Indy Eleven vs Louisville City FC - 13.29

Summary

- Opponent: Louisville City FC
- Location: Lynn Family Stadium
- Attendance: 10,328
- Final Score: 4-1 L

- Starting XI: Dick, Mitrano, Kibunguchy, Herbert, Rasheed, O'Brien, J., Lindley, Quinn (C), Hafferty, Kizza, Rendon

- Substitution: Mesanvi 45' (Kizza); Barry 56' (Mitrano); Henry-Scott 67' (Lindley); Craig 82' (Quinn); Sing 82' (Rendon)

- Unused: Charles-Cook

- Scoring Summary:
LOU - Serrano 7' (assist Donovan)
LOU - Lambert 33' (assist Donovan) 
LOU - Serrano 43' (assist Donovan)
LOU - Serrrano 51' (assist Donovan)
IND - Rasheed 71' (assist Quinn)

- Bookings:

IND - Hafferty 53' (Yellow)
LOU - Huerman 55' (Yellow)
LOU - Totsch 74' (Yellow)

- Referee: Joe Surgan

- Adage goals: One.
- Points Lost from Winning Position (Year To Date): 14

Thoughts and Opinions

It's often said that when it comes to rivalries, you can throw the teams' records out the window because it doesn't matter how the teams are playing coming into the game. When it comes to the geographic rivalry of Indy Eleven versus Louisville City FC, in the Louisville-Indianapolis Proximity Association Football Contest (LIPAFC), results have mostly swung to the southern team, with Louisville holding a 13W-7D-6L advantage over Indy. When it comes to the games IN Louisville, it's even further skewed in Louisville's favor, with a 6-1 advantage. Yet, coming into the game, the two teams found themselves separated by just two positions on the table, with Louisville sitting in 7th place and Indy sitting just outside the playoff line in 9th. Depending on results in their remaining games, Louisville could claw their way to 4th despite an un-Louisville-like season, while Indy will either finish in 8th or 9th. Both of those were contingent on what happened tonight, as well as the result in Florida as Miami took on Charleston. With Indy's 4-1 loss to Louisville and Charleston's 2-1 win against Miami, Indy's playoff hopes are still, barely, alive. A road game next week in Charleston will determine if they get an extra game or whether their season ends with the regular-season.

Indy did themselves no favors by conceding in the 7th minute in an absolute garbage display of defending by Indy's back line. A poor pass out of the back was intercepted by Donovan, who immediately put a ball through the line to Serrano who had started his run the second the ball started towards Donovan. Rasheed couldn't get back in front of Serrano, Dick couldn't decide whether he came all the way out or stay in his goal and so did neither, and Serrano rounded both of them to get the scoring started. Before the clock could even reached double digits, Indy found themselves staring at an uphill fight. 

That battle became much steeper when Lambert doubled the home side's total in the 33rd minute. Lambert collected the ball in the center circle and attacked the Indy midfield and defense. Quinn stepped out to stop him, but Lambert took a touch to his right around Quinn and put a shot back the other direction away from the way that Dick was leaning. 

With the dying minutes of the half, Louisville added a third goal by Serrano on a clinical counterattack to give the home team a commanding 3-nil lead. Down by three, Indy went into the halftime locker room looking like a team that had no chance of getting a result out of this game, only to find out that Miami had scored their own first-half goal, pushing Indy into the "eliminated" category. A Charleston comeback in the second half looked to be Indy's only lifeline to the playoffs because Indy showed no signs of being able to turn this game around.

Minutes into the second half, Louisville added a fourth goal to kill any idea of a comeback, with a Serrano hat trick. The ball deflected a few times leading up to the goal, but it would be difficult to say that it wasn't deserved. With no chance for Indy to find 5 goals in the remaining 44-minutes, Indy's dying playoff hopes laid with Charleston making a comeback in Miami. Fortunately for Indy, Charleston found goals in the 74th and 77th minutes to allow the Eastern Conference playoff race to go to the final week of the season. 

"Conflict arises when expectations exceed reality."

It's a statement that I've thought about a lot in the last year about this team. The expectation is that Indy is a playoff team. Charleston's comeback win against Miami keeps Indy in the conversation, despite the poor Indy performance tonight, but Indy is a mid- to low-table team, year after year. That's the reality. A reality that includes Indy needing to play above their level and getting help to make the playoffs in any given year. 

Indy has to go to Charleston and win the game. No other result matters. The math has become very simple. A win on the road for Indy has proven difficult all year, but they still have a chance. 

Game Beckons Game Ball

In a 4-1 drubbing, not many players played well enough to get the GBGB, but I want to give a special recognition to Aodhan Quinn for his late game assist, which gives him the USL Championship league record. Additionally, by my records, with his 82 minutes tonight, Quinn surpassed Ayoze for third all-time in Indy Eleven history for minutes played. As a result, Indy's top three spots now belong to three players who are on this current roster; Lindley, Blake, and Quinn.

Congrats Quinn on both accomplishments, but especially the USL Championship assist record!