Indy Eleven vs Charleston Battery - 13.12

Summary

- Opponent: Charleston Battery
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 8,143
- Final Score: 2-0 W

- Starting XI: Dick, Quinn (C), Barry, Rasheed, Neidlinger, Lindley, O'Brien, J., Blake, Omar, Rendon, Okello

- Substitution: Sharp 65' (Omar); Mesanvi 81' (Okello)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Kizza, Lowden, Mitrano, Williams, K.

- Scoring Summary:
IND - O'Brien, J. 82' (assist Rasheed)
IND - Rendon 90'+4' (assist Blake)

- Bookings:

CHS - Kelly 18' (Yellow)
IND - Quinn 35' (Yellow)
IND - Blake 36' (Yellow)
CHS - Smith 68' (RED)
CHS - Kissiedou 90'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: Matt Thompson

- Adage goals: None
- Points Lost from Winning Position (Year To Date): 8

Thoughts and Opinions

Indy Eleven have played two other times on the Fourth of July. The first time was in 2017, a 1-1 draw at the New York Cosmos. The second time was in 2018, when the Ottawa Fury came into a sweltering Lucas Oil Stadium and beat Indy 0-1 due to an Own Goal by Mitchell. The night concluded with an open north window at LOS and fans able to hang out in the stadium and watch the downtown fireworks. The goalkeeper that night for Ottawa was Crepeau, who saw his World Cup run with Canada come to an end today against Morocco an hour before Indy's start time tonigh. Today, Indy instead decided to do The Fourth at Four, with game time bumped up three hours from the normal 7:00 start to 4:00, presumably to allow fans to get to any Fourth of July fireworks festivities with their families, but it also meant that fans and players were in an absolutely brutal afternoon heat of 90-degrees F and 50% humidity giving a feels like temperature of 98-degrees. The fans that braved the heat, and there weren't that many of them (regardless of what the announced attendance indicated), were treated to a 2-nil victory against one of the best teams in the league.

The game felt to me a lot like the friendly against Pachuca in June of 2016. That day, temperatures were in the low 90s, with a start time of 1:30. That day, I had measured the temperature of the turf with a baking thermometer, which pegged at 137-degrees. Water bottles were spread out around the field, but I remember watching as many players spray their boots with the water as they did actually drink the water. The turf has been changed since then, but I doubt that the new version is any cooler than it was that day. Following the World Cup's lead, midway through both halves, both teams walked over to the benches for a hydration break to replenish the fluids that the heat was taking out of everybody.

The first half progressed much like you might expect from a Charleston team in form and an Indy team who has been forced to rotate their backline as injuries continue to be an issue for the team. Charleston dominated possession (70/30 ratio), and dominated it in reasonably dangerous locations, getting 10 shots, but just 1 shot on target that was straight at Dick. Indy's restructured backline generally stayed home with rare overlapping runs from Neidlinger or Quinn because of the need to keep Charleston in front of them and not over-exert themselves due to the heat. Indy's forays into the Charleston half weren't overly frequent, but did manage to have some potential options, including a goal pulled back due to an offside, something that both teams had in the half. The two teams sniffed at getting the scoring started, but instead went into the halftime locker room with a nil-nil score line.

Photo: Don Thompson Photography

As the game crept toward the 60th minute, Charleston's attack began to show itself with two close calls. For chunks of the game, it looked like the game was going to finish with either a nil-nil result or possibly just a one-goal differential. Charleston's flurry of shots in that portion of the game made it look like it was likely to be Charleston that got that break-through goal and not Indy. The 68th minute red card to Charleston's Smith, after he pulled down second-half substitute Sharp who had been sent through the lines by Neidlinger, changed that feeling with 22 minutes with a man-advantage for Indy. Neidlinger has been thrust into his role due to the back line injuries, and he's still a young player growing into his skills. Today, though, he had some nervy moments on the right side as he lost his man or overran them. He'll eventually get better, but a team of Charleston's talent had moments against him that could have gone poorly for Indy. Yet it was his ball that put the team in a position to get points out of the game against one of the best teams in the league, and one of the most in form teams.

Charleston came into the game against Indy in spectacular form. They were undefeated in 5 games, and with their 4-1 victory against Loudoun United last week, equaled a record for most goals in a 3-game span with 14 goals. They tied the record with...themselves. The 2024 squad also scored 14 goals in a 3-game span, starting from a 4-2 victory against...Indy. Colton Swan has scored 7 goals in the league and 10 across all competitions. Maalique Foster had scored in 4 consecutive games coming into tonight's game, his longest scoring streak in the USL Championship. Indy managed to keep them scoreless tonight.

Indy has had some rough results against Charleston in the past with a 4W-7L-2D record against the Battery, and hadn't beaten Charleston since 2023. Cards change games, and Smith's deserved red card in the 68th minute did exactly that. There aren't a lot of the game stats that point to an Indy victory, other than Indy's ability to get their shots on target at a higher rate than the Battery. Indy didn't have as many chances, but they did a better job of converting their chances. The red card also allowed Indy to hold onto the ball more and stifle the attack that Charleston had going for them before the ejection.

Indy continues to have games in hands on all the teams above them and don't have another game until the 15th. Indy has a definite back-loaded schedule so it's good they can get results like tonight despite the heat. Indy return to action in a week and a half on the road against Miami who play tomorrow and then next week in the Prinx Tires USL Cup, which Indy no longer has to deal with due to completing their group stage games and not advancing in the tournament. How Indy survives the back-loaded schedule with the continued string of injuries is going to go a long way to determining whether this team exceeds the preseason expectations of them being a fringe playoff team.

Game Beckons Game Ball

This afternoon's GBGB goes to a player whose stats don't exactly pop off the page; just 2 of 5 duels won and 1 of 4 aerial duels won. However, Barry was averaging less than 16 minutes per game and always late in the game. Due to the injury to Paco Craig, tonight was Barry's first start and he had to go the full 90 minutes. Against a team with as much offensive power as Charleston, and with as few minutes as he's played this year, Barry did as well as a job as possible. It might not always be the best factor in who gets the GBGB, but I think it's as valid a reason as any tonight. As each injury has occurred this season, it's been the "next man up" mentality and this afternoon's next man up was Barry.