Indy Eleven vs Sporting JAX - 13.08

Summary

- Opponent: Sporting JAX
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 8,419
- Final Score: 2-1 W

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

- Substitution: Kizza 45' (Okello); Barry 84' (Mesanvi); Sing 88' (Rendon)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Mitrano, Rasheed, Williams

- Scoring Summary:
JAX - Al Qaq 45' (assist Jääskeläinen)
IND - Rendon 51' (assist Quinn)
IND - Herbert 65' (unassisted)

- Bookings:

JAX - Pedder 10' (Yellow)
IND - Herbert 45'+1' (Yellow)

JAX - Al Qaq 45'+5' (Yellow)
JAX - Neville 87' (Yellow)

- Referee: Igor Bych

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

Thoughts and Opinions

It's not easy to be an expansion franchise. Positive results can be difficult to achieve as you're learning your team as well as the other teams in the league. There are slim margins between winning and losing. Sporting JAX came into tonight's game against Indy with a 0W-1D-7L record, but 5 of those 7 losses were 1 goal differential games. In their last 6 games, Sporting JAX was held scoreless, scoring just 5 goals all season. Indy's plan coming into the game had to be stay defensive to frustrate and continue JAX's offensive struggles and find a couple of goals of their own. Sporting JAX did manage to find a goal for the first time since March 28th, but they also couldn't keep Indy off the board as Indy converted 2 of their 9 shots on target into goals to give the home side a 2-1 victory.

For the first time this season at Carroll Stadium (at least during the league season), when referee Igor Bych blew his whistle, the game actually started. With a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) agreed upon, players didn't need to come together and stand unified to silently express their displeasure of how their fellow players were being paid and treated. The CBA took awhile to get approved, but seems to be a good step up from the previous version, notably getting minimum year-long contracts preventing players from having gaps in their salary while also requiring health insurance from all clubs and bumping the minimum salary by 40% (from $26k a year to $36.4k).

Indy got an early opportunity to open the scoring within the first 2-minutes, but it wasn't until the 20th minute until they got their first official shot on target. Both teams rank at the bottom of the league in possession and for what felt like the first time this season, Indy had a reasonably close possession battle in the early portions of the game. They even managed to hold a possession advantage at halftime and at the end of the game for the first time this year. What they didn't get in the first half was a goal despite a 3 v 1 opportunity in the 37th minute where they didn't even get a shot as Mesanvi, Rendon, and Okello made an absolutely mess of the chance. Indy dominated the first half in all the ways that should have led to a minimum 2-nil halftime advantage. However, the finishing by the team was drastically lacking, and Sporting JAX's one opportunity on goal was blasted by Dick to give the visitors a 1-nil lead headed into the locker room with a whopping xG of 0.18.

This Indy team is finding new ways to get poor results despite good performances. The consistent thing has been the inability to close out halves.

Whatever was said in the locker room from Coach McAuley or from the players themselves, Indy came out of the halftime break like a team on fire. Increased energy and effort tilted the field entirely in their favor. A 51st minute goal from a Rendon header on a Quinn corner kick brought everything back to level. Indy continued to keep the hammer down and found a second goal in the 65th minute, again off of a corner kick. After Lindley's initial delivery into the box, the ball recycled itself back around to him towards the top of the box. Lindley laid the ball off to Neidlinger who blistered a shot off the cross bar that bounced nearly straight up into the air. Herbert, who was still up from the initial corner, put a header towards the post and caught Olivares going the wrong direction. Down a goal to up a goal, but a one-goal lead is never safe with Indy despite the dominance they were showing in the second half.

Despite peppering the Sporting JAX goal with 26 shots (9 on target), Indy finished the game with just the two goals, but it was enough to get the victory. Indy held JAX to just the single shot on target, but this was a game where Indy imparted their will on the game and dominated from start to finish, with the notable exception of the JAX goal at the end of the first half. Indy had a 39.4% crossing accuracy rate on 33 crosses, forcing JAX into 50 clearances. If it hadn't been for Olivares' 7 saves and if Indy had been a little bit better with their 26 shots, this game could, and probably should, have been a higher scoring game for the home side. This is the kind of game that Indy had to have if they want to move up the table or at least stay in the playoff picture. Sporting JAX is a new team to the league struggling to get results and a defeat, or even a draw, could have been difficult on the team's psyche. As the final whistle blew, Lindley could be seen dropping to his knees and looking up in celebration, and then getting up to hug his teammates. After going down a goal to a team they had bossed all first half, and with some of the other results this season, McAuley admitted afterwards that going into halftime, the players could have easily fallen into a mentality that "maybe it wasn't going to be their day." Lindley's excitement at the win against an opponent they should beat was an outward expression that they can win these games even if the games against Union Omaha might have had them questioning themselves.

In the grand scheme of things, there's still a lot left in the season, they beat a team that they should beat, and they're still hovering around the playoff line. What the win does do is help with belief. Belief that good results can come from good performances.

Indy return to action next Saturday when they head up to the newly opened Ruoff Mortgage Stadium in Fort Wayne (don't get me started on how Fort Wayne has a new stadium and Indy is still playing at The Mike...) as part of the USL Cup group play. The aforementioned losses against Union Omaha are going to be a motivating factor for Indy as they try to get points to at least stay in the discussion to advance out of the group play in the tournament.

Indy's USL-W League team kicks off their season on Wednesday night against Racing Louisville at Grand Park, so if you can't get to Fort Wayne next Saturday, you can get your local soccer fix by supporting the Girls in Blue.

Game Beckons Game Ball

It often feels like a cop-out when I do this, but I give the GBGB to the player(s) that stand out for me, and in this game that was the veterans of Blake, Lindley, & Quinn. The three players seemed to be everywhere and wherever they needed to be. I remember a moment when Lindley had the ball around the midfield line but in a position that would have been more for a centerback. Quinn, who was on the right side of the field after a corner kick, could have received a pass from Lindley, but there wasn't much that Quinn could do with the ball if he had received it. Since he wasn't under any pressure from the Sporting JAX players, Lindley put his foot on the ball and let Quinn run across the entire field to get himself back into his left back position so that the attack could begin again with their crossing ability on opposite sides of the field instead of bunched together. The three players accounted for a combined 12 chances created and 15 crosses. Lindley's decision to hold the ball was just one example of the level of play from the three veterans that stood out to me.

Lindley is mere minutes away from overtaking Ouimette for 2nd all-time in minutes (and Ayoze is within reach within a few games), will equal Ayoze in Games Played in his next game, will equal Ayoze in Games Started in a couple of games. Blake's the team's all-time leader in goals. Quinn will be the next player to join the Century Club, and with his assist tonight, tied Dylan Mares for 2nd all-time with Ayoze in his sights. 

At some point, the three guys are going to finish their time at this club as legends, and they showed their class tonight. 

Photos - Don Thompson Photography