I went into this game assuming that the Eleven were going to lose. Yeah, I know. What kind of fan am I? A realistic one. Cincinnati hasn't lost in 21 games (on May 26th to Louisville) and have now won 10 games in a row. Indy has been inconsistent, were on the road, and have struggled against the top portion of the conference. Cincinnati is not just in the top portion like the Eleven, they are THE top and it hasn't even been a close race.
Yet, based on the statistics, the Eleven held their own; even held an advantage in a number of categories. Coach Rennie has routinely said that they have been progressing well and that they needed to eliminate some individual mistakes. The Eleven had mistakes and paid for them nearly every time in this game. That's what great teams do when you make a mistake.
When Adi scored in the 34th minute, nobody stepped to the ball. If you don't stop the ball, a player's options significantly increase. When nobody stepped to him, Adi fired a shot. Yes, it took a deflection, but Fon Williams has struggled with shots like that all year. Close range reaction saves have been fine, but shots from distance seem to surprise him.
When Konig scored in the 65th minute, Fon Williams came well off his line, despite Konig being surrounded by both Mitchell and Ferreira, and made absolutely no contact with the ball. Konig collected and easily placed the ball into the goal.
On their third goal, the Eleven were slow at closing down Cicerone who had time to pin-point his cross, which Mitchell managed to redirect nicely into the side netting. It was a nice goal, it was just in the wrong goal.
The Eleven were credited with 20 shots, but only 5 were on target and a bunch of the missed shots were blasted well wide or over the goal. They were only 25% accurate on their shots, whereas Cincinnati took only 9 shots, but were 55.6% accurate.
Despite the 3-nil scoreline, I don't think the Eleven were a far inferior team against Cincinnati. Indy had some chances, but good saves from Newton and maybe an uncalled handball inside the 18 kept Indy off the scoreboard. Indy also had an issue with getting on the end of their crosses. The team had 24 crosses, of which only 7 were successful. As can be seen from the Chalkboard screen capture, Venegas accounted for 13 of the team's 24 crosses, but only two of those were successful. Venegas had success getting around Cincinnati's left side defense, but they couldn't do anything with the effort. The Eleven, as per usual, had some really good moments, but the final touch (whether that was a pass or shot) when they got inside the final third was lacking all night.
That's been a recurring theme from time-to-time this season. Unfortunately, the team has run out of time for me to think that they're going to figure it out in time for them to make any kind of substantial run in the playoffs. It looks like they are going to sneak in, but my guess is they're going to have to win games on the road as I don't see them getting themselves into position to host.
If Indy wins out, they get to 54 points. Only Bethlehem and Charleston have the potential to reach that point total or higher and if Indy beats Bethlehem, then that takes care of them. Charleston currently sit on 53 points, so they would have to lose to both Atlanta and Ottawa to not gain any additional points. I don't see that happening. So now the Eleven are playing to stay in the playoffs. If they manage just draws against Bethlehem and Louisville, that puts them at 50 points and NYRBII, Nashville, NCFC, Ottawa, & Bethlehem all have the potential to match or surpass that total.
It basically comes down to the fact that if Indy doesn't win out against Bethlehem and Louisville, they're going to need some results to go their way to make sure they are in the playoffs. At this point, after having watched them all season against the top portion of the conference, I'm going to resort to my typical pessimistic view. I think they make the playoffs, but just barely. Though, if they don't get any points from the Bethlehem AND Louisville games, I don't think they squeak in.
Two weeks remain for them to prove their worthy of a playoff spot.
The Game Beckons Game Ball
In a game where it was hard for me to differential one player as the stand-out player, sometimes you have to reward the effort and not necessarily the results. So Venegas gets the Game Beckons Game Ball tonight. He was consistently causing trouble for Cincinnati on the right side of the field, but had difficulty finding people on the other end of his crosses.
- Opponent: FC Cincinnati
- Location: Indianapolis
- Attendance: 8,079
- Final Score: 2-3 L
- Starting XI: Fon Williams, Ring, Mitchell, Ouimette, Ayoze, Steinberger, Guerra, Pasher, Speas, Saad, McInerney
- Substitutions: Lewis 60' (Steinberger); Watson 60' (Speas); Braun 78' (Guerra)
- Unused: Farr, Matern, Rusin, Venegas
- Goals: McInerney 24'; Ayoze 31' (PK)
- Bookings: Ayoze 88' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: One
It's starting to look like the Eleven are going to have to win games in the first half and then hold on during the second half. In six games this year, the Eleven have scored six goals. None of which have come in the second half of any game. In this game, both teams were awarded questionable penalty kicks and both teams capitalized on those kicks. FC Cincinnati's PK came early in the game, putting the visitors on the board in just the 7th minute of action.
Indy fought back to level by the 24th minute when Ring put a ball in the middle of the field that FCC's Walker misplayed, allowing McInerney to run onto it for a shot on goal. His initial attempt was parried away by Richey, but only as far as the 6-yard box where McInerney had continued his run and slotted the rebound home under the outstretched Richey. The Eleven were awarded their own penalty kick when Saad was deemed to have received a rough challenge inside the box. Just as Walker had done with FCC's penalty kick, Ayoze sent the ball in the opposite direction as the keeper and the Eleven found themselves up a goal after having been down a goal early.
FCC rounded out the first half scoring with Corbin Bone putting a ball between a couple defenders that McLaughlin ran onto, shot from outside the 18, and one hopped just in front of, and under, Fon Williams. After 45 minutes, the teams went into the locker room in what was probably a well deserved draw. Both teams had one legit goal and one goal for each from the penalty spot that could be debated as having been rewarded for flops by Welshman and Saad.
FCC capped the scoring in the 55th minute from another shot outside the 18 that found its way just inside the post and then nearly had a fourth goal in the 57th minute when Fon Williams was forced to push a ball over the crossbar after Walker unleashed from just under 30 yards away. After that, the Eleven were forced to chase the game and the first subs for Indy took place moments later when Lewis and Watson entered for Steinberger and Speas, respectively. Braun rounded out the subs for Guerra and the bulk of the starting midfield finished the game on the sidelines.
With 3 games in a week, both FCC and the Eleven employed starting lineups that were different than we've seen recently and definitely different than when the teams met in March. By my count, FCC started 5 guys that didn't even see time in the first game, while the Eleven started just one player who didn't see time in the first game. However, the Eleven's starting lineup significantly shuffled the midfield for this game and the midfield seemed to be a weak point in this game for them.
Notably, and confusingly for me, Coach Rennie started Pasher on the right side and Soony Saad on the left. Guerra and Steinberger more as defensive mids, allowing Speas to serve as the playmaker. Pasher made it to around the 35th minute before Coach Rennie swapped him with Saad and I'm confused about why he started them that way. As Coach told us before, Pasher's defensive ability and his ability to take on guys is solid. However, and this is key for me, Pasher drastically favors his left foot and playing him on the right means that he is going to turn the ball back into the middle to create any chance from the right side. As a defender, you force him to the endline and away from the middle, and you've effectively taken Pasher out of the play. Until he shows he can serve some balls with his right foot, he's going to become easier to defend when playing on the right. On the left is a completely different matter.
On a night when Lucas Oil Stadium had the roof open and a view of the City through the north window, the Eleven had some chances at the end of the game, including a free kick strike from Saad that was eerily similar to the goal he scored against Nashville, but couldn't find the equalizer. The Eleven and FCC have now played twice early in the season, both in Indy, and the Eleven didn't manage a single point. Fortunately, the team can't dwell on the defeat as conference leading Louisville City FC comes to Indianapolis for a noon start on Saturday.
"It's disappointing tonight, but it's only two days before we play again so we have a chance to bounce back. It's really one of the first games this season where I was disappointed with too many things tonight. I think every game we've played this season we've improved, we got better. So we need to put this one behind us and bounce back and, obviously, no better way to do that than against Louisville on Saturday." - Coach Rennie
The Game Beckons Game Ball
For me, despite giving up two legit goals, the Game Beckons Game Ball still goes to Brad Ring and Carlyle Mitchell. After the game, Brad said,
"Getting two goals, for us, should be enough to get some kind of result so it's on the defense. As a unit. As a team. Not just the four of us, not just the goalie, it's on all of us collectively. We can't allow three goals."
So even though Ring wasn't happy with their play, I didn't find too many problems with his play. Mitchell didn't track well on FCC's second goal, but between the two of them, they stifled a significant number of attacks from FCC before they even turned into shots or crosses. Ring was credited with a scoring chance and I believe that was the one that ended up being McInerney's goal. The stats indicate Mitchell lost more aerial duels than he won, but that seems incorrect to me. Regardless, given the rest of the play, these two stood out for me.
- Opponent: FC Cincinnati
- Location: Indianapolis
- Attendance: 17,535
- Final Score: 1-0 L
- Starting XI: Fon Williams, Ouimette, Mitchell, Ferreira, Pasher, Speas, Matern, Watson, Steinberger, Starikov, McInerney
- Substitutions: Ring 44' (Ferreira - injury); Saad 57' (Speas); Braun 86' (Watson)
- Unused: Lundgaard, Rusin, Guerra, Lewis
- Goals: None
- Bookings: Ferreira 41' (Yellow); McInerney 45'+4' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: None
In front of a franchise record 17,535 fans, the Indy Eleven began their new adventure in Lucas Oil Stadium with a 1-nil loss against FC Cincinnati, one of the stronger sides from last year. The Eleven were arguably the better of the two sides, but couldn't connect on their chances, while FCC managed to get one of their two shots on target to go into the goal. The Eleven more than doubled up FCC in shots, shots on goal, and shots inside & outside the box, but could only find the post in the 17th minute when McInerney headed a cross from Pasher. McInerney had another chance in the first half from the penalty spot, but FCC's keeper Newton went the correct direction and parried away the attempt, as well as the attempted rebound shot from Speas.
USL Stats - 2nd Half Shots
With a one goal advantage on the road and a fairly stout defense, FCC didn't push forward with the same intensity in the 2nd half; content to keep 8 or 9 guys behind the ball and absorb the pressure from the Eleven. Pressure that didn't happen as quickly as it needed during spells. As the lady behind me verbalized (in an accent I never did manage to pinpoint) what was in my head in the 73rd minute with a slow Indy Eleven build-up, "Where the runners?"
There are glimpses. Just like last week, you can see what this team can become. They're just not quite there yet. At least, not quite there yet all the time.
Eventually, the glimpses will happen more frequently and will provide more results. Pasher's pace and crosses continue to remind me of Vuko, but without Vuko's sometimes lackadaisical retreat back on defense. The cross that he sent in for McInerney's shot off the post came from Pasher taking on three different FCC defenders, the first of which was left standing still when Pasher used some fancy foot skills to freeze him.
USL Stats - FC Cincinnati Goal
Overall, the team played a good game and even FCC's goal came against the run of play at that point in the game. Bone sent a cross-field pass from left to right to a waiting Ledesma. When he wasn't immediately pressed, he put a perfectly weighted ball towards the penalty spot, which Welshman flicked on out of the reach of Fon Williams. Welshman was flanked by two Indy Eleven defenders and the ball floated right between them to where Welshman was waiting. It was one of the rare major mistakes the defense made all night, but FCC made them pay for it with a goal. While the defense didn't make too many mistakes, the offensive counterparts were putting too many of their shots high and wide of the FCC goal. Newton was credited with 6 saves, but the Eleven had 11 other shots off target, with some of them not even forcing any effort from Newton.
USL Stats - Fon Williams Distribution
As long as we're talking about goalkeepers, let's look in on how Fon Williams did this week with keeping his clearances in the field of play. One ball exited the field from his clearances. However, that ball was kicked as Fon Williams was under pressure from one of the FCC forwards. Two games in and I've noticed that he doesn't do well with clearances when under pressure. It's not going to take too much longer for the rest of the league to see enough tape to test him more often to see if they can force him to turn the ball over without the rest of the team doing much work and having to win aerial duals.
So that takes care of the on-field analysis. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to completely agree with Kristian Nicht's assessment of the team just yet, but I've seen enough to think this team could be special.
As far as the new venue goes, Lucas Oil Stadium is massive. Yet, the drapes that were put up to hide the upper sections significantly helped reduce the feel of the venue. There were open seats scattered throughout the bowl, but the visitor section was packed full, the BYB was packed full, I saw at least one section of the 200 level seats being used, and there were suites scattered around the stadium that were used. Attendance numbers in professional sports are as much of a mystery to me as why people like Justin Bieber's music, but it certainly felt like 17,000 people were there.
The massive size of the stadium creates some weird acoustics though. From my seats in Section 116, the FCC supporters were significantly louder than the BYB. Granted, they were basically aiming their sound at me, but when they chanted "we can't hear you" to the BYB, they weren't wrong. I've been to 4 years of Carroll Stadium and I know what sound the BYB can put out, but somewhere between their section and mine, the sound disappeared. I have a theory that part of the difference between the two sections was that some of the BYB noise was being lost behind them in the massive platform on the north end of the stadium, whereas the sound from FCC's section had nowhere to go but out. At times, I could also hear the Red Card Regiment when they were playing in the South End, more than I could hear the BYB. A couple dozen instruments drowned out a few thousand BYB members and FCC supporters. Odd acoustics.That being said, all that noise must have been reaching the field because I noticed a couple times that guys were having a difficult time talking to one another.
When your house is massive, you need massive art work. In that category, the BYB and Slaughterhouse-19 did not disappoint, creating one of the best tifo the team has ever seen. Thanks to local resident and actor Drew Powell (Gotham), the tifo found its way to its inspiration and provided Indy with tens of thousands of views when Millie Bobby Brown responded to his tweet.
Let me reiterate, the stadium is massive. That goes for the press as well. The game brought out a significant number more media members, from writers to photographers, and the ability to move around the stadium that was enjoyed at Carroll was impossible at Lucas Oil Stadium. At Carroll, if you wanted to move between the press box and the field, you could do so easily and really not miss any of the action. If the front office needed to run halftime stats to media personnel or address any issue that was happening, it was a couple minutes. In Lucas Oil Stadium, it took a couple minutes just to get to the elevator that would take you were you needed to go. The logistics of LOS are so much different that Carroll and the Front Office staff that I saw over the course of the night looked absolutely exhausted by the end of the night. The tasks that they have been able to do at Carroll took on lives of their own in LOS.
Finally, there wasn't a single Port-a-Potty. Concession stands that weren't housed in cargo containers. Fifty degree weather that didn't require fans being completely bundled. Absolutely no chance of not starting the game at 7 and finishing at 9. I'm still not convinced on how this works financially (I mean, did you see how many security staff are employed at LOS compared to Carroll...and the Guest Services staff...and the concession staff...and the staff running the elevators...etc.?), but there were some definite perks to being at LOS. Not to mention that we were able to witness a soccer game in Indianapolis with 17,000+ people, which was not feasible at Carroll Stadium.
It may not have been the result that everybody wanted on-the-field, but the off-field portion seemed to go significantly more smoothly than the Eleven's first attempt at a new venue 4 years ago when the team kicked off their inaugural campaign in Carroll Stadium. The glimpses we're seeing on-the-field are going to become more consistent and I think this season is going to be something special in which to participate.
The Game Beckons Game Ball
This week, the Game Beckons Game Ball goes to Brad Ring. #Legend was forced into action early when Ferreira went down with an injury just before halftime. While Indy fans have grown accustomed to seeing Ring in the holding midfielder role, Ring played really well as a right back. Ouimette shifted into the centerback role vacated by Ferreira and the defense went about its business.
The first official domino of the season has fallen and so fans of the Indy Eleven now know that the team will be playing in the USL. This has been conveyed to me several times that the league decision preempted all of the other decisions for the team. With the announcement last week of which league the team would be playing, the remaining dominoes should start falling soon.
Fans know that discussions are being had regarding the use of Lucas Oil Stadium as the team’s new home as a potential replacement for Carroll Stadium, which I’ve discussed here. Despite some people’s optimism for using LOS, I’m still hesitant of the advantages. The team has started taking reservations for season tickets, and have indicated in interviews that, as of right now, Carroll Stadium is the team’s home. As such, ticket prices for the 2018 season have been stated to remain the same as those from the 2017 season. A move to LOS would adjust the price, but those number are not being made public. I suspect from conversations that the team has an idea how the prices will change, but like most of the items that took place in this off-season, they aren’t going to play their hand just yet.
The team website, for a bit, indicated three players on the roster; Brad Ring, David Goldsmith, and Ben Speas. While the team’s site no longer shows the roster, the USL website still lists those three players under their “Transfers” page. As I’ve written before, the team has indicated “several” players options were picked up and “several” players options were not picked up. I assume we won’t get any official player announcements until a decision is made on who will be the next head coach. A report from Soc Takes are that Trevor James, Jimmy Nielsen, Martin Rennie, and Mark Lowry are the leading candidates. Until I hear an official announcement, it’s all hearsay to me. Two years ago, people had guesses and rumors, but none of them included Tim Hankinson and he brought the team to penalty kicks away from beating the Cosmos in the Championship game.
While we wait for all of those dominoes fall, let’s talk about rivalries. Geographic rivalries at least. The Eleven have some past history with some of the teams in the USL Eastern Conference due to the exodus of NASL teams over the past couple years to the USL. Tampa Bay Rowdies, Ottawa Fury, and North Carolina FC (formerly Carolina Railhawks) all have past experience playing the Eleven. NCFC being the most recent since both teams were in the NASL last year. However, I want to discuss the two teams that are expected, at least on paper, to provide for supporters group road trips; FC Cincinnati and Louisville City FC.
Indy Eleven have a history with both teams, to varying levels. The Eleven played FC Cincinnati during the 2016 preseason, ending in a 1-1 draw. The Eleven have a much more extensive relationship with Louisville City FC, having played them at least once in each of the past three season. The teams played a preseason game in 2015, won by LCFC 2:1 in a “chippy affair” before meeting again in the U.S. Open Cup, with LCFC again winning by a 2-nil score with the goals coming late in the second overtime. The two teams met in the 2016 preseason with the Eleven again falling to the southern rivals in a 1-nil match. When the U.S. Open Cup draw came out, the two teams found themselves pitted against each other once more. The Eleven finally broke through and defeated LCFC behind goals from Omar Gordon and Eamon Zayed.
This past year, the two teams met in Evansville for the Eleven’s final preseason game. Thanks to a stoppage time goal by Vukovic, the teams walked away with a 1-1 draw. The Eleven have managed a 1W-2D-3L record against their two new league mates in U.S. Open Cup and preseason matches.
Everyone expects that these two teams, more than any of the others, will be able to bring a significant number of their own supporters to Indy and that Indy will reciprocate and take significant numbers to Cincinnati and Louisville due to the approximately 2-hour drives between the cities. With the help of former Indy Eleven public relations staff member Scott Stewart (now serving as Director of Public Relations & Media Relations for LCFC) and lower league attendance extraordinaire Mike Pendleton (who you might know as @phat7deuce on Twitter), I was able to get some data about how LCFC and FCC traveled to each other. On the season, FCC lead all of Division 2 soccer averaging 21,199 people per regular season game, with LCFC coming in third with 8,613 people per game, and Indy Eleven finished in fourth with 8,395 people per game. However, if you subtract the regular season games against each other, FCC averaged 21,250 people per game and LCFC averaged 8,026 people per game.
As Mike pointed out to me, “Cincy is a whole other animal, so hard to tell for them. Their biggest games came down the stretch” and LCFC went to FCC in late April so it's hard to tell, just from the data, on what affect Louisville had on FCC's attendance. However, it’s clear from the data that FCC playing IN Louisville had a major affect on LCFC’s attendance. Average attendance in Louisville for the two matches against FCC was 12,722 people, with a high value of 13,812 people. LCFC averaged nearly 4,700 more people in the two games against FCC than they did the rest of the year. Mike also pointed out that FCC traveled well to Louisville, but “it was also Louisville crawling out of every hole to make sure they didn't give Cincy a warm welcome.”
LCFC brought a decent crowd to Indy for the U.S. Open Cup games, but those were mid-week games in the early rounds of the USOC. I fully expect them to bring more to Indy for league matches taking place on the weekend. FCC looks to have traveled well to Louisville so I would expect a similar trend when they play Indy. I can’t find the numbers on how many Indy fans made the trip to the USOC game versus the Fire, but that was, again, a mid-week again and I suspect weekend games against FCC and LCFC are going to get at least a few hundred supporters making the trips. In all cases, I think Mike’s comment of the home crowd “crawling out of every hole” will likely hold for Indy as well. If the team’s home opener against FCC takes place in LOS, I’m going to guess that there will be a lot of the Indy Eleven fair-weather fans show up along with the FCC supporters. The LOS lower bowl seats 16,000 people and I’ll guess that announced attendance will hover around 14,000 for that game.
NASL Team Banner - current as of 01/16/2018
It’s painful that the Eleven’s departure from the NASL has left a league grasping for survival (have you seen their banner lately?), but the ability to have geographical rivals has been a major selling point for the USL for me. I just hope that the Eleven start to turn around that win-loss record against these two teams and start getting more wins than losses. It's only a rivalry if both teams actually have some wins. Otherwise, it's just one team constantly beating another one that just happens to be geographically near them.
