Indy Eleven vs San Antonio - 13.16

Summary

- Opponent: San Antonio FC
- Location: Toyota Field
- Attendance: 6,145
- Final Score: 3-1 L

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

- Substitution: Rasheed 45' (Kibunguchy); Blake 45' (Omar); Neidlinger 45' (Mesanvi); Mitrano 58' (Quinn); Kizza 71' (Okello)

- Unused: Charles-Cook, Barry

- Scoring Summary:
SA - Cuello 25' (assist Sorto)
SA - Parano 48' (assist Maldonado)
SA - Parano 70' (assist Hernandez)
IND - O'Brien, J. 90'+4' (assist Herbert)

- Bookings:

SA - Berron 49' (Yellow)
IND - Blake 53' (Yellow)
IND - Mitrano 59' (Yellow)
IND - Quinn 59' (Yellow)

- Referee: Gerald Flores

- Adage goals: One
- Points Lost from Winning Position (Year To Date): 8

Thoughts and Opinions

Coming off a 3-game losing streak (and 4 of the last 5), Indy headed on the road on a Friday night to try and turn their fortunes. Making a trip to San Antonio, who are towards the top of the Western Conference, is not exactly the team you want to see when you're trying to break a losing streak, particularly when your record on the road this season is 0W-2D-5L coming into the game. In a 3-1 loss, Indy's road woes and losing streak continued.

San Antonio dominated the possession early, but mostly in their defensive half of the field. So as the possession differential continued to grow in San Antonio's favor, Indy looked completely comfortable letting the defenders pass amongst themselves. Eventually though, the home sides' midfielders started getting involved and disrupting Indy's mid block, pushing Indy further and further back towards their own goal. Once that happened, Indy's constantly in flux defensive line began to look completely discombobulated on who was marking whom and where each person was supposed to be. In the 25th minute, Indy found themselves in last ditch defending moment after last ditch defending moment until Cuello was able to put one on target that took a slight deflection off Herbert and trickled over the line out of reach of Dick. 

Despite the absolute numbers advantage in their final third, Indy looked disjointed on defense and San Antonio began to find their rhythm. Indy's defense looked out of sync. Indy's offense looked out of sync. Mesanvi was absolute overpowered by Crognale and Suarez as their positioning on the field negated Mesanvi's speed. With the exception of one opportunity for Indy in San Antonio's box where a shot deflected off the crossbar, San Antonio looked to be the better team in the first half and went into the locker room with a deserved 1-nil lead. 

Kibunguchy started in place of Neidlinger, but he also struggled tracking defenders, and he and Okello had passes where they looked like they had iron feet. Before the 40th minute, Coach McAuley had the substitutes warming up, indicating to everyone that he wasn't happy with the performance on the field. Mesanvi, Omar, and Kibunguchy were all subbed out at halftime in place for Neidlinger, Blake, and Rasheed, respectively. 

It didn't matter as San Antonio put a second on the board in the 48th goal. Lindley and Neidlinger got beat at the end line and three different Indy players were nutmegged as the ball, once again, trickled over the line under Dick. They still had to play almost 45 minutes of game, but the second goal made the game feel like it was finished. The third goal in the 70th minute, Parano's second, made the last twenty minutes a formality. San Antonio were the better team and deserved the win. Indy tacked one on late in stoppage time to prevent the clean sheet and demonstrate that they're going to fight until the end, but Indy looked outclassed, out talented, and out hustled tonight.

Indy extend their losing streak to four games. More concerning than the losses is the fact that Indy have scored just three goals in the last six games, being held scoreless in four of them (and almost five if it hadn't been the stoppage time goal tonight to prevent the clean sheet), while conceding nine. The wheels are starting to fall off on both sides of the ball and there isn't much that McAuley can do about it. Some nights it's appeared that Indy just doesn't have the across the board talent to compete with some teams, but the effort has been there. Tonight, both the talent and the effort looked lacking.

Indy return to action on Sunday, August 9th against Hartford who play against Loudoun tomorrow. If Indy wants any chance to stay above the playoff line as the business end of the season starts, they're going to need to win that game. The game will be McAuley's 100th game, making him the longest tenured coach in team history, so the players should have extra motivation to try and get their coach a win on the game when he joins the Century Club. Indy then play this year's doormat Sporting JAX, who are starting to find their way a bit lately. Indy have winnable games coming up, but they're going to have to fix their play on both sides of the ball, and soon, or the season is going to get away from them.