Indy Eleven vs Tampa Bay Rowdies - 12.17

Summary

- Opponent: Tampa Bay Rowdies
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 9,107
- Final Score: 3-1 L

- Starting XI: Sulte, O'feimu, Musa, O'Brien, J., Rendon, Lindley, Murphy, Quinn (C), Blake, Williams, R., Foster

- Substitution: Hogan 45' (O'Brien, J.); Collier 60' (Blake); Bryneus 78' (Lindley); Kizza 78' (Musa)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Amoh, Soumaoro 

Scoring Summary:
TBR - Pacius 2' (assist Moon)
IND - Ofeimu 44' (assist Murphy)
TBR - Alvarez 57' (assist Pacius)

- Bookings:

TBR - Moon 38' (Yellow)
TBR - Pacius 73' (Yellow)
IND - Musa 75' (Yellow)
IND - Murphy 80' (Yellow)

- Referee: Abdou Ndiaye

- Adage goals: One.

Thoughts and Opinions

First things first. Congratulations to Cam Lindley for joining a very elite group of Indy Eleven players. Cam becomes just the 5th player in team history to reach 100 caps for the club, joining Ayoze, Ring, Quimette, and Smart. Cam's first game for Indy was a 2-1 win on July 18, 2020 against Sporting Kansas City II. Notable for that game was that Ouimette and Ayoze both played, and Nick Moon who now plays for tonight's opponent Tampa Bay, all played alongside Lindley that night in Lucas Oil Stadium.

Do you want the bad news? Indy and Tampa Bay have been playing each other since the NASL days and Indy has a 3W-7L-10D record against the team from Florida. Want more bad news? Indy hasn't beaten Tampa Bay in 9 games (5 losses, 4 draws), with the last Indy victory coming in 2018. Want even more bad news, Indy added to that list of poor results again tonight in a 3-1 lose to extend that streak to 10 games.

Tampa Bay went ahead in the12th minute as Moon and Pacius one-touched their way around the Indy defense. Quinn, in his new wing back role, was charged with marking Moon, who has more pace than Quinn. Quinn has a high soccer IQ, but Moon's pace put him behind Quinn, setting up the close quarters interplay between Moon and Pacius. While the goal was early, it had been coming due to Tampa Bay holding the possession and stifling all of Indy's attacks.

Just before the 30 minute mark, O'Brien had a rare foray into the Tampa Bay offensive third of the field and was bailed out by an TBR defender, setting up a free kick from around 30-yards away from the goal. The ensuing free kick from Quinn set off a string of attempts by the home squad, but nothing that made its way through the green jerseys to force a save from Bandre. The sustained effort from Indy didn't result in a save attempt or a goal, but the 5 bites of the apple were good to see out of the team. 

Photo: Don Thompson Photography

Indy found an equalizer from a corner kick just before halftime to go into the locker room with a better opinion of the half. What started as a short corner was given right back to Murphy and put in a cross to the 6-yard box from a better angle. Ofeimu rose above and headed the ball back the other direction away from Bandre who couldn't stop his momentum enough to get a hand on the ball. All the action after the corner kick started because Quinn received the ball in his half of the field. Something I've noticed he does frequently is to pop the ball up slightly with his back to the opponent's goal and then blasts the ball with his left foot up the line. Foster saw it coming and immediately started running up the line as well. By the time his defender realized where the ball was going, Foster was already chasing down the ball. The defender recovered enough to force the corner kick, but the direct play from Quinn and the anticipation from Foster set up the chance.

Indy's effort to get back into the game was upended through some more direct play through the center of the field by Tampa Bay and Alvarez found the left side of the goal as Sulte was sliding to his right. Earlier in the game, Romario Williams pushed his shot just barely wide of the same post and Alvarez bounced his shot off the post to push Tampa Bay back into the lead. With the lead, the game became a bit discombobulated as neither team could hold possession and Tampa Bay was in no hurry for restarts.

Down a goal and time running out, Coach McAuley signaled his intent to go for the equalizer as he subbed out Musa for Kizza. When that happened, Indy had Kizza, Foster, Collier, and Williams all on the field at the same time. That's a coach that was opening himself for Tampa Bay to find a third due to not having bodies in the back, but you can't fault him for the effort on attack. As the time ran out, Tampa Bay did exactly that, and found a third goal in the 90'+8' minute. The goal didn't do anything but change the goal differential and the Indy defense's frustration with conceding a third goal, but it once again showed that Coach McAuley is going to go for wins at home, even knowing that the third goal might happen. 

Indy might have deserved a bit more out of the game than a 3-1 loss, but the inconsistent, up-and-down season continues. The good news is that based on recent trends, Indy should win the next two games. Unfortunately, those next two games are on the road, which differs from much of their recent stretch of home games. 

The 2025 season has transitioned to the back half of the season, but it has no appearance of transitioning to a season where Indy isn't flirting with the playoff line. Indy's Summer of Soccer was filled with home games, but Indy's back half of the season is filled with away games, and games against the top of the Eastern Conference. Indy's path to a playoff game looks littered with more results like tonight's interspersed with enough wins to keep them in contention. Whether that will be enough as the season ends to actually be in the playoffs looks debatable at the moment, but I don't foresee any of these players nor Coach giving up until the season is over.

Indy head to Detroit next weekend.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Thinking about the game, it feels like one of those games where no single player stood out either offensively or defensively. There wasn't a player that took the game by the scruff of the neck and tried to carry the rest of the team over the line. As a result, it feels like, despite the team conceding 3 goals, a bit weird to give a defender the GBGB, but Ofeimu put himself in really good position to get the Indy goal and took. He said after the game that Murphy's deliver was so good that he didn't have to do much, but that's taking away from his own ability to beat his man to the ball. He might have just needed to get a head to it to redirect it, but he had to put himself in that position to do so. Ofeimu, as a defender getting a goal, gets tonight's edge for the GBGB.

Photos: Don Thompson Photography