Indy Eleven vs Dayton Dutch Lions - 04.02

Summary

- Opponent: Dayton Dutch Lions FC
- Location: DOC Stadium
- Attendance: -
- Final Score: 3-0 W

- Starting XI: Edwards, Adam, Bahr (C), Kruer, Satterfield, Yamazaki, Pinto, Smith, Sochacki, Komori, May

- Substitution: Jennings 62' (Sochacki); Touhey 62' (Smith); Guthrie 67' (May); White 77' (Kruer); Malin 77' (Adam); Albert 77' (Satterfield)

- Unused: Wyatt

Scoring Summary:
IND – Elise May 49' (unassisted)
IND – Mackenzie Kruer 57' (assist Sochacki)
IND – Lilly Touhey 90'+1' (assist Malin)

- Bookings:

DAY – Rylie McKinney 7' (Yellow)

IND – Olivia Smith 38' (Yellow)

- Referee: James Duling, Jack Haggard, Zachary Johnson, or Shawn Westerfield. I'm not sure how was the center ref, but those are the four listed on the Match Details, so one of them was likely the one with the whistle.

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

There are two consistent frustrations in recaps on this site.

1. I dislike watching soccer played on baseball fields. I would rather deal with football lines than watch the game on a compressed field where players have to deal with the ball transitioning from permanent grass to temporary grass. 
2. The "streaming" requirement in the USL W League covers the gamut. There's Indy's professional, multi-camera broadcast through Greg Rakestraw (and others) and the ISC Sports Network. Then there's what Dayton Dutch Lions passed off as a stream for last night's game, which amounted to somebody sitting in the press box of DOC Stadium with, I'm guessing, a tablet or phone through the press box glass. So in addition to the pixelated nature of the stream, the rainy weather conditions further reduced visibility of the stream to the point where it's clear they're just checking a box saying they had a stream. It was impossible to distinguish any players. The feed had a constant watermark from Singular.Live, which indicates on their home page to be "The New Standard for Live Graphics." Not sure they can be held accountable for the camera work, but based on this stream, that "new standard" was poor. At least there was commentary from Lucas Kleimeyer, who did a good job, otherwise it would have been a worthless watch. When credit it due, this is my opportunity to once again thank Indy Eleven for taking the stream requirement seriously and doing so at a professional level.

Now that all that is out of the way, there was a game that was played, whether I could see it well or not. The general gist was that Indy dominated this game and deserved, at a minimum, their 3-nil victory. With better field conditions, and maybe slightly better finishing around goal, you could see how Racing's 9-nil drubbing of Dayton a week earlier could have had a similar result for Indy. There was a lot of one-way traffic towards Morgan Shirley (in the 1st half) and Sally Patton (in the 2nd half) in Dayton's goal.

Indy will face Dayton twice more this season, giving Coach Kim and staff a couple more chances to make a few tactical tweaks, or just hope for better weather conditions (which they'll definitely get inside the Grand Park Event Center), to give Indy a couple more wins and more goals. 

The Girls in Blue head to Racing Louisville next Tuesday before coming back home on the 31st for their first game this season against Kings Hammer, completing their first round of games against the divisional teams. 

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Based entirely on the commentator's descriptions, since I couldn't tell player from player, he was effusive of Pinto's control of the game in the defensive midfield spot. I'm going to take his word on it and give the GBGB to Pinto.