Open Cup and the Prinx Tires USL Cup, Indy have played a League One team four times this year; Union Omaha twice, Fort Wayne, and Forward Madison. In those games, Indy lost to Union Omaha twice, drew Fort Wayne after conceding in 2nd half stoppage time, and beat Forward Madison for a 1W-1D-2L record. All three teams are currently in a playoff position, so maybe Indy is a fringe USL-C playoff team, but a solid League One playoff team? Indy's struggles this past weekend with Miami as some key components of the "first team" level players have continued to be beaten by the injury bug highlighted Indy's lack of elite depth at all positions.

As I've stated a few times this year, I've been told that Indy has the lowest salary in the league. "Per club policy, terms of the deal will not be disclosed" is Indy's standard language when it comes to player contracts, but the rumor is that Indy's total team salary is $1.2M (whereas I've heard that Loudoun is at $1.8M and Tampa is at $2.2M). There are a couple of things that interest me about that value:

1. I have to assume that the midfield veteran triumvirate of Blake, Lindley, and Quinn, and Dick might all be making at least $100k each based on their league value (transfermarkt has them all higher than that number). Which means that the rest of the team is working at the league minimum. Rendon's transfermarkt value is also high, so I'm not sure how that's possible without the entirety of the rest of the team working second jobs (or housing benefits on top of the salary?), so the vets might be making less than my assumption.
2. That value rings a bell for me, because Peter Wilt conveyed to me that Indy's inaugural season in 2014 was (drumroll...) $1.2M. I'm positive that the amount has increased in the 13 seasons, but if the rumors are correct, the number has again dropped back down to inaugural season levels. Based only on inflation numbers, Indy's $1.2M salary in 2014 would need to be at $1.8M today to get the same spending value. Yet we all know that USL-C now is a much better, and more expensive, league than NASL then, so Indy's current 7th place in the table is really kind of impressive. Currently punching above their weight based on salary, but Indy should probably be spending closer to $2M to have an overall roster that can legitimately compete with the top teams in the League. Easy to say when it's not my money. 

So the question that comes to my mind is "why"? Why is Indy spending so much less now than they were likely spending just a few seasons ago? Why hasn't there been any kind of stadium update from the team in over two years? Why did Indy lose very good parts of their front office staff last year en masse? 

Why does it feel like Indy is operating at a League One level?

It doesn't seem like Ersal's personality to willingly drop down a level to League One, but he's also not seemingly making many outward steps to stay within USL-C or prepare for a potential step up to the future USL Premier, which will require Division 1 standards. Detroit and Pittsburgh have plans in place to get their stadiums to Premier level, Louisville City's stadium already meets the capacity requirement, and North Carolina is on hiatus this year to prep for Premier. So teams are already preparing for the Premier league launch two years from now in 2028. However, Indy's Eleven Park seems fitting that it was intended to be located on a former cemetery because all outward indications are that the project is dead, with no announced plans in two years. After the groundbreaking in 2023, the demolition of the Diamond Chain buildings took place, but everything ground to a halt in 2024. Carroll Stadium, as currently arranged, can seat 10,000 to 12,000 depending on the utilization of the grandstands and the layout of "temporary" stands. Carroll could probably be further expanded with temporary stands to get to 15,000 (the Division 1 requirement), but that would continue to feel like lipstick on a pig. 

So if Ersal and Indy Eleven seemingly aren't preparing for USL Premier, and have continued to decrease salaries within USL-C to the point where Coach McAuley and the current roster are overachieving based on their respective league-wide salary, is Ersal planning to be in League One without making the mirror action of Boise? The team hasn't actively announced a plan to go to League One, but is that the plan? Obviously, nobody in the club has said anything even close to this to me. This is just a "what if?" exercise for me. An exercise that I can't immediately decide isn't a possibility.

The recent round of MLS to Indy discussion actually helps Ersal in this regard. It gives him an excuse if/when the club drops levels or, potentially, fails altogether and shutters. Ersal can claim (maybe rightfully) that Mayor Hogsett's 2024 actions made it difficult to attract the highest level players and, just as importantly, significant level sponsors when nobody knows if the team will be around. While some cities can support multiple professional soccer teams, it's doubtful that Indianapolis is one of them. So Ersal has an "out" when he decides to stop losing money on this venture and closes shop. "The Mayor began the downward spiral" might not be 100% accurate, but there is a definite point in the history of Indy Eleven, from April 2024 when the mayor announced his plans to pull the funding of Eleven Park from Ersal and work towards an MLS team, that things haven't seemed "right" with the club. 

"Conflict arises when expectations exceed reality." When I wrote that last August, my closing statement of the article was:

The expectation is that Indy will be competing for Championships in a world class facility. The reality is that Indy has been a club with middling results and above average announced attendance, but is struggling to come to grips with the fact that all outward signs point to Indy playing forever in Carroll Stadium or failing and ceasing to be.

In the subsequent 13 months, I have now began to wonder if there isn't another caveat on the table, which is a drop in leagues to League One. This would allow Ersal to continue to have a professional soccer team on his resume, but at a much lower financial burden. A financial burden he's probably closer to spending anyway based on this year's salary. Every so often though, the team could overperform and get promoted back up to the Championship, but in either case, Carroll Stadium is still an "acceptable" stadium. 

Unless, of course, my other idea for financial stability that includes moving the team to Grand Park comes to fruition. Though, actually both ideas could come into play since the Grand Park Master Plan includes a 10,000 seat stadium, which would work for either a Championship or League One level team.

I know many fans hated my idea of a Grand Park-based Indy Eleven, but what would be your thoughts of a League One-based Indy? Are the remaining fans really "XI 'til I die" no matter the league or level, or would that be the final straw? Would an Indy Eleven team that bounced between the Championship and League One because that's the salary level that Ersal was willing to spend be acceptable?

My guess is that Ersal has always had First Division aspirations, but at some point, time and money and a rug-pulling mayor may have become too much for him to handle. Time may tell us whether a League One Indy Eleven is the goal or just the result.

Indy Eleven vs Miami FC - 13.25

Summary

- Opponent: Miami FC
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 7,878
- Final Score: 2-0 L

- Starting XI: Dick, Mitrano, Craig, Kibunguchy, Hafferty, Mesanvi, O'Brien, J., Quinn (C), Blake, Henry-Scott, Sing

- Substitution: Rasheed 45' (Sing); Barry 63' (Craig); Kizza 75' (O'Brien)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Rendon (scratched during warmups), Sharp (scratched during warmups)

- Scoring Summary:
MIA - da Costa17' (free kick)
MIA - Tunbridge 44' (unassisted)

- Bookings:

MIA - Milesi 10' (Yellow)
IND - Quinn 16' (Yellow)
MIA - Ndiaye 20' (Yellow)
MIA - Knutson 55' (Yellow)
MIA - Milanes 61' (Yellow)
IND - Hafferty 90'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: Carlos Rodriguez

- Adage goals: One
- Points Lost from Winning Position (Year To Date): 10

Thoughts and Opinions

With just a handful of games remaining in the 2016 season, it has reached a point where it looks like the final playoff spots will come down to Louisville, Indy, Rhode Island, and Miami. While not mathematically eliminated yet, Birmingham, Loudoun, and Brooklyn have a steep hill to climb to claw their way into contention. As if the USL Championship schedulers knew what they were doing, Indy play the other three teams in the next couple of weeks, tonight against Miami and Wednesday in Rhode Island. What happens in the next two weeks will determine who, and at what position, the four teams find themselves when the final ball is kicked in the regular season. Indy, with their loss tonight, find themselves absolutely needing to get a result against Rhode Island and Loudoun. With mounting late season injuries, Indy's grasp of a playoff spot took a hard hit tonight in a proverbial 6-point game with Miami in a 2-nil loss.

Photo: Don Thompson Photography

Indy came into the game without Omar who is out on international duty. Cam Lindley looks to be out for at least a couple of weeks as a result of his leg injury on Sunday against Oakland and didn't train all week. Herbert was also out with an on-going leg injury that doesn't have him at full strength. Craig has been nursing an injury. Josh O'Brien has also been nursing an injury. Coach McAuley didn't even have 18 players available on the game day roster with just 17 guys suiting, and then during warmups, Rendon AND Sharp were late scratches, forcing the gaffer to bring out the baling wire and duct tape to pull together a starting lineup minutes before gametime. With the importance of the next two games, rotation likely wasn't going to come into play, but the "next man up" and "play who you got" mentality had to come through tonight. The good news if you're grasping for something is that the temperature of tonight's game was 20 to 30-degrees cooler than it has been the past week so at least the guys weren't also dealing with that external factor too. I was asked if I had ever seen something like this happen with Indy. Not only have I never seen it with Indy, I don't know that I've ever been part of a game with two players for the same time getting injuries during warmups. 

To start the game, the backline looked relatively consistent, give or take, but Lindley's injury pushed O'Brien into the holding mid position with Quinn. Mesanvi, normally up top, played on the right side of the midfield. He's never struck me as having great defensive chops, but limitations lead to creativity. Indy's player limitations led to McAuley having to get creative with his use of the players. Sing and Henry-Scott were in their normal positions, but with what looked like significantly more minutes than they've seen all season. Henry-Scott finished the game, Sing did not.

The first twenty minutes had moments for Indy, but possession was so drastically skewed (80 to 20%) that I know that even with McAuley and Indy's style of play this season, that's not sustainable. A series of passes through the center of the field found Quinn chasing the play and ending up fouling and getting carded in the process. The ensuing free kick from outside the 18-yard box was placed perfectly over the wall and into the upper 90 by da Costa to get the visitors on the board early.

As an Indy fan, given the circumstances, you can't argue with the fight the team showed in the first half, but they couldn't find an equalizer and the teams went into the locker room with a 2-nil lead for the visitors thanks to a late goal as Tunbridge absolutely destroyed the Indy defense. Tunbridge took the ball from half field and nobody stopped him. When he took his shot, uncontested, from inside the box, there wasn't much that Dick could do to stop it. With their game plan thrown out of the window in the pregame, and with players that haven't played a lot of minutes together, Indy looked like they were grasping for anything to give them a spark, but they looked like a different team tonight than in the past. It's amazing, and was made evident, just how much Rendon and Lindley affect the game, and their absence forced everybody to play differently.

After the half, McAuley made an immediate change to get Mesanvi out of the midfield, which meant that Sing's evening went from late starter to first substitute after just 45-minutes of action. Up two goals against a team that has to be expeditious in their attacks because they don't have the players available to make many substitutions, Miami looked like world beaters. The visitors held the ball in locations where Indy couldn't be dangerous, and continued to make Indy chase the ball. 

As the game wound down, that began to change as Miami took a deeper, prevent role with Indy throwing everything forward that they could. The final stats make the game look better than it was, but for anybody that has watched Indy this season, this was a different team and a different performance. The only thing that was consistent was the fight and grit from the players. As a fan, if I see my team doing that, I appreciate it even if the result isn't there. 

Given the injury bug and the circumstances of having to adjust minutes before the start of the game, it's not surprising that Indy wasn't able to overcome the obstacles and lost. It does make the game on Wednesday much more important. Without knowing the extent of Rendon's and Sharp's injuries, it's difficult to say what the team will look like in Rhode Island, but a positive result, win or draw, is absolutely necessary. Indy lost the tiebreaker with Miami with tonight's loss, but can still get the tiebreaker with Rhode Island if they can find a way to get points from the game. It might be a deciding factor in who gets a playoff game and who finishes their season without a postseason game. 

 

Game Beckons Game Ball

It's not easy to find a player that deserves to get the GBGB in a loss like this. I kept trying to think of a rationale for any specific player and I could make an argument for Blake but only because of his effort. I could argue O'Brien because of his ability to play a different spot than he's played all season. It's just not enough. I wanted to reward somebody, but I just don't think anybody did enough in a losing result.

Don Thompson Photography

 

Indy Eleven vs Oakland Roots - 13.24

Summary

- Opponent: Oakland Roots
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 7,331
- Final Score: 1-0 L

- Starting XI: Dick, Mitrano, Kibunguchy, Herbert, Hafferty, Quinn (C), Lindley, Blake, O'Brien, J., Kizza, Rendon

- Substitution: Omar 54' (Lindley); Mesanvi 55' (Kizza); Henry-Scott 62' (O'Brien, J.); Sing 62' (Quinn); Rasheed 84' (Mitrano)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Craig

- Scoring Summary:
OAK - Wilson 59' (assist Prentice)

- Bookings:

OAK - Garcia 42' (Yellow)
IND - Kibunguchy 67' (Yellow)
OAK - McIntosh 90' (Yellow)

- Referee: Rodrigo Albuquerque

- Adage goals: None
- Points Lost from Winning Position (Year To Date): 10

Thoughts and Opinions

Happy (early) Birthday to Neveal Hackshaw who turns 31 tomorrow (Monday). Fortunately for the former Indy Eleven player, his old team gave him and early birthday present as his new team came away with a 1-nil victory as the Indy Eleven couldn't find their own goal after conceding in the 59th minute.  

Indy came into the game with a terrible record against the Roots, having played them twice and losing twice by a combined 5-1 score. Indy's previous home game against Oakland took place in 2023 and resulted in a 3-nil loss, while 2024's contest was Coach McAuley's debut game with the club was a 2-1 loss. Not the largest sample size, but Indy (the club) wanted to get a game against the Western Conference opponent that was positive, while Indy (the current roster) wanted to maintain their good run of form the last month and a half, and particularly at home. Neither the club nor the current roster went away happy as the Roots continue their dominant results against Indy.

Let me know if you've heard this before. In the stages of the game up to the first half hydration break, Oakland held the slight possession advantage, but Indy and Oakland were even in shots. Indy knows their strengths (Rendon's speed, Kizza's holdup play, and a stacked midfield) and plays in a way that maximizes those strengths. To nobody's surprise, Indy was playing a lot of long passes and solid defense. Know who you are and play that way. 

As one-sided as the first half of the game was on Tuesday against Brooklyn, tonight's first half was a much more even affair. Possession was much closer to even, leaning slightly in Oakland's favor, but the attacking goals were still very close, with Indy having a slight edge in shots (8 to 5). However, Indy was doing a much better job of putting their shots on target (4 to 0). A nil-nil halftime score seemed mostly indicative of the way the half was played. 

The two teams came out of the halftime locker room with different intensities. Oakland found the second half to be tilted much more in their favor than it had been in the first half. Lindley was forced to leave in the 54th minute with an injury that McAuley would indicate post-game they were afraid is a calf tear potentially taking him out for the rest of the season. In my brief discussion with Lindley, he felt more confident than his coach that the injury wasn't that bad. The injury forced an unexpected substitution and an adjustment in how the team lined up. Minutes later, the ball bounced around from player to player with nobody really able to get the ball settled. Eventually, the ball found its way to Prentiss deep in Indy's half. Prentiss put the ball between the Indy defenders to Wilson, who one-touched the ball out of the reach of Dick to get the scoring started. 

Shots - Post Goal

Indy's multiple games in a short period in hot conditions finally caught up to them with Lindley's injury, but the other "regular minutes" guys also started come off the field around the same time. Kizza came out at the same time as Lindley and Quinn and O'Brien were substituted shortly after Lindley's departure. The substitutes came in and tried to find an equalizer with mostly one-way traffic the final 30 minutes, but they couldn't find the goal despite 9 minutes of stoppage time being announced due to the injuries and the hydration break. 

This game was a lesson in contrasting styles and how there isn't a single way to win a soccer game. Oakland came into the game with the second-most passes in the league, while Indy came into the game in absolute last place. With Oakland's tenuous place below the Western Conference playoff line, they needed to come to Indy and convert those passes into goals. Amazingly, Indy finished the game with a higher pass total than Oakland, but the visitors went home with the points. For a team that came into the game with so many passes, Oakland had a nearly identical percentage as Indy for pass that were considered "long." The two teams looked very similar at times during this game with periodic spells of possession, but also just as likely to send the ball long.

Both teams desperately needed the points to try and secure a playoff position with the season rapidly drawing to an end. Oakland found themselves 9 points behind the playoff line coming into the game, and the 3 points the picked up tonight makes their uphill climb a little better. Indy, on the flip side, are sitting above the Eastern Conference playoff line, and the lack of points tonight doesn't move them up or down the table, but the defeat adds even more importance to the results of the next three games, particularly if Lindley is unable to go and McAuley has to tweak the starting lineup. It's absolutely vital that Indy get as many points as possible against Miami, Rhode Island, and Loudoun (all teams behind them) if they want to have any chance of making the playoffs. Indy's final three games (home to Tampa, away to Louisville and Charleston) are games that will be difficult to get points so Indy needs to put themselves solidly in a position to be playoff eligible before those games. So other results will be helpful in that regard, but Indy need to put as much of their destiny in their own hands as possible. Tonight would have gone a long way for that, but given the loss, Indy need to finish this season strong and that will start with Miami next weekend.

Game Beckons Game Ball

Hafferty has been an important part of the end of the year roster as he's given McAuley options with players. I think there were a couple of guys who were deserving of the GBGB with good games, despite the result, but Hafferty's defense and his ability to get forward at times has proven to be important. Tonight was no different, so I'll give the edge to Joe tonight.

Don Thompson Photography

 

Indy Eleven vs Brooklyn FC - 13.23

Summary

- Opponent: Brooklyn FC
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 8,234
- Final Score: 4-0 W

- Starting XI: Dick, Mitrano, Kibunguchy, Herbert, Hafferty, Quinn (C), Lindley, Blake, O'Brien, J., Kizza, Rendon

- Substitution: Henry-Scott 60' (Kizza); Sharp 60' (Rendon); Rasheed 67' (Hafferty); Omar 74' (Quinn); Mesanvi 74' (Blake)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Craig

- Scoring Summary:
IND - Blake 17' (assist Rendon)
IND - Rendon 33' (assist O'Brien, J.)
IND - Blake 40' (assist Rendon)
IND - Kizza 48' (assist Blake)

- Bookings:

BKN - Stojanovic 23' (Yellow)
IND - Sharp (RED)

- Referee: Edson Carvajal

- Adage goals: None
- Points Lost from Winning Position (Year To Date): 10

Thoughts and Opinions

During my discussion of the game Friday night against New Mexico, I asked into the void Coach McAuley's logic of changing the starting lineup, including going with Charles-Cook over Dick in goal, which hadn't happened all season in league play. The next day, Rakestraw asked Coach that very question on Soccer Saturday. McAuley's response, and I'm paraphrasing, was that if they got points out of New Mexico then great, but he also needed to prepare the team and roster for tonight's game against Brooklyn because points against teams in the Eastern Conference, and specifically teams below Indy in the table, were vital due to the tiebreakers. With Indy having previously laid an egg against Brooklyn in the opening game of the season, it was vital that Indy not do the same thing against the visitors tonight at Carroll Stadium. Indy came away with points in New Mexico, despite their slow start in that game, and with the win tonight against Brooklyn, Coach McAuley seems like he knows what he's doing with the team this week.

The opening minutes of the game were extremely even. Not surprisingly, Brooklyn held the possession advantage by percentage, but not necessarily in dangerous locations. Indy and Brooklyn both showed signs of getting on the scoreboard early, but it was Indy that found the opening goal in the 18th minute. The ball went outside to the right side to Rendon, who picked up his head to look to the middle of the box before sending in a cross that an on-rushing Blake one-timed to the left side of the goal as Burns was leaning to his right. In this current version of McAuley's 4-4-2, Blake did exactly what he likes and needs to do, which is find the pockets in the defense and put shots on target. He did that for his fifth league goal on the season, and his second in two games. 

Indy's counterattack can be a thing of beauty and their second goal was the epitome of an efficient and effective counterattack. What started deep in Indy's end on a corner kick moved the length of the field in a just a handful of passes that culminated in a cross from O'Brien to Rendon, who, like Blake on his goal, one-touched the ball to the opposite side of the goal out of the reach of Burns. 

Indy matched that counterattack beauty in the 40th minute when Lindley cleared a ball from his own 18-yard box to Rendon who caught up to the ball around midfield. The team's leading goal scorer continued to put his foot on the gas and absolutely sprinted passed his defenders (plural) with the ball until he got to Brooklyn's box. At that point, he took a quick look to his right and laid off a ball to the center of the box to...nobody. At least it looked that way initially. However, Blake was trailing the play as fast as he could. He caught up to the ball, took a controlling touch, and then put another ball to the left side of the goal as Burns attempted to make his way across the goal. Rendon admitted to me after the game that he wasn't completely sure that Blake was actually there, but he thought the Jack would be following, which he was. Guys playing together long enough to know who and where they should/could be at and playing that percentage even if the play didn't seem to make sense from a fan's perspective. 

With three of the best counterattacks you will ever see in this league, Indy found themselves ahead 3-nil going into the halftime locker room. About the only thing Indy didn't do right was stay on side, as the home side was called offsides 5 times in the half. 

Indy came out of the locker room and added a fourth goal by Kizza before Brooklyn's three halftime substitutes had even broken a sweat. The fourth goal, so quickly after LeBlanc tried to make halftime adjustments, was a backbreaker for the visitors. A fourth goal against a team in Brooklyn's position in the table is demoralizing and McAuley felt like that goal and when it happened was vital. It really took Brooklyn out of the rest of the game. 

Within minutes of the halftime break, Indy's game goals switched to keeping guys healthy and ready to play Sunday against Oakland and keeping a clean sheet. However, second half substitute Sharp was given Indy's first red card of the season when he lashed out at a defender after just 15 minutes of action. The red card forced Indy to defend a little more on tired legs than they would have liked, but if there was ever a time in a game to get a red card, a 4-goal cushion in the late stages of a game is the right now. For a 3 games in a week scenario though, Sharp's inability to be available for Sunday's game against Oakland definitely makes things a little tricker from a personnel perspective for Sunday's game. It's really the only thing that went poorly for Indy in this game. Again, other than maybe the 7 offside calls, but even some of those McAuley will likely live with when his guys are pushing the limits at attacking a demoralized defense, this was a clinical game for Indy, offensively and defensively.  

It can be argued that teams are supposed to beat the teams behind you on the table, but Indy dismantled Brooklyn from the early moments of the game. Beating a team is one thing. Doing nearly everything that you want to do offensively and defensively against an opponent, in this league, is nearly impossible, but that's what Indy did tonight. Indy has continued to show that they know who they are, how they want to play, and for one of the rare games this season, put everything together to make a team look like they didn't know what hit them. The win also means that (at least temporarily until the weekend games happen) that Indy's three points from this game bumps them up to 6th place ahead of Louisville City who are even on points but lose the tiebreaker to Indy. Indy also has a game-in-hand on the geographic rivals to the south. Let that sink in for a minute Indy fans. In mid-September, Indy is ahead of Louisville in the table. Yes, it's middle of the table and not the top, but it's a topsy-turvy world we're living in.

The midseason player deals with Lexington have this team looking different. Again, I don't like saying it because he's still young and improving, but it seems like Neidlinger's defensive liabilities were forcing other players to cover for him, putting them out of position. With Hafferty in the lineup, who is definitely NOT a defensive liability, the rest of the players can just do their jobs too. 

Indy has just one loss in their last 7 games after their rough patch in the middle of the season. Gaining momentum late in the year when playoff positions start to become within reach is a good time to find your form. Indy seems to be gaining confidence and are getting closer to riding that confidence into a playoff position. Tonight's three points also means that Sporting JAX can't catch them. It doesn't quite do that yet for Brooklyn, but that's getting closer too. 

Indy needs to continue to live the mantra. Beat the teams behind you, get good results against the teams above, and get a little help along the way with other teams' results. Oakland come to town on Sunday, and while not a team behind Indy, they are one that is below their own playoff cut line in the Western Conference so Indy needs to use their 10W-4D-3L home record (across all competitions) to get a couple more good results in the next two games to keep building on the momentum they've had in the past couple of weeks.

Indy scored 4 goals tonight, which has happened a bakers dozen number of times previously. They've only ever scored 5 goals in a game twice; once in 2014 in U.S. Open Cup action against the Dayton Dutch Lions...also Indy's first hat trick; and once in the magical 2016 season when the Jacksonville Armada came to town. As it looked like Indy might get a 5th goal tonight and tie the team single-game goal record, it's interesting to note that the coach for that Jacksonville team was former USMNT player Tony Meola. 

Separate from the game action, but related...

Former USMNT player Brian McBride was in the press box tonight. I decided it wouldn't seem "professional" of me to ask for a picture so I can't prove it, but I had a nice conversation with him. He was honest and more open with his information than I would have expected from a visiting front office (and high-ranking one in his case) member. Not sure I would have to officially call it an "off record" conversation, but I'm going to consider some of it that. Basically though, it just felt like a couple of guys talking football about their respective teams. In his case, he did say he likes to travel with the team when his schedule allows it because it allows him to see the way his guys are playing in a much better way than via video. So here he sat in an unusually crowded Carroll Stadium press box on a Tuesday night talking to me. As I left the press box, I managed to give him a gentle joking by telling him it was a rough day at the office for his side, but thanked him for coming to Indy. Midwestern hospitality. Sorry your time here didn't go like you had hoped, but we're glad you stopped by.

I've said it over the years, but this grassroots media path that I've taken continues to give me way more than I ever gave football. Tonight's conversation with a former National Team member is just the latest example.

I love this game. 

Game Beckons Game Ball

Nope. I'm not going to give it to one person. How could I? In this kind of game, nearly every player has had to have a good game. You don't have a 4-nil performance, being down a man at the end, and have many guys on the roster have an off night. Everybody performed well. So how do you narrow it down? So I'm not going to. 

Blake and Rendon share the GBGB honors tonight. One had 2 goals and 1 assist, while the other had 1 goal and 2 assists on 4 combined shots. That's some ruthless efficiency.

Don Thompson Photography