Indy Eleven at Louisville City FC - 12.27

Summary

- Opponent: Louisville City FC
- Location: Lynn Family Stadium
- Attendance: 9,785
- Final Score: 2-0 L

- Starting XI: Pruter, Zalinsky, Ofeimu, Schaefer, Musa, Murphy, Lindley, Blake, Quinn (C), Rendon, Williams, R.

- Substitution: White 63' (Zalinsky); Amoh 63' (Murphy); Bryneus 78' (Ofeimu); Soumaoro 78' (Rendon)

- Unused: Sulte, Kizza, O'Brien, J.

- Scoring Summary:
LOU - Dia 36' (assist Lambert)
LOU - Davila 58' (unassisted)

- Bookings:

LOU - Perez 63' (Yellow)
LOU - Las 72' (RED)

- Referee: Servando Berna Rico

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

If Indy Eleven fans are honest with themselves, this was the result that most people expected from this game. Indy's win against the top team in the Western Conference last week against FC Tulsa might have given some people hope that Indy could duplicate that result against Louisville this week. I was not one of them. Louisville has been on a different level than everybody this year and even more so when at Lynn Family Stadium. Louisville came into the game with only one loss in league play, and hadn't lost a home match in league play in 22 games, dating back to June of 2024. Indy's victory over Tulsa last week also meant that Louisville wasn't going to overlook Indy. Indy has shown that they can, periodically, compete against the best teams (beating Tulsa twice as an example), and with the Players' Shield in the Louisville players' sights, they were going to make sure that they weren't overlooking Indy. 

Indy did manage to give Louisville a better game than many might have expected, despite the 2-nil score line. The final stats are likely skewed a bit thanks to the straight red card on Louisville's goalkeeper Las in the 72nd minute when he took out Williams preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity, giving Indy a man-advantage for the final 20-ish minutes. Las took out Williams just outside the 18-yard box with no other Louisville player anywhere in the vicinity. It was one of those fouls where Indy would rather be awarded a goal rather than seeing the opposition get a red card. Since that can't happen and given the way Las took out Williams, a second game suspension beyond just the one-game suspension from the red card would be nice to see. 

Looking at the first half stats though, Indy was giving a good show of themselves against the soon to be official Players' Shield winners for the second year in a row. 

Unfortunately, we're at the point in the season were silver linings mean next to nothing. Indy needs positive results, preferably wins, while simultaneously seeing losses from the teams behind them in the table. To that point, if you thought you could hear a frustrated groan in the ether coming from Indy around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday evening, that was the Indy coaching staff and players when Noah Fuson of Rhode Island FC scored a 90th minute game-winning goal to allow them to once again jump over Indy for that 8th and final playoff spot. The rankings have been fairly consistent for much of the past few weeks, but Indy and Rhode Island have made the playoff line look your grandmother's embroidery cross stitch. Neither team has an easy game in the final three-game stretch, and Rhode Island has to play Tampa Bay, who are just two points behind Indy, meaning they're not out of the running either. All three teams need points from the final three games if they want to secure the final playoff spot. 

A part of me would rather see Indy not make the playoffs, because 1) do they really deserve to be there, and 2) squeaking into the playoffs in 8th place likely just means that Indy fans will have to watch Louisville beat Indy for a 3rd time this season. Not sure which is worse; not making the playoffs or making the playoffs and immediately losing to Louisville.

Indy return to action next week in Pittsburgh, and if Indy do want to make the playoffs, then they need a better result in Highmark Stadium than they had in Lynn Family Stadium.