Is There a Plan for Eleven Park?

Last month, the City of Indianapolis, specifically the Department of Public Works, publicly made available their "Archaeological Investigation Workplan for a Portion of Greenlawn Cemetery (CR-49-6) Henry Street Bridge Project" (The Plan) prepared by Stantec for the White River Infrastructure Development project at the Henry Street Bridge. The Plan highlights what they are going to do for the excavation of the ground where the bridge and the connecting Henry Street runs through the southern portion of what used to be the Greenlawn Cemetery. The same cemetery that has shut down the construction of Eleven Park. The Mayor’s attempt to bring MLS to Indianapolis, his still-unknown ownership group, and the takeover of the PSDA location (from the site owned by Ersal, Keystone, and Indy Eleven to the area surrounding the downtown Heliport) exacerbated that shutdown, but it feels from an external perspective like nothing is being done for Eleven Park. Once the PSDA made it's way through the government channels, has anybody heard anything about what the club intends to do?

Keystone and Indy Eleven haven’t issued any new information on their plan in months. Unlike my last article about Eleven Park and the Henry Street Bridge where I didn't reach out to the team, I did reach out to them for this article. What they said was, "Once we have a further update on the new stadium and Eleven Park, we will share accordingly." What I heard was, "when we want you to know something, you'll hear about it in an article from the IBJ." Which a long history of dealing with the team on items of this magnitude has proven to me will always be the case. 

But I digress...

Periodically since the time of the Mayor's announcement, I drive by the Eleven Park site. Every time I do so, the site has progressed further and further away from any kind of construction activity. At first, there was a construction trailer and some equipment sitting there unused. Then the equipment disappeared. After that the construction trailer was removed from the site. The large piles of fill dirt have remained, likely because Keystone would have to bring back the equipment to haul it somewhere else. However, he last time I drove by, some of the construction fencing and the Eleven Park fence banners had been allowed to fall down. Once the equipment and trailer were removed, it looks, again externally, like the site is just being left to rot and return itself back to nature. Any kind of site security has been neglected, seemingly with the knowledge that there's nothing there to take, except for some dirt, new weeds, and if anyone else were so inclined, a high probability of human remains. 

Photo: Indianapolis City-Council Council X post

Conversely, the construction for the Henry Street Bridge that runs just south of the Eleven Park site is in full swing, including another ceremonial groundbreaking. Though it looks like from all indications that the groundbreaking took place on the WEST side of the River this time even though the construction on the west side has been ongoing since March and it's only been recently that the activities have been happening on the east side of the river. My guess is somebody realized that it would have been some really bad optics for the Mayor to have another groundbreaking in the same general vicinity as the groundbreaking he attended for the Eleven Park development in 2023. From the article [emphasis mine], "The Henry Street Bridge is a transformative infrastructure project designed to provide added vehicular and pedestrian connectivity between the west side of Indianapolis and Downtown..." 

Why does that sound so familiar? Oh wait, since the original Eleven Park announcement, it has been described as a "transformational riverfront neighborhood development in downtown Indianapolis." 

As I began to dig [pun intended] into the Plan for the Henry Street Bridge project, the Plan requires that [again, emphasis mine]:

"Once overlying fill dirt has been removed and the original ground surface exposed, an archaeological team will monitor backhoe stripping of the cemetery portion within the Project Area. This process will involve using a smooth blade backhoe to incrementally strip back the soil in order to identify unmarked burial features. When soil stains are exposed during the backhoe stripping, archaeologists familiar with historic cemetery excavation will discern whether these stains represent grave shafts. Shaft stains will be assigned unique feature numbers and mapped using the grid established during the cemetery mapping and georeferenced to the established coordinate system and datum. All potential graves shafts identified will be fully investigated by experienced excavators."

Nearly everything that now comes out from the City related to the Henry Street project makes some reference to it being led by an archaeological team. The Plan document itself doesn't explicitly differentiate this method being different than the "Contractor-led" excavation that is regularly referenced by the DPW notifications when describing the work that was being done at Eleven Park, but as of right now, that seems to be a key difference between the City's Plan and whatever plan Keystone had before the Mayor's MLS announcement. "Archaeologist-led" versus "Contractor-led" has seemingly come to mean, "still moving forward, but slowly" versus "come to a screeching halt." Again, at least when looking at it externally. 

Between this purposefully wording choice from the City about who is leading the excavation and using the same "transformational" language to describe the Henry Street project that Keystone/Indy Eleven have used for Eleven Park, it's beginning to feel like the Mayor is trolling Ozdemir at every opportunity. It's like the elementary school bully taking your lunch money and then pantsing you just for good measure.

I also purposefully emphasized a seemingly random sentence from the plan about fill dirt. What makes that so interesting to me is that there is sentence a couple of paragraphs above that in The Plan that goes into more detail on what the "overlying fill" means. That paragraph indicates [emphasis mine]:

"The soil stratigraphy from the extracted cores was examined by Stantec geoarchaeologists who estimated the fill depth above the original cemetery ground surface to vary between 3.5 and 7.5 ft below the current ground surface; the depth to the base of burial deposits associated with Greenlawn Cemetery interments varies between 6.5 and 10 ft below the current ground surface." 

Let's unpack that paragraph a little. 

The Stantec staff estimate that before anybody ever reaches the original level of the cemetery, they would have to remove at least the first 3.5-feet to potentially 7.5-feet of existing soil from the current ground surface. Only at that point would the excavation then be within what was considered the "original" cemetery soil where burials would have been performed. Additionally, there are indications from research performed by historian Deedee Davis from a July 1882 Common Council Proceedings (see below) that "in excavating a grave, it was almost always the case that at least two, and frequently three sets of buried remains would be met...they simply spread the different sets of remains over the bottom of the grave, and placed the new coffin upon top of them. The city has no grounds within the enclosure, that have not been buried in one or more times." 

So expecting to find remains in our now typical "6-feet deep" range is likely optimistic. Digging will need to be deeper.

Excerpt taken from Greenlawn Research performed by Deedee Davis

The Henry Street Bridge project is just a hair under 2 acres. The Eleven Park property (officially known as the property owned by 402 Kentucky Avenue LLC) is comprised of approximately 19 acres. If you assume a similar soil stratification over the entire 19 acres as what was estimated for the 2 acres (which, admittedly, is probably a bit conservative), on the low end you are talking about 2,896,740 cubic feet of fill dirt (at 3.5-feet of fill) and maybe as much as 6,207,300 cubic feet of fill dirt (at 7.5-feet) before you actually reach the original ground level of the cemetery. Then you have another 3- to 6-feet of additional digging of the soil that is considered "original cemetery ground." Doing some math on just the upper level of soil/fill, that's approximately 107,000 to 230,000 cubic yards. A dump truck can carry about 10 to 14 cubic yards, but for simple math, let's assume 10 cubic yards per truck. Therefore, it would take 10,700 to 23,000 dump truck loads to remove all the top fill. In my day job, we would estimate a cost for this kind of excavation by "smooth blade backhoe" to be $45/cubic yard (and potentially even higher). Just to get to cemetery soil, I would estimate the cost to be $4.8M to $10.3M depending on the depth. The total area that might require this level of excavation might be high and my "per cubic yard" cost might be low. As a rough estimate, that's a lot of money, and it's only at that point that digging below the original cemetery ground can start.

That is how you end up with a construction site that does have have any construction activity. Particularly when the Mayor five-finger discounted your PSDA tax area away from you. The process of preparing the site for construction took a drastic increase in cost. I would have thought that in the months following the Mayor's announcement that Keystone and the team would have some kind of preliminary plan, but if they do, they don't look inclined to share those plans. While the Eleven Park site is showing signs of neglect, Ozdemir, Keystone, and Indy Eleven continue their mode of operation of keeping every detail about things like this as close to the vest as humanly possible until the very last second. In a world where information leaks are plentiful, it's really an amazing feat that they have continued to remain so tight-lipped for so long about so many things.

I do want to clarify one thing. I have been using cemetery a lot throughout this article and my other articles. Other news sources and documentation from the City also use that designation. However, from the May 22, 2023 "Archaeological Monitoring Plan for the Henry Street Bridge Project in the Old Greenlawn Cemetery (CR-49-6), City of Indianapolis, Center Township, Marion County, Indiana" prepared by Weintraut & Associates:

"The cemetery is now classified as a burial ground since some graves have been removed, and there remains no physical above-ground evidence of its existence." 

The cemetery began to not be a cemetery around the 1870s to 1890s, and anything that is found when digging aren't "bodies" but rather "human remains" or "burial items," the latter of which is more for the jewelry, buttons, caskets or its components, etc. that might be found. 

Recently, now that work has begun in earnest on the east side of the river in the Henry Street portion of the Henry Street Bridge project, the City's archaeologist-led excavation has already discovered some of those burial items, finding granite pavers, rail lines, grave shafts, and a headstone.

New discoveries at the Henry Street Bridge project include historic railway - "Indy DPW says crews discovered granite pavers and rail lines from what was once considered to be the first and largest electric railway freight terminal in the U.S." - WTHR article linked above

Human remains, grave shafts found while preparing for Henry Street Bridge construction on Indy's near west side - "While preparing to start archaeological excavation east of the White River, Stantec – Indy DPW's archeology consultant – found 15 grave shafts. These discoveries were made three to four feet below ground. They also identified a "possible footstone" and a headstone base for a total of seven monument pieces." - WTHR article linked above

It's not surprising that the excavation is finding burial items. The historical documents have shown that there were just too many bodies buried there, and not enough records of many, to maybe most, of them being interred and reburied elsewhere. The question remains for Keystone and Indy Eleven on whether they can find the money to excavate the way that the Henry Street Bridge is being excavated (thanks in part to a donation from the Lilly Endowment). It may be some time before fans hear the answer to that question.

So while Ozdemir, Keystone, and Indy Eleven continue to keep fans in the dark about their plan for Eleven Park, the next door neighbor project is moving along and finding the remains and the burial items that everyone was concerned were going to be present. 

There has been at least one shred of information made public and that was provided by a X thread by Indianapolis City-County Councilor Michael-Paul Hart. In his thread, he indicated that the status of the Mayor's PSDA site is still going through the process. 

"A high-ranking city official explained that the project is now in the hands of multiple state agencies. They chose to delay making a decision until after the election. 

The City expects to receive an update on the PSDA (Professional Sports Development Area) by the end of December. This update should confirm whether the State approves or denies the plan."

I suspect that it will be discussed during the State Budget Committee hearings in December, and the results of those discussions will narrow down whether the Mayor's MLS desire moves forward or not. Without any knowledge of the discussions, it wouldn't surprise me if the plan is allowed to proceed, only to fail miserably within MLS headquarters. Councilor Hart indicated that if the plan does move forward, the identity of the investors will be made publicly known. So there's that.

It's not a Plan, but there may be some kind of plan.

One last interesting thing to note that I found while trying to find information. In mid-April of this year, just two weeks before the Mayor made his MLS announcement, the Department of Metropolitan Development Plat Committee gave "Approval of a Subdivision Plat, to be known as Eleven Park, dividing 18.98 acres into 12 blocks. Staff recommends that the Plat Committee approve and find that the plat, file-dated January 4, 2024, complies with the standards of the Subdivision regulations."

Ozdemir, Keystone, and Indy Eleven were that close to having another step completed before the rug was yanked out from under them.

I've recently wondered if, in hindsight, Peter Wilt would still recommend the path that Ersal Ozdemir and Indy Eleven have taken to try and get a stadium. The path they're on doesn't seem to be working any longer and they need their own Plan to somehow change paths. Watching Fort Wayne FC and Rhode Island and a long list of other teams get stadiums in the time since Indy started trying to get one before they had ever played a game, it would seem like that change of plan needs to happen soon. Indy will no longer be part of the USL Super League next season without their own stadium (for some reason...), and they have 20 acres of land sitting.

Externally, the Eleven Park Plan looks stalled, buried [pun intended] under layers of dirt without any archaeologists around to unbury it.

Indy Eleven vs Rhode Island - 11.35 - USL Playoffs (Conference Quarterfinals)

Summary

- Opponent: Rhode Island FC
- Location: Carroll Stadium Stadium
- Attendance: 7,623
- Final Score: 3-2 L

- Starting XI: Sulte, Musa, Ofeimu, Stanley, Neidlinger, Soumaoro, Blake, Quinn (C), Martinez, Williams, A., Foster

- Substitution: Williams, R. 54' (Williams, A.); White 55' (Soumaoro); Diz Pe 75' (Stanley); Collier 75' (Neidlinger)

- Unused: Oettl, Guenzatti, Wootton

Scoring Summary:
RI - Williams 19' (Penalty Kick)
IND - Quinn 35' (unassisted)
RI - Williams 38' (unassisted)
RI - Williams 52' (assist Kwizera)
IND - Martinez 76' (assist Quinn)

- Bookings:

IND - Martinez 45'+2' (Yellow)
IND - Foster 58' (Yellow)
IND - Musa 69' (Yellow)
RI - Herivaux 81' (Yellow)
IND - Ofeimu 90'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: Joshua Encarnacion

- Adage goals: One

Thoughts and Opinions

The playoffs of any sport are just different. Teams work hard all year to put themselves into a position to have the best chance at success in the "win-or-go-home" scenario that the playoffs create. Indy used an 9-game undefeated run in the middle of the year and a 4W-4D-2L run to close out the season to give themselves an opening round home playoff game. Notably, Indy picked up a late stoppage time draw against Pittsburgh get a draw, which allowed them to finish even on points with Rhode Island. The August win against Rhode Island was the determining factor in giving Indy the head-to-head tiebreaker, thereby allowing Indy to host today's conference quarterfinal game. Rhode Island made the playoffs in their inaugural season in the USL Championship, in part, thanks to a league single-season record setting number of draws (15). Rhode Island's talented roster kept themselves in most games and rode that consistency to the playoffs. They also went to Louisville and came away with a 5-2 victory, so this was a team that proved they can compete with everybody in the league.

With Taylor Swift looming large (literally and figuratively) as she closes out her United States tour in Indianapolis this weekend, the game received an early afternoon start time. The Swift Era took precedence over the McAuley Era for Indy's evening entertainment, but the earlier start time still allowed Indy Eleven to get over 7,000 people into the stadium, including a couple dozen Rhode Island fans. It was the Williams (this time J.J. and not Augi nor Romario) Era that stole the show for the game as he notched the first hat-trick from an Indy opponent this season in the 3-2 Rhode Island win that sent Indy to an early departure from the playoffs.

Rhode Island likes to play out of the back and utilize the new trend of having one of the defenders do the restart by passing the ball along the six-yard box to the goalkeeper, who makes the decision on whether to continue to pass around the back or blast the ball up the the field. Indy, contrarily, have no interest in playing out of the back, but would rather get the ball out of their half of the field with a Sulte boot. With that style of play, it's important for Indy to get the first, or second, ball off those kicks. Indy had a 39% to 61% disadvantage on aerial duels. It wasn't the only factor, but after some early effort from Indy, Rhode Island began to control the game and winning those balls, forcing Indy to defend for large amounts of time. Eventually, all the possession and corner kicks led to an inadvertent handball in the Indy box. That handball led to a successful penalty kick by Williams, which led to an early lead for Rhode Island on the road.

The goal from the visitors allowed the tactics to change for awhile in the game. Rhode Island knows that Indy's attack frequently relies on long passes over the top to the forwards. With the 1-nil lead, Rhode Island could sit their back five defenders deeper to make it nearly impossible for Indy to do much with the ball in the final third of the field. Midway through the half, Indy drew a foul outside of the box that Blake put around the wall low, which Vegas was able to push wide for an Indy corner kick. In the subsequent corner, the ball was headed out of the box by Holstad, but directly into the general area of where Quinn was positioned. Quinn patiently let the ball drop and emphatically plucked it out of the air towards goal. The ball took a slight deflection off Nodarse, but Vegas couldn't get to the ball bringing the game level, and giving Quinn his first goal of the 2024 season.

With a potential momentum change in Indy's direction, Indy proceeded to immediately concede a second goal. Some efficient passing through the Indy defense and then a ton of effort from J.J. Williams to toe-poke the ball beyond Sulte's reach immediately put the visitors back on top. To be honest, Rhode Island were the better of the two sides to that point, but Indy's regularly effective team defending was atrocious in that moment. Some fireworks in the closing seconds of the half as Indy nearly equalized going into the halftime locker, but for the first home playoff game for Indy in 5 years, the home squad found themselves staring at a deficient that they were going to need to overcome in the second half.

Post 58th Minute - Shots & Crosses

Minutes into the second half, Rhode Island made a run up the left side of the field where Kwizera put a ball into the box that J.J. Williams, again with more effort than what Indy could match, found the ball with his head, and Rhode Island gave themselves a two-goal cushion on Williams' third goal of the game. Coach McAuley quickly made changes to the lineup, bringing on White and Romario Williams for Soumaoro and Augi, respectively. Those two substitutes made an immediate impact on the game with a cross from White that Romario redirected into the Rhode Island goal. However, the goal was correctly disallowed as Williams never got back on side as the ball recycled. Indy adamantly protested but all that they received for their protestations was a Foster yellow card and a bump in their energy as they tried to channel their frustration with the call into a successful goal. With a 3-1 lead, Rhode Island was content to defend. After Foster's goal, the field was drastically tilted in Indy's direction. Eventually, the pressure resulted in a Martinez goal in the 76th minute when Quinn put a ball into the box where Martinez could get his head to the ball and redirect it passed Vegas.

Post 76th Minute - Shots & Crosses

After the goal to bring Indy back to within one, the difference in offensive attempts was even more stark. Indy were fighting for their playoff lives, while Rhode Island were looking to hold onto their lead, knowing they were getting closer and closer to a matchup with Louisville next weekend. The game ultimately went included 10-minutes of stoppage time before a Quinn shot that was well wide signaled the end of action. 

Rhode Island and Indy played three times on the season and ended the year with a 0 Goal Differential, with both teams scoring 6 goals apiece between the three games. The game looked exactly like a matchup between two teams that finished the season with the exact same number of points and were the 4/5 matchup in the playoff bracket. Surprisingly, it also looked like two teams that had a dozen-year rivalry instead of two teams that were meeting for just the third time as the game was chippy, nearly from the start.

With the win, Rhode Island continue their successful first season in the league, but get rewarded for that success by having to play next week in Louisville. Indy, however, have to watch the remainder of the season from their homes and try to figure out a way to come back next year and do something the men's side has never done before; make the playoffs in three consecutive years. When asked after the game how he wants to be able to take the "winning culture" he has tried to build this year with a top 4 finish and a run in the Open Cup, he responded:

"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. And that's where we have to make decisions on the players. ... But we'll fight and we'll scrap to keep this momentum and identity going that we want to be recognized for what we do. And what we do is never give in. We gotta make decisions about players. I've already got a picture in my mind what it looks like so that's going to be easy for me to make them decisions. What I will say, and recognize is the landscape of the USL has changed. Gone are the days where you just return 6 players and we'll see if we can put a squad of 15 together. If you look at everybody's roster now, everybody's deep with probably 20 to 25 players, at least, who all play. So we gotta recognize the fact that there will be some squad building...I can see us making decisions on players but also keeping quite a few back because we've had, like we've said, a really successful season."

Soon, I'll provide my end-of-year recap and 2025 outlook to discuss my thoughts on who might be returning. 

I don't know how many other people saw it, but when the BYB set off their first round of smoke bombs just before the kickoff, it started a, relatively, small fire of one of the banners. If you're looking for bad omens before a playoff game, that might have been one. While we're talking about it. Why the hell doesn't the BYB have a fire extinguisher nearby instead of trying to put out the fire with water bottles? 

The Game Beckons Game Ball

As I stood near the sideline in second half stoppage time waiting for access to the post-game press conference, the ball came into the Rhode Island offensive corner and Quinn made a run over to the corner to defend. His body and face said that he was nearly gassed, but he knew he had to make the play and dug deep to get to the ball. He seemed to be the catalyst for all the offense going forward at the end of the game, distributing the ball from left to right and back again. All that was after he had Indy's first goal and then the assist on the second goal. Quinn has been a true professional this season as he continued to deal with he ongoing injury rehab from last season's injury. For his quality and effort tonight, Quinn gets the final GBGB of the season.

Photos - Don Thompson Photography

Indy Eleven vs Tampa Bay Rowdies - 11.34

Summary

- Opponent: Tampa Bay Rowdies
- Location: IMG Academy Soccer Stadium
- Attendance: 496
- Final Score: 3-0 L

- Starting XI: Sulte, Neidlinger, Chapman-Page, Diz Pe, Mines, White, Lindley (C), Guenzatti, Wootton, Williams, R., Collier

- Substitution: O'Brien, J. 62' (White); Martinez 68' (Collier); Williams, A. 68' (Williams, R.); Martinez 68' (Neidlinger)

- Unused: Oettl, Ofeimu, Soumaoro

Scoring Summary:
TBR - Arteaga 9' (Penalty Kick)
TBR - Crisostomo 25' (assist Bodily)
TBR - Jennings 63' (assist Fernandes)

- Bookings:

TBR - Hilton 50' (Yellow)
IND - Chapman-Page 52' (Yellow)
TBR - Munjoma 73' (Yellow)
TBR - Worth 90'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: Calin Radosav

- Adage goals: None

Thoughts and Opinions

Another week and another starting lineup. Only two players remained in the starting lineup from the last game against Birmingham (Sulte & Neidlinger), while the remaining 9 spots were filled by some players who either came in as substitutes or weren't even on the game roster (Lindley & Guezatti). The depth of Indy's squad this year allows for McAuley to make game-by-game decisions to put out the team that he thinks is best for the game, but also to manage legs and minutes. 

It was two former Indy Eleven players though that got the scoring started. Nick Moon took on Mines, then took on Diz Pe, and the two combined to bring Moon to the ground inside the box. Manuel Arteaga stepped up, sent Sulte to the goalkeeper's right, but calmly put the ball to Sulte's left. Indy came into the game with a chance to get to the 3rd position in the table with a win and a Detroit loss, but they put themselves down early to make that an uphill battle. Conceding the 2nd goal in the 25th minute was also well deserved as Bodily and Crisostomo worked their way around and through the Indy defenders. 

Indy, in the early minutes, were chasing shadows as the Rowdies moved the ball around nicely. Probably more impressive than their effort going forward was their defensive effort as they consistently pressed the ball whenever they lost it, giving Indy very little time to make any decisions or plays. The Rowdies were collectively in sync with each other defensively, and Indy had very little answer to get around, or even over, the TBR defensive line. As the game crept towards the halftime whistle, Indy began to have moments of possession, but as we've seen this year, possession in dangerous areas is more important than just possession and Indy weren't in dangerous areas with their possession. 

The two-goal deficit also sent McAuley into tinkering mode, with the midfielders constantly interchanging positions. Neidlinger, who started on the right side of the field, was seen moving into the middle of the field and even onto the left side. McAuley has indicated before that he wanted to get minutes for Neidlinger in the middle of the field to see how he would handle the pressure with guys coming at him from all angles. It looked like with very little to play for, McAuley was giving the young player another chance at learning that part of the game. As a result, White also started pushing more forward, leaving Lindley as the lone holding midfielder. Indy needed to figure out what was working, or could work, because the majority of the first 45 minutes was not a good display for Indy. 

With this Indy team, paying attention to most of the major statistical categories can mean almost nothing as to how a game is actually progressing. Tonight, though, TBR dominated the stats AND were the better team. Once Tampa Bay scored their third, all that was left was for the clock to run out. Oh, McAuley and Indy brought on attacking subs, but the game was never in doubt and Indy finished the regular season with a loss on the road.

The good news for Indy was that the home playoff game was never in doubt, no matter the result. If you were like me and were keeping one eye on the live standings, the spots below Indy bounced around quite a bit as scores moved the #5 - #10 teams around. Indy stayed firmly planted at the #4 spot. While the potential to get to the #3 spot was possible, it was also never in just their hands as they were going to need a losing performance from Detroit. Many times throughout this season, the statement was made that every point mattered. That was most prominently stated with the late late goal against Pittsburgh, when a 10-man Riverhounds team held on until the 90'+7' goal from Romario Williams. Looking at just that single result, without the goal and the subsequent draw, Indy, Tampa Bay, and Pittsburgh would have all finished on 50 points. As a result, Rhode Island would have moved to 4th place, Tampa Bay would have moved to 5th place, and thanks to the 3rd tiebreaker, Pittsburgh would have finished in 6th place if I did my math correctly. If it had not been for that late equalizer by Romario, Indy would be headed back to Charleston in their opening game of the playoffs. Obviously, that might have adjusted how Indy played this game, but that late stoppage time goal proved to be important.

What was a bit disheartening (from a table perspective) from this game was that the 3-goal deficit took Indy's season goal differential to -1. Indy are the only Eastern Conference playoff team with a negative goal differential. Indy's season can be directly traced to their ability to score goals. Obviously, that seems intuitive, but to be able to go 34 games and cumulatively draw all your opponents and still finish in the 4th spot on the table says a lot about the weirdness of this game. The fact that Western Conference winners New Mexico United basically did the same thing may be even crazier. 

It's difficult to call tonight's starting lineup as a "B" roster because all of tonight's starters have starter minutes. However, due to injuries, Guenzatti hadn't played for 6 games, Chapman-Page hadn't played for 10 games, White hadn't played for 4 games, and Diz Pe hadn't played for 2 games. To say these guys weren't at peak condition might be an understatement. More than a third of the starting lineup would normally not have gone more than 60-65 minutes as they worked their way back to full-game health. Three of those four guys played all ninety minutes, with only White coming out due to yet another injury. McAuley knew coming into this game that a result was nice but not vital, and he played a lineup that could get minutes on guy's legs in a non-playoff situation.

With the rest of the night's results, Indy now know they will be playing Rhode Island next Sunday at Carroll Stadium. Indy drew Rhode Island 3-3 at Beirne Stadium in July thanks to a late stoppage goal from RI, while Indy came out ahead 1-nil at Carroll Stadium in August. The next game though will have more on the line as Indy will be looking for their first home & playoff win since 2019, and Rhode Island will be looking for their first playoff win ever in their first season in the USL.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

I don't like not giving a GBGB, but I can't think of a single player's performance that stands out for me as being overly worthy.   

Indy Eleven vs Birmingham Legion FC - 11.33

Summary

- Opponent: Birmingham Legion FC
- Location: Carroll Stadium
- Attendance: 10,540
- Final Score: 3-2 W

- Starting XI: Sulte, Musa, Ofeimu, Stanley, Neidlinger, Soumaoro, Blake, Quinn (C), Martinez, Foster, Williams, A.

- Substitution: Williams, R. 45' (Martinez); Wootton 55' (Soumaoro); Mines 72' (Foster); Collier 80' (Williams, A.)

- Unused: Oettl, Chapman-Page, O'Brien, J.

Scoring Summary:
IND - 14' (OG - Kavita)
IND - Blake 15' (assist Martinez)
BHM - Pinho 54' (assist Mensah)
IND - Wootton 86' (unassisted)
BHM - Zouhir 90' (assist Martinez)

- Bookings:

IND - Williams, A. 79' (Yellow)

- Referee: Matthew Corrigan

- Adage goals: One

Thoughts and Opinions

The season has come down to the wire, but the math had significantly simplified coming into tonight's game against Birmingham. If Indy and Birmingham finished level, Indy would secure their place in the playoffs. If Indy win, they secure they place their place in the playoffs, while also keeping alive their chances of hosting a playoff game. If Indy lost, the playoffs were still in play with a draw/win next week in Tampa Bay, but hosting a game would become a bit more difficult.

Photo: Don Thompson

Standing in Indy's way were Birmingham, a team that doesn't just have one former player on their roster, but three different players, each of who were in the starting lineup tonight. Crognale has anchored the Birmingham defense for nearly the entire time since his departure from Indy, while Tyler Pasher and Stefano Pinho were available to bring the firepower up top and in the midfield. Pinho and Pasher sit in the Top 10 in Indy club history for Goals (Pinho tied for 7th, Pasher alone in 2nd), Points (Pinho 10th, Pasher 2nd), Pasher is 9th in Assists, and the two are in the Top Five in Game Winners (Pinho tied for 5th, Pasher at #1). With those players on the opposing side trying to prevent Indy from securing a playoff position, Indy fans had bittersweet emotions. Our players are #IndyForever, but not during the 90-minutes of the game, and definitely not when those 90-minutes take place at Carroll Stadium with a playoff spot on the line.

Indy took a two-minute stretch in the first half to nearly put the game out of reach. A Quinn centering cross was helped along by Martinez, and then Birmingham's Kavita tried to redirect the ball, but redirected it into his own goal to start the scoring. A minute later, the ball was cycled around to Martinez who went to the endline, but instead of sending the ball into the box with no set target, he pulled the ball back slightly to get a ball to an on-rushing Blake. Blake, instead of one-timing a shot, took a second touch to put the ball into a better shooting position and then put it out of the reach of Van Oekel to double the advantage. The next 30 minutes were played to a nil-nil stalemate, but the damage had been done and Indy went into the locker room in a playoff-hosting position thanks to the other results around the conference. The results from the night maintained that position, putting Indy's playoff hosting fate into firmly into their own hands.

Halftime Shots

Proof that possession and shot differences don't always tell the story of the game, Birmingham held a 57% to 43% advantage in possession and a 12 to 3 advantage in shots when the teams went into the halftime break. However, that possession was skewed into Indy's attacking half and the majority of Birmingham's shots were either in non-threatening areas from distance or were well off target. It's difficult to argue with a 2-goal lead, particularly when you're forcing the opponent into difficult shooting positions. Indy was a little sloppy with their passes towards the very end of the half, but a two-goal lead allows some cushion for some mistakes. However, I'm sure the halftime talk from Coach McAuley was related to the fact that an early second half goal by Indy would likely put the game out of reach, but an early second half goal by Birmingham would change the entire tenor of the game. 

It took less than 10 minutes for that momentum goal to come to fruition. Unfortunately for Indy fans, that goal was provided by former player Stefano Pinho, and Indy found themselves needing to do a gut check to determine if they had it in them to get the full three points. While the draw would solidify a playoff spot, Indy watched Louisville seal the Players' Shield on the Carroll Stadium turf on the last home game and wouldn't have wanted to watch a win evaporate tonight too to prevent the option of securing a home playoff game. That kind of letdowns in back-to-back weekends would start to work against the team's psyche going into the playoffs. 

After the goal, the field tilted to Birmingham's offensive side of the field, forcing Indy to rely on their defending. Indy has generally been a solid team when they're in "park the bus" or "defending for life" mode. Tonight would be no different for most of the second half. While Birmingham, fighting for their playoff lives, continued to pepper shots towards Indy's goal, they continued to do so from outside the box. It wasn't until the 90th minute when Zouhir put a wicked shot on frame from 35-yards away that sent Hunter to his right before the ball knuckled back to the space that Hunter had vacated to give the visitor's a second goal and life in the dying minutes of the game. Indy had managed a third goal through Wootton in the 86th minute, so the Birmingham goal was disappointing given the time in the game, but still maintained Indy's ability to get all three points from the game. A few minutes after Zouhir's goal, he once again put a long-distance shot on frame, but this one was low and Hunter was able to parry it away to solidify the 3-2 win. 

Birmingham had one more shot on target in stoppage time, but shortly after referee Matthew Corrigan blew the whistle and Indy survived Birmingham's late comeback attempt. With the win, Indy have secured their place in the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in the team's history, and the first since Martin Rennie's first and second seasons in 2018 & 2019. Indy have only lost once in the last 9 games to put themselves in this opportunity to host a playoff game. After the rough start to the season and the slump after the 8-game win streak, Indy have consistently been getting points to close out the year. If you're looking for downsides, which I'm apt to do, Indy haven't been able to string together wins during the recent run of form. That might be nit-picking though at a place in the season where every point has been valuable and needed.

Photo: Drew Thompson

Indy head to Tampa Bay next weekend with the chance to secure a home playoff game. If I'm doing my scenarios and math correctly, a draw in Tampa Bay secures the home playoff game as it would put Indy at 52 points, Rhode Island can only reach a max of 51 points, and Tampa could only get to 52 if they beat Indy. So a boring nil-nil draw provides at least one more game in Carroll Stadium this year. A 4th place finish would see Indy face off against one of those two teams depending on those teams they finish their seasons. Tampa Bay play Hartford in their makeup game due to Hurricane Helene before hosting Indy at the IMG Academy, while Rhode Island finish at home against Miami, which season results would indicate should be a win for Rhode Island. The Rhode Island/Miami game starts 30-minutes after Indy and Tampa Bay kickoff, so Indy will have to play their final game with the assumption that Rhode Island gets all three points against Miami. Tampa Bay has struggled in recent weeks, so a draw seems doable. However, there is enough talent on Tampa Bay's team that Indy need to head to Tampa looking for a dogfight.  

(Random) Final Thoughts

Indy should have had a 4th or 5th goal late that would have made the end of the game less nervy, but Collier sent his shot from just beyond the penalty spot high and into the BYB, while Romario Williams also had a decent chance, but got a little bit too cute with the ball and never got a proper shot off despite being yards away from the goal. As Coach McAuley tries to create a winning culture (something that every new coach has said they need to do), he indicted post-game that he values the team's resiliency and determination to hold onto results (Louisville game notwithstanding). 

Neidlinger marking Pasher early. "Hey Kid. They tell me your the youngest player in club history to score a goal. I'm second in the club in goals scored. Try keeping up with me." - Pasher (maybe) Neidlinger was pummeled with attacks in the second half as Birmingham sent wave after wave of their attack up the left side where Neidlinger was defending. To his credit, the young professional played really well. McAuley indicated that Logan began to tire late in the game, but nearly caught enough of a second (or third or fourth) wind to get a shot off in the 84th minute that nearly found the goal. 

I never would have thought that (mostly) healthy (or not red card suspended) Lindley, Gibson, Guenzatti, and Diz Pe wouldn't even make the 18 in a game as important as a game that would clinch a playoff spot. The depth of the team this year has taken on a new level.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

His minutes have kind of been all over the place this season, but when he's been asked to play, Wootton plays with a ton of energy and effectiveness. He was rewarded for his ability to step up when needed and rifled a shot past Van Oekel that became the game winner. I like to reward guys when the game rewards them and tonight that was Wootton. While the game-winning goal is better, the GBGB isn't bad either. 

Photos - Don Thompson Photography