Indy Eleven vs Tampa Bay Rowdies - 12.13

Summary

- Opponent: Tampa Bay Rowdies
- Location: Al Lang Stadium
- Attendance: 3,692
- Final Score: 3-1 L

- Starting XI: Sulte, Bryneus, McRobb, Ofeimu, O'Brien, J., Rendon, Quinn (C), Blake, Soumaoro, Kizza, Foster

- Substitution: Murphy 29' (Soumaoro - injury); Hogan 32' (Ofeimu - injury); White 70' (Rendon); Amoh 70' (Kizza); Lindley 70' (Bryneus)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Collier

Scoring Summary:
IND - Foster 45'+1' (assist Blake)
TBR - Bodily 60' (unassisted)
TBR - Moon 69' (assist Alvarez)
TBR - Wyke 90'+3' (assist Bassett)

- Bookings:

IND - Kizza 43' (Yellow)
IND - Rendon 45'+4' (Yellow)
TBR - Guillen 55' (Yellow)
IND - Foster 66' (Yellow)
IND - Hogan 68' (Yellow)
TBR - Arteaga 73' (Yellow)
IND - Lindley 82' (Yellow)
TBR - Pacius 90'+5' (Yellow)

- Referee: Jeremy Scheer

- Adage goals: One.

Thoughts and Opinions

Nothing like weather delay to force me to watch part of a Loudoun/Louisville game while I wait out the delay. Loudoun had a player get a red card in the 45'+1' and then their coach was shown an early exit in the 58th minute. Want to guess how that one finished? I think this was the 14th time these two teams played each other this year (technically just the 4th... 2 league games +1 Jagermeister game + 1 USOC game), so at least they tried to keep it interesting with all the ejections and all the goals Louisville scored being up a player.

One hour and 54 minutes. That was the length of the weather delay. A delay that had the ESPN2 feed showing episodes of a documentary called Greenland ("A documentary series about the most unexpected and exotic soccer fields on the planet, impressive for their contrasts, but where playing soccer is not impossible."). The floating field in Thailand looked interesting...and sketchy. Then NFL Live. The other football. Solved a Rubik's Cube. Checked in on the World Series of Poker events. Checked on the Cubs score. I also managed to do a little website housekeeping... In a week where Indy Eleven (the club...men + women) have 6 games in 9 days, a 2-hour weather delay was not what I wanted to see tonight.  

Finally, Indy and Tampa Bay kicked off at 9:02 in the PM.

Indy's schedule of Las Vegas last Saturday night, Tampa Bay tonight, and at home against Birmingham in the Jagermeister Cup meant that Coach McAuley had some squad rotation tonight. The rotation might help the overall energy levels of the players (the weather delay is going to mess with that though), but there were some guys playing together at the start that haven't been playing together for such a long duration. As a result, Indy looked discombobulated early as they tried to get their legs under them and used to the way the soggy field was playing. Tampa Bay managed a couple of shots in those early minutes, including one off the woodwork, but Indy began to find some rhythm as the settled down. Then the injuries starting piling up with Coach McAuley having to burn two of his substitution windows within a 3-minute stretch as both Soumaoro and Ofeimu had to be replaced because of injuries. Whatever rotation McAuley planned, 30-minutes into the game, that plan was upended. 

Indy began to tilt the field in their favor as the half wore down until Foster received a ball 25-yards away from goal, took a touch to his left, and sent an absolute rocket into the upper 90 well out of reach of Bandre. A 1-nil lead on the road going into the locker room, having already burned two substitutes, history indicated that a McAuley bunker looked imminent once the teams returned to the field in the second half. A penalty kick awarded to Tampa Bay minutes into the half looked like the game was going to take yet another turn. It turned out to be a strange turn, when Artega stepped up to the ball and proceeded to blast the ball well over the crossbar into the humid St. Petersburg night allowing Indy to maintain their lead. 

Within 7 minutes of the miss, TBR countered through Bodily where he outran the entire Indy midfield. Much like the other night against Las Vegas, Bodily got the ball to Arteaga and when the ball was deflected off of Arteaga, back to Bodily who had been left completely alone. One touch and his shot was passed back across the goal and tucked nicely inside the post. One goal became two when Indy's former player, Nick Moon, did what he saw him do here. He picked up the ball and attacked the Indy goal. When he found just enough of a window for a shot, he took it. The shot took a deflection on its way through towards goal and a flailing trailing leg from Sulte couldn't make contact with the ball and the Rowdies had clawed their way back for the lead. 

Indy immediately made a few substitutions for fresh legs, but it wasn't enough as Tampa Bay held onto the lead for the final 21'+6'. A soggy, weather delayed slugfest was solidified in nearly Las Vegas fashion on a counter when Indy didn't track all the attackers and an unmarked Wyke pushed the ball easily passed Sulte for the 3-1 win. 

Mike Watts commented that Indy fans will comment that the Eleven lost to the what was the last place team in the conference, but that "would be reductive." Maybe. Indy has scored the opening goal in 9 of their 13 league games. In those 9 games, Indy has 3 wins and 4 draws. So positive results in 7 of the 9. However, in 3 of those draws, Indy conceded in late or in stoppage time to lose 2 points per game. If Indy had those 6 extra points as wins instead of draws, Indy would be sitting at 20 points, tied for the 5th spot. If Indy wants to prove they belong up there, and I'm nearly reaching the point when I'm not sure they do, then they have to beat the teams that are struggling even more than they are, and that was a Tampa Bay team. Reductive or not, Indy should have been able to win this game. Much like the women last night, they didn't match the intensity of their opponent for the full ninety and the opposition had a better half than Indy's better half.

Indy return to The Mike on Saturday to face Birmingham as part of the Jagermeister Cup. A win likely clinches the group and puts Indy into the knockout round of the tournament. Indy already beat Birmingham once this season when Lindley scored a 4th minute goal and then basically bunkered for the next 86 minutes. McAuley values Cup competitions, but I'm losing faith in this group getting wins. Guess we'll find out on Saturday.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

This is my fourth game writeup since last Friday. In that time, I have watched and discussed four Indy Eleven club losses. The Women lost to Lexington 4-nil on Friday. The Men lost to Las Vegas 1-nil on Saturday. The Women lost to Louisville 2-1 yesterday. The Men lost to Tampa Bay 3-1 tonight. Let's go with I'm tired and I don't have it in me to really give this award. If pushed, I would give it to Foster purely for the likely Goal of the Week nominee for his 1st half stoppage time goal. Yeah, let's go with that.