Indy Eleven 2026 Season Recap & 2027 Outlook

I normally give myself a couple of weeks after Indy's departure from the season, but I felt like working on evaluating this season and looking forward to next so we're bumping this up a little earlier than normal. Let's start out with the good news from the 2026 season.

* crickets *

Anybody?

* crickets *

Oh wait, I have a few things.

• McAuley surpassed 100 games, becoming the longest tenured (by games) coach in club history and providing some consistency to a position that has been an absolute turnstyle over the years. 
• Blake overtook club legend Eamon Zayed as the top goal scorer in team history. 
• Quinn became the league leader in assists. He also surpassed the 100 games played mark to give the current team 3 players and a coach in the Century Club at the same time. 
• Lindley became the first Indy player to surpass the 10,000-minute mark for the team. 
• Rendon scored 12 goals across all competitions (10 in league play to finish the regular season tied for 11th in the USL Championship). 
• Hafferty was an absolutely stellar acquisition late in the season.

The bad news is much easier to find. For the second year in a row, Indy had a chance to squeak into the playoffs in the last game of the year after some results went their way. However, just like last year, Indy failed to do so, losing in Charleston 1-nil. Indy only had the ball 18% of time, only made 142 passes (62 of which were considered "long" - 44%), but managed 14 shots with 4 on target from that limited amount of time with the ball. Given Indy's available players (game day roster included just 4 field players, one of which was a 15-year Academy player), McAuley came out in a highly defensive-minded 5-4-1 lineup with the apparent plan to limit Charleston chances (which was moderately successful), steal some opportunities (check), and be there at the end to try and steal a win (check). All things considered, the final game was about as good as they could do, but it wasn't enough. 

As I mentioned after the Louisville game after Louisville won their midweek game to clinch a first round home playoff game, the frustration of being an Indy Eleven fan is that even in a down year for Louisville (which included an unprecedented 4-game losing streak), they still managed to find enough results and have enough results go their way that they still ended in 4th place with a guaranteed home game. Indy, conversely (at that point of the schedule) were 90-minutes away from being eliminated from the playoffs despite having a 6-point advantage ahead of Miami with 2 games in hand just 5 weeks prior. A spectacular run-of-form from Miami, a continued string of injuries for Indy, and 1 point from their final 6 games left Indy in desperation mode headed to Charleston. Indy's early lost points from winning positions (more on that in a minute), their four-game losing streak in the middle of the season, and the absolute abysmal results to finish the year (1 point from the final 7 games) meant that they ended the season about where I thought they would be preseason; hovering around the playoff line.

Going back through some of my preseason discussions with people, John Morrisey stated, "There are enough mediocre teams that the 8 seed is on the table, but I struggle to make the argument for anything higher than that." That, my friends, is why he's so well known. Dude called it based only on the roster and some insight I gave him about what I saw in preseason exhibition games. My response was "I share your pessimism. I don't see how this team makes the playoffs, particularly if any of the veteran midfielders have to miss time." Seems like I knew what I was talking about too. As the injuries to the veterans piled up, the results flatlined. 

The starting lineup for the last game against Charleston was, by far, the most egregious version of it, with 5 defenders (Rasheed, Barry, Herbert, Craig, & Kibunguchy), 2 who have been playing wing backs throughout the season (Quinn & Hafferty), and a defensive midfielder who has been converted from a defender (O'Brien), but Indy's roster and tactics all season seemed to be based a lot on not conceding as many goals this year as last. That part was successful (56 last, 47 this year), but, conversely, Indy also didn't score as many goals either (55 last, 44 this year), still finishing the season with a negative goal differential across all competitions. Indy played to grind out games by defending and counter attacking. Sometimes that worked, sometimes that almost worked, and other times they beat themselves.

Much like 2025, the 2026 season was riddled with missed opportunities. Indy lost a significant number of points from winning positions, including 5 league games where they conceded in the 85th minute or later. In hindsight, the two games against Miami are arguably the most disheartening because a better result in even one of those games sends Indy to the postseason (assuming I'm doing my math correctly). 

• March 28 draw vs Hartford (88' - O'Brien Own Goal) - 2 points lost
• April 4 draw vs Pittsburgh (90') - 2 points lost
• April 19 draw vs Birmingham (89') - 2 points lost
• May 16 USL Cup "draw" vs Fort Wayne (90'+1') - win in shootout
• June 13 loss vs Pittsburgh (90'+2') - 1 point lost 
• August 9 draw vs Hartford (74') - 2 points lost
• October 3 draw vs Loudoun (90'+5' - Farr) - 2 points lost
• October 10 loss vs Tampa Bay (85' & 90'+2' for good measure) - 2 points lost

In 2025, Indy finished the season in 9th place with 35 points and a 10W-5D-15L record in league play.

In 2026, Indy finished the season in 9th place with 34 points and a 9W-7D-14L record in league play. 

"Deja vu all over again."

Last year, Indy had a 5W-3D-10L record on the road across all competitions, but they did even worse this year with an astonishingly garbage 1W-5D-11L record across all competitions away from Carroll Stadium. Indy were reasonably effective at home, despite the terrible turf, but Indy couldn't buy a result on the road. Indy's lone victory on the road this year was a 1-nil win against Sporting JAX, the worst team in the league, thanks to a 90'+2' own goal. If you can't get any results on the road, you have to be absolutely perfect at home and Indy wasn't that. Whoever works on the scheduling next year for Indy really needs to pay attention to the homestretch of games. This year, Indy was on the road in 4 of their last 5 (0W-1D-4L); in 2025, they traveled in 6 of the last 9 (losing all 6).

Looking forward to 2027, unless something drastically changes (more on that later), then I don't see Indy being anything beyond what they have been recently. A middle to low end of the table team who might squeak into the playoffs and then lose their first playoff game on the road.

Here are my thoughts when looking towards next season.

Looking to 2027

Stadium

Until an actual plan from the team or Ersal gets announced for what they intend to do now that the Eleven Park site is mired under the history of being a former cemetery with an unknown amount of human remains still located on the site, Carroll Stadium can be expected to be the team's unfortunate home field. And until they announce it (probably in conjunction with an an IBJ article), nobody else is going to know the plan. Players and coaches have complained about Carroll Stadium's turf since the beginning, and a replacement project in 2022 did very little to quell those complaints. Fans have complained about the amenities. A large track surrounds the entire field, pushing fans further from the action and periodically catching a player by surprise as their cleats slide out from under them and they find themselves on their ass. As I said last year, "American Soccer's Greatest Dive Bar" is losing its charm. Despite what announced attendance may tell you, actual attendance from my perspective continues to drop. The midweek games look horrendous on camera.

I know I'm in a minority of the outspoken fans on this, but I know there's also a low-key agreement with me by some too. Until I hear a better plan from the team and the ownership group, I will continue to argue that expanding the "championship stadium" listed in the Grand Park Master Plan to be large enough to support an Indy Eleven USL Premier level team (and meeting U.S. Soccer's First Division requirements) is the right plan. It has the ability to consolidate the entirety of the Indy Eleven infrastructure into a single location since the team's training facilities are already located there, the Academy train there, and the USL W team train and play there. From rumors, the smaller stadium in the Master Plan allows for Indy to meet the requirements to have a women's team in the USL Super League, which was supposed to have already happened in 2025 until the Mayor Hogsett/MLS fiasco started and pulled the Eleven Park rug out from under the team. Make the stadium a bit bigger with the ability to expand further and condense everybody into the location where Ersal and Indy Eleven are already managing the facilities. I fully believe that whatever fans you lose from the Indy/southside areas will be more than made up by new north side fans and/or promotions with soccer tournaments that allow youth players to come to games. Can you imagine a weekend soccer tournament at Grand Park with an Indy Eleven game on Saturday night where hundreds/thousands of young soccer players and their families can attend the game with a reasonable add-on to the tournament cost? Indy Eleven attendance numbers might actually be accurate and the atmosphere might improve to the early days of the team.

I've spelled out why this makes sense to me (Eleven Park at Grand Park) and until somebody explicitly tells me a different, better plan, it's going to continue to be my opinion.

Yes, I know Mayor Hogsett and MLS are still a thing. I took their MLS team and stadium survey. I still don't believe Indy is their first choice. 

Coach

Don Thompson Photography

I've had enough conversations with Coach McAuley now to know that he wants to come back. I also suspect that despite the lack of playoff appearances, he is probably getting offers from other teams. Maybe not high level teams, but maybe he is. He and I haven't talked about that. 

What I said last year stays true this year. "I fully expect McAuley to be back next year, trying to overcome the limitations that are set on Indy Eleven coaches with players. I don't think McAuley did enough to warrant being fired," but a second season not making the playoffs does begin to start a fire under his seat.  

What I don't know is how next year will be any different. I'll get into the players next, but if you assume a majority of this year's players return, in part because of financial limitations, but also part of the reason I think McAuley wants to return is that the club needs some consistency. Sign players, develop those players, and get better. Unless you have the financial backing to go out and buy talent, you have to accept that the seasons are going to swing back and forth between maximizing your available talent to make a playoff appearance and succumbing to injuries and failing to make the playoffs because the overall depth isn't there to compete week in and week out with the top teams in the league. 

Given the operational constraints of the club (stadium, budgets, etc.), the fact that McAuley wants to be here to try and improve the club says a lot about Sean the man.

Sidenote discussion: If/when McAuley gets tired of being in Indy or he gets let go, I would be intrigued by a Eamon Zayed-led Indy Eleven. I know from talking to him over the years that he would like to be here and has tried a couple of times when Indy has been between coaches. Z has been a successful League One coach and it might be time for someone to take a chance on him as a Championship coach.

Players

After a second consecutive season where Indy just missed out on participating in the postseason, you might think that there will be, again, an overhaul of the roster. I keep harping on the budget, but with that constraint, the current budget-friendly contracts might get renewed. 

After last year, McAuley stated that he was going to bring in players for 2026 that were younger and hungrier. I think he did that, but what we also found out was that while this year's roster was younger and hungrier than last year's, the younger showed to not be experienced or talented enough. As a result, McAuley had to rely on the veterans more who all became injured late in the season because they had to play so many minutes.

Last month, I wrote about the possibility of Indy, either willingly or by relegation once the USL Premier league starts and pro/rel enters the American chat, drops down to League One. Indy only had moderate success against the League One sides they played this year, and I stated at one point that Indy might be a mid- to low-Championship side, but might be an upper- to mid-League One side. I've said a few times in recent months that Indy had the lowest budget in the league at $1.2M. I recently found out that one of the top spending teams in League One was Boise who spent...$1.2M. 

It's starting to feel like I know what I'm talking about.

As I mentioned in my "Could Indy Eleven's Inaugural Season Been Different?" article from a few years ago, Peter Wilt let me know that Indy's inaugural player budget was...$1.2M. I'm nearly positive that the salary has gone up over the years, but for whatever reason, it has come back down. Actually, I do have a bit of a theory.

At best, Indy's on-field performance has been spotty over the years and definitely not consistent top-of-the-league results. As the team continues to be stuck in mid-table seasons, more and more people have stopped buying tickets. Fewer people in stands means less ticket sales, less merch sales, and less concession sales. As a result, the club has to try and find the money in other ways, which is typically through sponsorships and ads. However, as fan attendance decreases, corporate sponsors see less value in providing the same amount of money to reach fewer people. As a result, they begin to decrease their dollars. With decreasing fan money and decreasing sponsor money, the club has no choice but to decrease their player budget. Decreased player budget means that the players brought in are "hungrier," "younger," or maybe "aging out veterans" that aren't able to get consistently good results. More fans stop coming to games, sponsors spend less, budget decreases. Rinse and repeat until 1) club fails entirely, 2) drops down a league (soon a possibility in the USL pyramid), or 3) somebody comes in Wrexham style and infuses a new about of capital. While the 3rd doesn't always guarantee success, the jolt of money does make it feel like the team is trying to do something and fans and sponsors might come back too. 

Feel like this could be Indy's scenario. Minus the infusion of capital, which doesn't seem like is going to come from Ersal, and despite additional owners being listed on the website, none of those other guys are ever mentioned as being significant financial providers for the team. If I'm honest, that leaves options 1 and 2 as viable possibilities.

Until that happens, Indy's going to probably be towards the bottom of the budget spenders in the league with somewhere in the mid- to low-table results. With all that as a backdrop, here are what I think happens to this year's roster in the off-season.

Gone:

1. Okello - That's obvious. He was transferred to Lexington in the deal that brough Henry-Scott and Hafferty to Indy late in the season. McAuley thought highly of Okello, but I doubt it's enough to re-sign him.
2. Neidlinger - One of Indy's Academy products, and Indy's youngest goal scorer in team history, but Logan's defensive deficiencies and Indy's desperation to get results forced the team to find somebody in his place. Neidlinger's time in Fort Wayne FC in League One seems like it might have been good for him. I suspect his was on a 2-year deal, which is ending this year and while I don't think Indy will re-sign him, I wouldn't be surprised if FWFC sign him for next season.
3. Williams, K - he could never find minutes in McAuley's lineup (just 40 minutes in 4 league games, but he did find just under 400 minutes in the various Cup games) and eventually was loaned to Detroit FC. Those kinds of guys rarely make it back for another season, unless he had a guaranteed 2-year deal.
4. Thomas - Played 107 minutes across 4 games. Unless he's on a guaranteed 2-year deal or is making the league minimum (which could be possible), I would suspect he's not around next season.
5. Gavilanes - Only time he broke into the lineup was during the USOC games. Otherwise, he had a very noticeable 0 minutes played in 0 games. Like Neidlinger above, Gavilanes was loaned to a League One side with Union Omaha and seems to be having a good run there, including being named to the USL Prinx Tires Cup Team of the Tournament. Most of his time has been in USL League One (or Miami FC, which arguably was like a League One team those seasons), so that may just be his level. Won't be surprised if he signs with a team in League One, but I doubt he returns to Indy.
   Sidenote: that team has 5 players with Indy Eleven ties. Not sure what that means, but it is an interesting fact.

Possibly Gone:

1. Craig - I'm not confident on this placement though. He was brought into the team, presumably for depth, but had to play a much more active role due to injuries to the other players. Craig battled his own injuries and just turned 34. Not saying he can't return, because he generally looked good most of the season, but he's also at that age when I could see him hang up the boots. This may hinge on whether he was on a 2-year deal.
2. Hogan - No idea what to think here. I had Hogan in this exact same category last offseason because he was non-existent in the final third of the 2025 season. However, coming into this year, it was looking like he was going to be one of the starting center backs until his season-ending injury in preseason. If he was on a 2-year contract, it would be expiring. So I have no idea what may happen with Pat.

3. 

   Don Thompson Photography

   Rendon - Not because McAuley doesn't want him, but because I wouldn't be surprised if other teams with deeper pockets have expressed interest in having him. Even if he has contract remaining for Indy, for the right dollar amount, I could be gone. Where Indy's offense comes from if that happens will have to be sorted out with other signings this off-season.
4. Kizza - Something just tells me he might not be back.
5. Quinn - Dude's still playing at a high level, but he will be 35 years old when the season kicks off next year. He's already been doing some coaching with the Academy team. Is next year the year he transitions to the first team? If he's not ready to retire to the sideline, I would place him in the Probably Returning group because he's started setting down roots here in Indy and wants to be here. Don't think he pulls a Crash Davis-style end of his illustrious USL career to get one more season somewhere other than Indy. 

Probably Returning:

Literally everybody else. Due to the budget-friendly nature of this year's roster, there's limited risk to keeping everybody else, even if the team didn't make the playoffs. It will all come down to what pieces get added around them on whether this core of players repeats this year's meh season or can over-achieve. 

1. Barry
2. Blake
3. Charles-Cook
4. Dick
5. Hafferty
6. Henry-Scott
7. Herbert
8. Kibunguchy
9. Lindley
10. Mesanvi
11. Mitrano
12. O'Brien
13. Omar
14. Rasheed
15. Sharp
16. Sing
17. White

Something that Coach McAuley has stated few times that has resonated with me is that, "In football, if you stay the same, you're probably getting worse. So we need to improve next year and improve again and just keep improving."

Looking at that potential returning roster, the obvious question that comes to mind is, "how does that team improve from a 9th place finish in the table with the majority of the roster remaining while potentially losing 4 of the more important pieces of it?" 

I really don't know.

But that's where we find ourselves as Indy fans. Stuck in a stadium that we already left once to go to Lucas Oil Stadium but boomeranged back into and then were told we would be in a fancy new Eleven Park stadium more than a year ago (that sucks to say after sitting in a tent in 2023 for the groundbreaking), all with the lowest player budget in USL Championship that is rivaled by at least one team in League One.