Indy Eleven vs Detroit City - 12.06

Summary

- Opponent: Detroit City FC 
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 9,738
- Final Score: 2-2 D

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

- Substitution: Rendon 45' (Kizza); O'Brien, J. 66' (Foster), Collier 67' (Blake); Williams, R. 67' (Amoh); Hogan 80' (Stanley)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Lindley

Scoring Summary:
DET - Rutz 2' (assist Yamazaki)
DET - Smith 15' (assist Chapman)
IND - Amoh 27' (unassisted)
IND - Amoh 66' (assist Quinn)

- Bookings:

DET - Williams 4' (Yellow)
IND - White 32', 60' (Yellow, Yellow - RED)
IND - Musa 55' (Yellow)
DET - Yamazaki 58' (Yellow)
IND - Quinn 64' (Yellow)
DET - Chapman 65' (Yellow)
DET - Bryant 72' (Yellow)
DET - Amoo-Mensah 85' (Yellow)

- Referee: Elijio Arreguin

- Adage goals: One.

Thoughts and Opinions

Counting tonight's game, Indy and Detroit have played each other 5 times in the past two seasons when you also include the preseason game and the U.S. Open Cup matchup. In the USL Championship, players move around quite a bit with some rosters completely flipped from one season to next so it's not a given that two teams that faced each other 4 times last season can take much stock in thinking they know how a team is going to play this year based on how they played last year. That's not the case with these two teams who both returned a strong core from last year's rosters. Add the fact that Indy have two players from Detroit's last year roster (Amoh and Murphy), and Detroit has one player from Indy's last year roster (Guenzatti), and a good portion of the rosters remember last year's meetings. 

It didn't take long for Detroit City to put their stamp on this game. Indy's defenders lost sight of Yamazaki who had a ball sprayed out wide right to him with acres of space in front of him. Quinn made his best effort to catch Yamazaki, but the DCFC midfielder sent a ball between the lines to Rutz who had separated from Ofeimu on the left side of the box. A touch over an on-rushing Sulte and Detroit firmly placed themselves in the driver seat in just the 2nd minute of the game. A position Le Rouge wouldn't be able to hold onto with the game finishing in a 2-2 draw despite DCFC holding a man advantage for the final 30-minutes of the match.

After DCFC scored their second goal in the 15th minute, it looked like the game was done and dusted. Indy have now conceded multiple goals in all four of their home games. Indy is going to need to solidify their defense if there is ever going to be a chance of making The Mike any kind of fortress. In this league, it's important to get wins at home and at least a point on the road. At this point in the season, Carroll Stadium is looking more like a soggy pup-tent than anything resembling a fortress, despite the positive result tonight.

Thanks to some Quinn pressure on Williams in the 27th minute, the ball fell to Amoh's feet around the penalty spot with no other players but the goalkeeper anywhere in the vicinity, and the former DCFC player blasted a shot past his former teammates to pull one back. Indy's defensive pressure led to a goal to make themselves feel a little better about their early miscues. The goal re-energized the home squad and started tilting the bulk of the play towards the DCFC goal. The visitors still went into the halftime locker room with an advantage in nearly all the major statistics, including the one that matters the most, the score.

Coach McAuley made an immediate change coming out of the locker room by bringing in Rendon to Kizza indicating that McAuley wanted to provide more stability in the midfield. At the time, I might have made a different decision as I thought Foster's defensive effort in the first half was a liability. However, his pace and his increased effort (possibly as a result of a halftime motivational talk from McCauley) in the second half helped sway my opinion back to keeping him in the game. Moving him up top where he prefers to be probably helped his attitude and effort.

Down a goal and chasing the game, Indy exacerbated their struggles when White picked up his second yellow of the game in the 60th minute. It was described to McCauley as an "excessive challenge," but I think that many of the calls and cards in the second half were because referee Arreguin let a lot of physical play happen in the first half. When he decided to start calling the game tighter, White and players from both teams, had difficulty adapting to his new level of what constituted a foul. As a player, you want a consistent whistle, one way or the other; consistent between teams and consistent between halves. I don't think that was the case tonight, and the 7 cards in the second half reflected that change in how the game was refereed.

From Indy's perspective, the red card turned out to not hurt them. Amoh found his fifth goal in three games in the 66th minute to even the game at 2-2, despite the man disadvantage. Even after an abysmal start to the game and losing a player to a second yellow card, Indy found themselves back level with 20+ minutes to go. Detroit, realizing that they were in jeopardy of having lost a two-goal lead and went from walking away with the full points to just a point, and Indy, realizing that despite being down a man, had drawn the game level turned the game into a chess match of how much to press and when. Indy began to bunker a bit, making it difficult for Detroit to find any open lanes for their attack. Detroit still managed 5 shots, 2 on target, after the second Indy goal, but just couldn't crack the code of Indy's defense to duplicate the scoring effort that they were able to accomplish in the first half. 

Detroit would clearly like to have picked up the full three points given their early prowess and lead. However, once Indy took the early punch in the mouth, they settled into the game and had good chances of their own. Neither team will be happy with it, but a draw felt to me like it might be the right result based on the whole of the game. 

Both teams now turn their attention to their U.S. Open Cup games on Wednesday against Chicago Fire for Detroit and Philadelphia Union for Indy. Whatever squad rotation Coach McAuley had planned for the game knowing the teams travels to Sacramento next weekend, White's red card might change things slightly. If he wasn't going to play the full 90-minutes against the Union, he will now since he won't be able to make the trip out west. The Manager of Team Administration, Shelby Gilmore, conveyed to me that the team will travel to Philly and then will travel directly to Sacramento. So once the squad leaves Indy on Tuesday, they won't be back until Monday. 

The Boys in Blue won't be back in front of the home squad until May 28th unless they beat Philadelphia in the U.S. Open Cup and NYCFC beat Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Due to the draw, Indy would be the host team in that scenario. Assuming that doesn't happen, Indy fans can make the trip to Grand Park to support the Girls in Blue if they need their local soccer fix.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

If he keeps up this heater, I may have to rename this award from the Game Beckons Game Ball to the Elvis Amoh Game Ball. He was making an impact off the bench to the point where Coach McAuley felt Amoh deserved to be inserted into the starting lineup. Amoh proceeded to make an impact as a starter. Until this run-of-form slows down, the GBGB is his until somebody else absolutely takes it away from him.