Indy Eleven vs Union Omaha - 2026 Prinx Tires USL Cup

Summary

- Opponent: Union Omaha
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 8,552
- Final Score: 2-1 L

- Starting XI: Charles-Cook, Quinn (C), Herbert, Craig, Neidlinger, Blake, Lindley, O'Brien, J., Mesanvi, Rendon, Okello

- Substitution: Rasheed 65' (Craig); Barry 66;' (Herbert); Sing 66' (Okello); Kizza 66' (Lindley); Thomas 78' (Mesanvi)

- Unused: Dick, Omar

- Scoring Summary:
OMA - Faz 44' (assist Borczak)
OMA - Borczak 56' (assist Freitas)
IND - Rendon 80' (assist Quinn)

- Bookings:

OMA - Freitas 39' (Yellow)
IND - Lindley 39' (Yellow)
IND - Quinn 45'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: Elvis Osmanovic

- Adage goals: One.
- Points Lost from Winning Position (Year To Date): 6

Thoughts and Opinions

A mere 25 days ago, these two teams faced off on a Tuesday night in the U.S. Open Cup, with the League One side advancing in the tournament with a 2-1 victory over their Championship counterparts. All goals in that game came in the 75th minute or later with Indy's goal coming in stoppage time to eliminate the clean sheet, but the Owl's goals in the 75th and 83rd minutes were enough for them to secure the win. Indy played a highly rotated squad in the game due to their league fixtures around the USOC game, but tonight with no game until next Saturday, Coach McAuley brought out the normal starters, with the exception of White who was injured last Saturday against Birmingham and will be out the rest of the season and Dick in goal, who were replaced by Neidlinger and Charles-Cook, respectively. Given that Charles-Cook didn't finish out the game against Omaha due to his red card in the USOC match, McAuley may have wanted to give him the opportunity to face the team again. Omaha knows he's not afraid of contact, so maybe having Reice back there was to get in the heads of the forwards. An under-the-weather Dick this week probably played into the goalkeeper decision as well.

What could have been argued was Indy's "B" squad in the first meeting between the two teams was replaced by Indy's "A" squad, but the result was the same as Indy fell to the League One side by the same 2-1 score. It's only the first game in the group play for the USL Cup, but when your group includes Louisville, Detroit, and Lexington from the USL Championship and Omaha, Madison, and Fort Wayne from League One, Indy's road to moving onto the next round became a lot harder after tonight's loss. 

Indy came out of the locker room ready to get in on the board with significant pressure on the Omaha goal within the first minute. By minute 2 though, Indy feel back into their typical defend-first, counterattack style of play. It's important to know who you are and Indy knows who they are, particularly at home on the Carroll Stadium turf where the ball rarely bounces the way you might expect. So it's become clear that no matter who Indy is playing, regardless of the opponent's league, Indy is going to play their style, possession totals be damned.

Indy had opportunities throughout the half. Omaha had opportunities. Their players also liked to crumble under contact as quickly as possible under most scenarios. When the referee is calling it, good for them, but Indy never seemed to adapt to the referee's calls. 

It happened in the first half instead of at the end of the game, but Indy once again conceded a goal late in a half. This time it was a player that found an open spot along the 6-yard box and Faz put the shot out of the reach of Charles-Cook. As a result, heading into the halftime locker room, Indy found themselves once again trailing the same League One opponent that defeated them a month ago. 

The second half went about like many might expect. Omaha found a second goal. Indy eventually ratcheted up their pressure and found more chances and their own goal late to prevent the clean sheet, but came up short to start the Prinx Tires USL Cup group play with a loss. 

There is no secret to the way Indy is going to play, but Indy's long passes are only as effective as their aerial duels rate, what they can do with the second ball from those passes, or what Rendon and Mesanvi can accomplish after they run onto the balls. If a team remains solid defensively against Indy's speed up top, the opposition just needs to limit the shots that Indy gets, be strong on Indy's set pieces, and bank on the clinical finishing that happened against Monterey to not happen every game. Tonight, Omaha did all that...again.

The good news is that the result tonight doesn't affect the league standings, where Indy is entrenched in the crowded middle of the table. Indy return to league play next week in Tampa Bay, but it's starting to feel that this season, while early, is going to be even more of a slog than my pessimistic self had allowed my optimistic self to believe. Indy has now lost twice to a League One team in tournament action and didn't look the better of the two teams for large chunks of either game, while also conceding late goals in half of their league goals to take promising results to mediocre results. McAuley is a process-based coach, which I can respect, but in a results-based business, at some point it's really important that the results match the process when you play well. At some point, Indy is going to need to good performances and good results if there is any chance that this version of the revolving and rebuilding roster will make progress.