Indy Eleven vs Pittsburgh Riverhounds - 12.28

Summary

- Opponent: Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
- Location: Highmark Stadium
- Attendance: 5,618
- Final Score: 2-1 L

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

- Substitution: Kizza 62' (Quinn); Bryneus 62' (Murphy); White 62' (Zalinsky); Amoh 77' (Williams, R.); O'Brien, J. 83' (Ofeimu)

- Unused: Pruter, Soumaoro

- Scoring Summary:
PIT - Griffin 38' (assist Williams)
PIT - Suber 76' (assist Sample)
IND - Musa 88' (unassisted)

- Bookings:

IND - Schaefer 18' (Yellow)
IND - Lindley 63' (Yellow)
PIT - Barnes 86' (Yellow)

- Referee: Muhammad Kaleia

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

Coming into the game, the playoff math was clear for one team; a Pittsburgh win and they would clinch their spot in the playoffs. The math for Indy Eleven is fuzzier, but gets simplified when they win games; a win tonight versus Pittsburgh and some help from Tampa Bay and Indy would once again leapfrog Rhode Island for the final playoff spot with two games to play. Pittsburgh took care of their business in a 2-1 win over Indy, and Rhode Island put a boot to the throat of Tampa Bay tonight in a 5-nil thrashing to do their own leapfrog, jumping over Detroit for the 7th spot.  

An obvious storyline to this game was that Pittsburgh's long-time coach, Bob Lilley, was placed Administrative Leave as of Friday evening. No additional comments were provided, but it doesn't take a long history of watching this league to raise some eyebrows at the announcement. Lilley's most frequent adjective, other than one of the winningest coaches in the history of soccer in the United States, is that he is "demanding." I've seen a losing Pittsburgh team be forced to stand on the Carroll Stadium turf and withstand a Lilley berating for 20 minutes post-game. It doesn't seem unreasonable that Lilley's demanding nature finally went too far. Obviously, I have no idea why he was placed on leave, but it wouldn't surprise me if Lilley's demanding personality was a factor.

Indy is a top 10 team in scoring this year. The issue has been that they have conceded the second highest amount in the league. Indy's highest negative goal differential has been -2 so it's not like they've been blown out of games to get dubious distinction. It's been mistakes or poor decisions or like tonight's first goal for Pittsburgh where Ofeimu and Schaefer didn't adequately talk to each other as the ball came into the Indy box and neither got a proper head to it. The ball made it beyond both where former Indy player Augi Williams put the ball back across the box where a scrambling Indy defense couldn't get to Griffin who simply had to redirect the ball into the goal.

The halftime stats showed Indy with a 62.5% aerial duels success, however, the issue was that the success was short lived as the header frequently found a Pittsburgh player. In more than a few occasions, it looked like the Pittsburgh players purposefully played the second ball instead of the first ball. Indy hasn't been a dominant aerial team this season, but it seemed to be something that Pittsburgh thought they saw on video that they thought they could exploit. 

Pittsburgh found a second goal in the 76th minute from a glancing header from Suber on a corner kick that, for all intent and purposes, solidified the result for the home squad. Indy did find a late goal to avoid the shutout and prevent Dick from getting his 10th clean sheet of the year, but that's about as much solace as Indy can take from their goal. Other than maybe showing their continued ability to fight to the end of a game. It's a results-orientated business, but it is good to see a team fight until the end. As I said last game, silver linings mean nothing at this point of the season, and as was stated in the telecast, moral victories don't matter much either. 

I stopped by Indy's training on Tuesday morning and what Coach McAuley said to me that morning he reiterated to Greg Rakestraw on Soccer Saturday. "One win might get us in, two wins probably gets us in, and three wins should get us in." Tonight's result doesn't put a final nail in Indy's playoff coffin, but it comes close. With Rhode Island's win over Tampa Bay, even if Indy had won tonight, they would have still stayed below the playoff line due to Detroit holding the tiebreaker, but at least a chance at the playoffs would have felt closer. As it is, Indy now sits 3 points behind Detroit with two games remaining for all the teams around them. Indy play Loudoun and Orange County, the former of which has locked in their spot in the playoffs and the latter of which is like Indy trying to claw their way to the right side of the playoff line. Rhode Island finish with North Carolina and New Mexico, both of which have clinched their spots. Detroit finishes with Charleston and Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay has their own outside chance to sneak into the playoffs. 

There are scenarios for Indy to make the playoffs, but with tonight's loss, they almost have to get wins out of their final games and they still won't have their fate in their hands. If I'm looking at things correctly, a win by Detroit and two draws from Rhode Island can keep Indy out of the playoffs even if Indy win out.

Indy's streak of never making the playoffs for a third straight year looks more and more likely.

Indy return home next weekend for the final home game of the 2025 season.