Indy Eleven vs Phoenix Rising - 11.12

Summary

- Opponent: Phoenix Rising FC
- Location: Carroll Stadium 
- Attendance: 10,066
- Final Score: 2-1 W

- Starting XI: Sulte, Ofeimu, O'Brien, J., Diz Pe, Boudadi, Lindley (C), Blake, Stanley, Guenzatti, Martinez, Williams

- Substitution: Collier 61' (Williams); Gibson 61' (Lindley); Mines 61' (Boudadi); Wotton 71' (Guenzatti); O'Brien, E. 82' (Blake)

- Unused: Oettl, Schneider

- Scoring Summary:
PHX - Hernandez 19' (assist Zambrano)
IND - Blake 26' (Penalty Kick)
IND - Blake 64' (unassisted - free kick)

- Bookings:

PHX - Hernandez 27' (Yellow)
PHX - Scearce 32' (Yellow)
IND - Lindley 41' (Yellow)
IND - Boudadi 45'+2' (Yellow)
PHX - Wyke 50' (Yellow)
IND - Blake 57' (Yellow)
PHX - Rios Novo 62' (Yellow)
IND - O'Brien, E. 90' (Yellow)

- Referee: Calin Radosav

- Adage goals: None

Thoughts and Opinions

For everybody that managed to make it all 5 games for the club for both the women's and men's teams...

Congrats! We made it! We completed the #IronFan (thanks @Indy11SouthEnd for that hashtag!).

Phoenix come to Indy as the reigning USL Championship winners, but come into town with a similar record as the Eleven; 5W-2D-4L for Indy, 4W-3D-4L for Phoenix. Much like Indy, Phoenix struggled to find their footing early in the season after the departure of their manager, former Indy Eleven player, Juan Guerra after he left for an assistant coach role at Houston Dynamo. While Indy won on Wednesday in their USOC game, Phoenix fell to MLS side Seattle Sounders by a score of 2-1.

Momentum and belief are important factors for teams. After Indy's humbling defeats against Louisville and Charleston, Indy hasn't seen a defeat in any competition. After Phoenix lost to Pittsburgh in late April, they too have only the loss against Seattle. Home cooking for Indy is helpful, while Phoenix have travelled all over the country this week. Indy's "easier" win midweek also allowed them to manage minutes and legs, something that McAuley has mentioned multiple times this year regarding squad rotation being accomplished in game versus between games.

While the game promotion for Indy was Racing Indy Night, the game was by no means a track meet. Indy had just a few counterattacks as Phoenix held the possession, but did so with slow movements instead of many quick attacks of Indy's defense. The Rising eventually found a corner kick in the 19th minute that Hernandez put past Sulte in one of Hunter's recent rare mistakes. Sulte misjudged the corner kick and the ball floated over his outstretched 6'-7" frame directly to Hernandez on the back post. As well as he has played in recent games, he's still just a 21-year old who is here to get minutes and will be subject to the occasional mistake.

The goal for Indy picked up their pace, not wanting the undefeated streak to come to an end at home in front of their home fans. The resulting uptick in effort shifted the line of confrontation to much further in PHX's defensive half of the pitch. The additional effort quickly led to a foul from Phoenix in their own box when Blake was taken down as he made his run towards goal. A quick point to the spot from referee Radosav gave Indy an opportunity to get back into the game. Blake brushed off the turf, stepped up to the spot, and leveled the game with a shot down the middle of the goal.

Just before the halftime whistle, the racing theme began to show itself as the game went end-to-end for a stretch, but Phoenix realized that was not the way they needed to play this game on their tired bodies and resorted back to putting their foot on the ball to bring the game back to a snail's pace. Headed into the locker room, Phoenix had to believe that they were the winners of the half, despite the tied score line and conceding the penalty kick. They played the way they wanted to play, exactly at the pace that they needed. Coach McAuley thought the guys looked a little tired during the Detroit game on Wednesday, and I don't think the first half of tonight's game was going to change their impression. 

As the teams came out of the locker room, Phoenix made immediate substitutions. Indy, as expected, stayed with the starting eleven. Coach McAuley has shown all season that he is going to stick with his starters until around the 60th minute mark. As the pace continued to be dictated by PHX, the second half looked like both teams were tired and were just trying to see the week out.

Moments after the substitution, Collier put pressure on Rios Novo who left his box to try and eliminate the pressure from the 6'-4" New Zealander. When Martinez intercepted the ball and put it on frame, Rios Novo was judged to have handled the ball giving Indy a free kick about 25-yards from goal. Blake stepped up, put the ball low and around the wall, and snuck it between Rios Novo and the post to put Indy ahead for the game winner.

The win gives Indy a 5-game win streak in league play and 6 unbeaten. Including the USOC games, the team is on a 7-game win streak and 9 unbeaten. The 5-game league win streak matches the club record set in the 2019 season. The club record for league undefeated streak is still a bit far away as the 2019 team had a 10-game undefeated streak, and the 2016 team started the season on a 13-game undefeated streak, but extended that even further to 16 games if you include the two USOC games and a friendly against Pachuca. The friendly doesn't count towards official stats and the team lost the second of the USOC games in penalty kicks but it goes down officially as a draw. Regardless, the 2016 team was a hard team to beat. All that to say that the run this team is on is reaching club record streaks (on the men's side...).

Speaking of the 2016 team, with his minutes tonight, Tyler Gibson moved up one spot to 9th in club history for minutes played to sandwich himself ahead of Jon Busch and just behind Vukovic. He hasn't had the number of minutes this season that we've seen from him in the past, but I think part of that is just a crowded midfield with more players than positions. I'm extremely interested to see how things change when Quinn returns from his injury, further adding to that crowded midfield. 

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Blake. A brace on a perfect penalty kick and a stunning free kick from outside the box. That will get the GBGB nearly every time.

Photos (Don Thompson Photography)

Indy Eleven vs Phoenix Rising - 10.30

Summary

- Opponent: Phoenix Rising FC
- Location: Phoenix Rising Stadium
- Attendance: -
- Final Score: 1-1 D

- Starting XI: Trilk, Boudadi, Jerome, Diz Pe, Rebellon, Blake, Lindley, Asante, Robledo, Guenzatti (C), Pinho

- Substitution: Vazquez 61' (Rebellon); Martinez 66' (Robledo); Reveno 76' (Pinho)

- Unused: Crawford, Dambrot, Molina, Velasquez

- Scoring Summary:
PHX - Harvey 80' (assist Trejo)
IND - Diz Pe 90'+5' (assist Lindley)

- Bookings:

PHX - Uzochokwu 16’ (Yellow)
IND - Pinho 31' (Yellow)
PHX - Arteaga 40' (Yellow)
PHX - Fuenmayor 62' (Yellow)
IND - Blake 75' (Yellow)
PHX - Hernandez 90'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: Abdou Ndiaye

- Adage goals: None

Thoughts and Opinions

Each team in tonight's matchup had a player in the starting lineup that was recently wearing the other team's crest. Manuel Arteaga faced off against Indy for the first team since moving west to Phoenix and was given the captain's armband from former Indy player and now manager Juan Guerra, while Solomon Asante took the field against his former club after joining Indy last season. Arteaga came into the game in third place in the league with 15 goals on the season, just behind his teammate Trejo and Pittsburgh's Dikwa, who both have 17. Asante was a 2-time MVP award winner during his time in Phoenix, accounting for 150 points (54 goals + 42 assists) in his 113 games in the Valley of the Sun. Apparently the desert air is good for scoring goals. Throw in manager Juan Guerra into the mix, and the game pulled at Indy fans' #IndyForever heart strings.

Indy did manage to field a full 18 for tonight's game, giving Coach Lowry some more options, but they were still without the team's second leading goal scorer in Quinn, joining Chapman-Page and King on the injury list. Boudadi returned from his yellow card suspension, pushing Dambrot to the bench, and Robledo started in lieu of Velasquez. Otherwise, tonight's starting lineup was the same as the one Lowry fielded against New Mexico this past Friday.

No matter the result tonight, Indy was going to remain in 6th place in the standings, with no ability to leapfrog either Louisville or Memphis, despite Louisville losing to Miami tonight and Memphis drawing Birmingham. Thanks to the results over the weekend though, the magic number did go down, but Indy can't rely on other results to go their way to get into the playoffs. The Miami result against Louisville proved that. 

Halftime Heat Map

If you stayed up late on the East Coast hoping to see a high octane game against a team with two of the top three goal scorers, you were sadly disappointed. The first thirty minutes of this game, which is when the first shot on goal occurred (by PHX), was a tactical chess match full of defensive low block and two teams trying to hold possession. Indy managed their first shot on target a few minutes later and then a Guenzatti hit the crossbar a few minutes after that. Otherwise, Los Bandidos were making some noise, but it was a relatively quiet crowd as the game crowded around the center stripe with just some small bursts of activity around each goal. Indy nearly gave themselves a late first half hole to dig out of when Rebellon made the decision to try and pass the ball to a teammate while standing on the 18-yard line with two PHX players around him. Arteaga managed to get a shot off that went wide, but he was probably correct in asking for the foul from Diz Pe who had to scramble to cover the mistake from Rebellon. There's a time to play out of the back, but that was not it. Clear the danger and reset your lines. Indy was fortunate the shot went wide and the game remained scoreless going into the break.

After the break, PHX began to tilt the field in their favor, while Indy tried to take the air out of the game even more. Lindley had his second "injury" of the game. Trilk countered with his own "injury." Indy wasn't able to take enough air of the game and Juan Guerra's second half substitutions looked like they were going to be more effective than Lowry's substitutes as Phoenix found the apparent game winner in the 80th minute as the levee broke and Harvey found his head to a Trejo cross to give PHX a 1-nil lead. 

Indy managed just two shots in the 2nd half. They lost the possession battle. They looked like a team that were playing for a draw on the road in the Pacific time zone, and then found themselves staring at a loss with minimal time left on the clock. A late stoppage time corner kick allowed Lindley to give a driven ball to the six-yard box that Diz Pe solidly headed back across goal and past Rios Novo, salvaging a draw and helping reduce that magic number. If I was a Phoenix fan, I would call it a stolen draw; as an Indy fan, I call it a gritty point. I then get the hell on the plane and come back to Indy.

A rare Sunday game awaits the team as the face their third Western Conference team in a row, though this time at Carroll Stadium. If Indy can take protect home field in their final four games, they make the playoffs. Getting a home match to start the playoffs seems unlikely at this point, but who the hell knows with this team lately. I had started writing this game off as a loss and had to adjust. 

The Game Beckons Game Ball

This is easy. There was a moment in the game against New Mexico where the announcers were talking about the height of Diz Pe and they said he is listed as 6'-3". The response to that statement was, "yeah, if he's in a hole." Classic.

Diz used all 6'-3"-ish of his frame to get to the ball that he forcefully headed past Phoenix to salvage the draw. All that after defending Juan Guerra's kitchen sink attack adjustment for the entirety of the second half. I don't care what his stats show. I didn't even look. Diz gets tonight's GBGB for being clutch when the team needed it most. 

Lindley gets a nod too for that corner delivery. The ball was on a string, like it was directly connected to Diz's head and could have gone nowhere else.