Indy Eleven vs Louisville FC - 05.35 - USL Playoffs

- Opponent: Louisville City FC
- Location: Louisville
- Attendance: 6,763
- Final Score: 4-1 L
- Starting XI: Fon Williams, Ouimette, Mitchell, Ferreira, Ayoze, Matern, Moses, Watson, Mares, Speas, McInerney
- Substitutions: Venegas 45' (Matern); Collier 61' (McInerney); Saad 61' (Watson)
- Unused: Lundgaard, Rusin, Ring, Guerra
- Goals: Saad 67' (assist Mares)
- Bookings: Mitchell 46' (Yellow); Ouimette 72' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: Two

Indy Eleven limped into the USL playoffs losing 4 of their final 6 games, including a loss last week to tonight's opponent in Louisville City FC. In those final 6 games, Indy played the elite teams of the eastern conference in FC Cincinnati, Louisville City FC, and Pittsburgh, as well as Bethlehem Steel who also made the playoffs. In those four games, Indy was outscored 8 to 3, giving up a trifecta of goals to Pittsburgh and FC Cincinnati. As I've pointed out before, Indy's record against the top four teams in the league (FCC, LCFC, Pittsburgh, & Charleston) was 2W-6L-4D.

Indy was good, but not great all season. Tonight, they were great for the first 5 minutes and came away with nothing to show for that effort. McInerney had a good opportunity within the first 20 seconds and Matern had another a few minutes later. After that, and much like last week, the better team won. Once LCFC put a goal on the board in the 29th minute by McCabe (his first of 2 on the night) and Indy had to push more numbers forward to get an equalizer, they were going to continue to provide opportunities for LCFC to exploit them.

Immediately ahead and behind the halftime break, Indy gave up free kick chances that LCFC put into the goal, creating an insurmountable lead. Coach Rennie went to the bench early in the second half, substituting Venegas in for Matern at halftime and then held off until the 61st minute before throwing all of his chips into the table. Out came McInerney, who felt a bit non-existent at times, for Collier and Saad in for Watson, both in the 61st minute. Indy had another good stretch of play after the substitutions and Saad made an immediate impact, pulling one back for the visitors in the 67th minute.

The optimism about Indy potentially making it a close game was short-lived though as Lancaster placed a (potentially) wind-assisted free kick over the wall and into the upper 90 out of reach of a fully-stretched Fon Williams. With that dagger, the rest of the game played out like a painful death march to the off-season for Indy Eleven and their fans.

The game finished as I expected, if not by the goal line that I expected. Indy was always going to have issues going into Louisville and getting a win. Exacerbating their odds were relatively poor performances from some guys like Ouimette and Matern. Not surprisingly, Ayoze and Mares played well in the loss and I would hope that they find their way back onto next season's roster. I'm more confident that Ayoze will be back, but I suspect Mares will once again be offered a contract some place that the Eleven will not be able to match. If I believe the line that Coach Rennie has stated all year about needing time to achieve proper chemistry (apparently 8+ months isn't quite enough), I would assume that most of this year's squad will be returning next year though I have to wonder if Lewis, Amankona, Pasher, Ring, Rusin, & Steinberger will be returning.That's a discussion for another time though.

Tonight, the Eleven begin their off-season after a disheartening 4-1 loss to a rival after having a good, but not great, season.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Ayoze and Mares. Ayoze is the team MVP and Mares gets 2nd place just because of his limited time here in Indy this season.

Highlights

Indy Eleven vs Louisville City FC - 05.34

- Opponent: Louisville City FC
- Location: Louisville
- Attendance: 10,686
- Final Score: 1-0 L
- Starting XI: Fon Williams, Venegas, Ouimette, Ferreira, Ayoze, Matern, Moses, Watson, Mares, Braun, McInerney
- Substitutions: Collier 54' (Braun); Guerra 78' (Matern); Speas 81' (Moses)
- Unused: Lundgaard, Rusin, Amankona
- Goals: None
- Bookings: Ouimette 51' (Yellow); Moses 78' (Yellow); Mares 82' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: None

I wanted to wait to write my thoughts about the Eleven's loss to Louisville until the rest of the results from the league's Sunday games were final as it affected where the Eleven would end in the table, and by extension, where they would play in the first weekend of the playoffs. At the conclusion of the game against LCFC, Indy maintained the spot they entered, which was in 5th place. At the conclusion of the Sunday games, the Eleven fell all the way to 7th, forcing a rematch with Louisville City FC next weekend.

Knowing that it was a possibility for the two teams to play again next weekend, I considered the option during the 2-hour drive home. I would like to be wrong about it, but I don't believe that the Indy Eleven can win the game next weekend. They have played Louisville tough this season, but at the time of year when it matters most, the Eleven don't look like the team that can win against the top level talent in the Eastern Conference. They've played the top teams in the closing weeks of the season and have lost 3 of their last 5. That's not exactly the run-of-form that you want when heading into the playoffs.

With what we've witnessed Saturday, the Eleven held their own in the first half, but chased the game in the second half and not just chasing the game in the sense that they adjusted their tactics to find an equalizer after falling behind from a 34 minute penalty kick goal from Lancaster. Rather, they were constantly chasing the ball trying to catch up to the ball movement from Louisville. I don't see how the team remedies that in less than a week.

Then there's the field... LCFC have clearly figured out how to play in a field that is short, narrow, and watered down with dish soap laden water. How many LCFC players did you see slip and slide making cuts in the infield "grass" and how many Indy Eleven players did you see slip and slide making cuts in that exact same area of the field? I think Braun's early second half departure was a result of a slip that caused him to slowly pick himself off the turf. In the first half, Venegas looked like a thief tip-toeing through a house in an absurd soccer crime-caper movie. Which, I'm sure seems obvious, is not an ideal way to defend a team. Particularly when you're playing more of a three back lineup. So in addition to the eleven players on the field, the Eleven had to compete against the field itself.

LCFC were not as affected by their field, and by all indications, avoided the baseball infield portion of the field as much as possible. Yet, even with LCFC playing in just the northern half of the field, the Eleven were constantly trying to catch up to the movement from Louisville.

In the first half, the Eleven were going from West to East. I took the heat map from the game's match center, roughly drew in the location of the infield "grass," rotated the map to reflect the actual field, and split it for each team. Here's what that evaluation confirmed for my eye-ball test.

Indy defended a lot and the majority of their touches were within their own half. That was in both halves, but the second half was even deeper in their defensive third.

Indy Eleven 1st half heat map - defending west

Indy Eleven 2nd half heat map - defending east

Louisville, on the flip side, had a great deal of their touches in Indy's half of the field and looked to make a concerted effort to avoid the infield "grass." They seem to have adjusted their play to the difficulties that the infield and pitcher's mound presents. Yet, even with that compressed field limitation, LCFC's passes consistently forced the Eleven to recover defensively.

LCFC 1st half heat map - defending east

LCFC 2nd half heat map - defending west

With less than a week, Coach Rennie and the rest of the coaching staff have to figure out how to beat a team that, to me, were the better team on Saturday without any way to recreate the difficulties of playing on the surface they saw this week. Which is going to be a tall order and leads me to this week's Game Beckons Game Ball.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Owain Fon Williams in a runaway. Fon Williams set a new season high for him in saves on Saturday, officially tallying 8, but what felt like more. Coach Rennie was quoted afterwards of saying that he thought "he [Fon Williams] deserved a clean sheet" and "it was only a penalty that was able to beat him." Owain had to deal with more than double the Shots on Target as his LCFC counterpart, Ranjitsingh, and was able to keep the Eleven in the game. He managed to minimize the scoring damage and a penalty kick is a rough way to lose a clean sheet, but he played well and was the definite bright spot for the team.

Photos

Highlights

Indy Eleven vs Bethlehem Steel FC - 05.33

- Opponent: Bethlehem Steel FC
- Location: Indianapolis
- Attendance: 14,894
- Final Score: 1-1 D
- Starting XI: Fon Williams, Ouimette, Mitchell, Ferreira, Ayoze, Matern, Moses, Watson, Mares Collier, Starikov
- Substitutions:  Rusin 41' (Mitchell - injury); McInerney 62' (Moses); Speas 70' (Starikov)
- Unused: Lundgaard, Ring, Guerra, Saad
- Goals: Starikov 60' (assist Ayoze)
- Bookings: Moses 58' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: None

The Eleven came into the game knowing that a win solidified their place in the playoffs, a draw kept them in the running, and a loss took their fate out of their own hands. To prevent that last scenario from happening, the Eleven were forced to fight back from a goal deficit when a ball was sent through to Bethlehem's Faris and he was able to walk into a close range for a shot after a recovering defensive run from Mitchell sent him into a heap on the turf with what looks like a significant hamstring injury. Coach Rennie was unable to provide any indication of the extent of the injury immediately after the game, but any time you see a player crumble like he did, you have to expect that he won't be available to play next weekend against Louisville City FC.

What that means for the lineup, which again was started with the 3 back setup for this game, will be an interesting evaluation during the week. Exacerbating the issue is that Mitchell's replacement in this game, Brad Rusin, also came up lame in the late stages of the game and he was forced to play more up top with Watson playing the defensive role to help nurse the draw across the finish line. Venegas was not available for this game after picking up a knock during training during the week. All of those injuries could create an interesting lineup on Saturday. If those three are not able to go next week, we may see Ring or Moses on the back line, with the team going back to the previously used 4-4-2. Coach Rennie has said that he didn't feel comfortable with a 3 back lineup until Ferreira returned and had some games under his belt with the other guys so I assume he didn't feel that Ring, et al, were capable of performing the way he wanted in that scenario. It will be interesting to see the injury report later this week.

Indy started this game with the three back lineup again with Collier and Starikov up top. Bethlehem's press forced the Eleven to pull Ayoze further back into a defensive role, but Coach Rennie wanted the team to continue to operate with the 3-5-2 mentality. The injury to Mitchell further complicated that tactic with the players being forced to adjust on the fly as the game progressed. Watson described it afterwards as "we went to a 4-4-2 at one point and we went to a 5-3-2...once we got the goal, it was just "we're not going to concede a goal."" and that mentality was evident as I remember at least twice late in the game where Mares tracked a player all the way back to the endline with Ferreira helping out. Both cases resulted in a corner kick, but it was obvious that the midfield was as much, or more, involved in their defensive roles as they were in the forward roles. That's a significant advantage to having players like Mares, Moses, and Watson on the field.

Collier and Starikov worked hard up top, but this was not one of Collier's best games. His hold-up play and connection with the other players were off early. I can't pinpoint the difference, but he just didn't seem to put passes where they were expecting them to go. He didn't play horrible, but he seemed off.

Fon Williams had one of his better games that I can remember. He had a spectacular double-save in the 16th minute and then another in the 83rd minute, all of them requiring him to bail out mistakes from the defense in front of him. When I asked him afterwards about what goes through his mind at times like those, he provided a very thoughtful response:

"Being a goalkeeper in that situation, you gotta put yourself as much in the attacker's mind as possible because at the end of the day, I don't know whether you've ever stood in goal, but it's pretty big behind you. You gotta fill that goal as much as you can. In that scenario, you've gotta realize what's the percentage, what's it going to be? Is he going to take the shot early? In that case, you've got to hold back or is he going to take his touch? In that moment, you got a decision to make whether you can go close him down and go for the presented ball with your body spread. Or whether hang back and be in a reaction save. You hold your ground and try to make the save that way. In the first half, I saw him come into the box, he took a little bit of a heavy touch, and at that point, that made my mind up I was going to come out and make myself as big as possible. Thankfully, in that scenario, it worked my way. Being a goalkeeper, it's all about decision making and it's all a learning curve. You win some, you lose some."

The following is a summary of some of my other notes about the game that I thought were interesting, but didn't deserve more detailed discussions:

• The 24th minute tackle on Watson by Chambers is how guys blow out knees. Should have been a yellow card for Chambers. It was good to see Chambers finally pick up a yellow card later in the game, even if it wasn't until the 87th minute.
• In the 32nd minute, Moses got the "1-2-3 foul" talk from the referee. Given the way that Moses plays, I knew it was just a matter of team before he picked up a yellow. Moses managed to make it to the 58th minute before getting a yellow card on a foul that was far less severe than some of the ones from the Bethlehem players that deserved yellow cards, but weren't given.
• In the 33rd minute, Bethlehem's Ngalina injured himself on the stands, proceeded to walk back onto the field, and then fell down on the field...with a wrist injury. These kinds of things drive me crazy. It creates stoppage time unnecessarily.
• Matern shot the ball towards goal (it was just his 6th of the season, with only 1 on target)
• 86th minute McInerney bike attempt, Mares scissor kick attempt on goal just over the bar. That would have been a spectacular way to get a win.

The Eleven are still not officially in the playoffs, nor are the officially out of them either. A win against Louisville City FC on Saturday would be the best alternative; a draw relies on a number of scenarios working in their favor and a loss requires an even greater number of scenarios working in their favor. It going to be difficult to predict how the game will go until more information is known on their injury situation, as well as what lineup LCFC chooses to use since they are already in the playoffs. Do they chose to rest some guys before starting the playoffs the next week or do they play them due to the regional rivalry aspect of the game?

You can only play the team in front of you and the Eleven need the win so that they can avoid scoreboard watching on Saturday night.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

This was the kind of game where I have difficulty giving one player the Game Beckons Game Ball. Fon Williams was vital in the win with the saves that he made, particularly the double save in the 16th minute. Mares was steady in the midfield. Watson played well, both in his midfield role and the defensive role in which he was thrust late in the game. Starikov's goal was important.

Which leads me to my selection for the final home game of the season. Ayoze. For my money, he's the team MVP. In this game, he accounted for 5 of the team's 9 Chances Created. With his assist on Starikov's goal (which was a 50-yard dime and is the long yellow line on the screen capture of his distribution), Ayoze becomes the Eleven's single season assist leader, bypassing Dylan Mares. He's the team's set piece specialist. He takes all the corner kicks. This team would be completely different without him.

Photos

Highlights

Indy Eleven vs FC Cincinnati - 05.32

- Opponent: FC Cincinnati
- Location: Cincinnati
- Attendance: 31,4783
- Final Score: 0-3 L
- Starting XI: Fon Williams, Ouimette, Mitchell, Ferreira, Ayoze, Matern, Venegas, Watson, Mares Collier, McInerney
- Substitutions:  Starikov 66' (McInerney); Saad 76' (Collier); Guerra 79' (Matern)
- Unused: Lundgaard, Ring, Rusin, Speas
- Goals: None
- Bookings: Matern 31' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: None

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.

Highlights

Indy Eleven vs Tampa Bay - 05.31

- Opponent: Tampa Bay Rowdies

- Location: Indianapolis

- Attendance: ??

- Final Score: 2-0 W

- Starting XI: Fon Williams, Ouimette, Mitchell, Ferreira, Ayoze, Matern, Venegas, Moses, Mares Collier, McInerney

- Substitutions:  Watson 68' (Mares); Saad 83' (Collier)

- Unused: Lundgaard, Ring, Rusin, Speas, Guerra

- Goals: Ouimette 37' (assist Ayoze); Collier 75'

- Bookings: Fon Williams 74' (Yellow)

- Adage goals: None

The Match Center on the USL website described the starting formation for the Eleven as a 4-2-3-1. The official lineup from the team described it as a 4-4-2. However, the way it played, and the way that Coach Rennie confirmed it played, was more of a 3-1-4-2. When I asked him why he made this kind of change so late in the season, Coach stated:

"We kind of wanted to do that all along. Like when we built the squad, our plan was to have a couple ways to play; one of them was the back three. But for most of the season Reiner wasn't available. We felt it was difficult to play with three in the back when Reiner wasn't available. Now that he's been able to get some consistency, we thought it was a good time to try that system. And I think that tonight it showed we were much more comfortable and balanced on the ball. But it also gave us good balance defensively as well, so it's something that we can add to our game."

The three back system pushed Venegas and Ayoze further up the field, with both guys hugging the sidelines, even when the ball was on the opposite of the field. This created a lot of width for the team and a lot of lanes for Mares, Moses, and Matern to find players either going forward in the attack themselves or disrupting Tampa's attack. Mares and Moses were all over the field, constantly switching sides with each other or overloading a side to prevent Tampa from getting any kind of movement.

Coming into the game, Tampa's record was 11W-1L-1D was scoring first and 0-11-4 when conceding first. They were 0-2-1 on artificial turf and 4-8-2 on the road. All statistics that worked into the Eleven's favor after an Ayoze corner kick found the head of Ouimette in the 37th minute. The Eleven had looked dangerous proceeding the goal, having three good chances in a short timeframe. As I indicated on Twitter in the 28th minute, Collier and Moses were abusing the ankles of Tampa players with some fancy footwork. Venegas got into the ankle abuse action as well, which set up his own shot on goal that Vega was forced to parry over the bar. The corner kick from Ayoze resulted in Ouimette's goal. Indy's second goal in the 75th minute resulted from spectacular interplay between Watson, Collier, and Moses and then a clinical finish from Collier on the rebound from the initial shot.

As good as the offense looked, the team defense looked just as good. I can only recall one significant mistake and that was late in the game with some miscommunication between players. It nearly lead to a goal so they were lucky to not get penalized for the mistake, but it's the only one that stands out for me. In the closing minutes, Tampa was pressing hard to get a goal back and the Eleven's team defense withstood the onslaught. Tampa Bay was credited with 11 corners. The first corner came in the first minute with a 2nd a few minutes later. Then Tampa had 3 more bunched just before and just after the halftime break. The other six corners took place in the last 3 minutes of second half stoppage time.

• 90+6'Corner, Tampa Bay Rowdies. Conceded by Jack McInerney.
• 90+6'Corner, Tampa Bay Rowdies. Conceded by Jack McInerney.
• 90+6'Corner, Tampa Bay Rowdies. Conceded by Jack McInerney.
• 90+6'Corner, Tampa Bay Rowdies. Conceded by Reiner Ferreira.
• 90+5'Corner, Tampa Bay Rowdies. Conceded by Karl Ouimette.
• 90+4'Corner, Tampa Bay Rowdies. Conceded by Owain Fon Williams.

Why was there so much stoppage time you might ask? Well, USL refs are going to USL ref. Center referee Daniel Radford awarded a penalty kick to Tampa Bay as a result of a phantom handball by Mitchell. Fortunately for the Eleven, Radford consulted with the Assistant Referee on that side of the field and retracted the call. It's hard to know for certain whether Lucas Oil Stadium's massive replay screens, and the in-stadium replay and camera work, affected their decision to overturn the call, but it was, ultimately, the correct call. 

That's not to say that Radford still didn't do what we've all grown accustomed to seeing from USL refs. In the 74th minute, with the Eleven up only by a goal at that point, Radford showed a yellow card to Fon Williams for time wasting because he repositioned the ball on a goal kick. One of the softer yellows I can remember all season. If it had been 10-minutes later, I might have agreed with Radford, but the Eleven hadn't shown any sign of time wasting at that point in the game. In fact, it was only moments later, while pressing forward offensively, that Collier scored his goal. As Coach Rennie said in the post-game interview, "Fair play to the officials because, ultimately, they got the right call."

On a team full of experienced players, Watson and Ring are the Captain and Vice-Captain. However, for the first time all season at least one of them were not in the starting lineup. As a result, Ayoze started the game wearing the captain's armband. Watson took over the captain's role when he came into the game late, but it answered a question for me on who Coach Rennie would use if neither Watson and Ring were not in the lineup. As a potential team MVP, Ayoze is a good selection.

Getting a win tonight was vital for the Eleven, with just three games remaining, two of which are against the top 2 teams in the league at their home fields. Indy heads to Cincinnati on Saturday, likely with a hefty contingent of Eleven fans in tow, to play a team that has solidified their playoff spot, solidified home field advantage, and as of tonight, solidified the Eastern Conference Championship. However, the Indy Eleven players aren't expecting to go into Cincinnati to find a disinterested opponent:

"You don't want to have off or bad performances before going into the playoffs. So going to Cincinnati, going to Louisville, they'll want to win. They'll want to be on a good spell going into the playoffs. Especially against a team they know they may face in the playoffs. Everybody's going to go at it." - Karl Ouimette

Should be interesting on Saturday if you're able to make the trip.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

It's always hard to pick the Game Beckons Game Ball when so many players did so much right, including a player getting their first goal of the season, but I think Moses deserves it tonight. He's a high energy guy and was very effective on the offensive end, but his defense stood out for me against Tampa. He was credited with 6 tackles, 1 clearance, and 4 interceptions.

Photos

This shot was so close to being Venegas' 2nd goal of the season...

Highlights