Indy Eleven vs Eddies - 04.06

- Opponent: FC Edmonton
- Location: Indianapolis
- Attendance: 7,159
- Final Score: 0-0 D
- Starting XI: Busch, Palmer, Falvey, Watson-Siriboe, Keller, Ring, Thompson, Torrado, Ubiparipovic, Zayed, Braun
- Substitutions: Plumhoff 79' (Ubiparipovic), Poltronieri 90'+2' (Zayed)
- Unused: Cardona, Henderson, Goldsmith, Lomeli
- Goals: Braun 25' (assist Zayed)
- Bookings: Ring 34' (Yellow), Ring 90' (Yellow ->Red)
- Adage goals: None

Due to brisk temperatures and a stiff wind, the Indy Eleven debuted their new Adidas kits in front of a smaller than normal crowd. However, the new #ThreeStripeLife didn't translate to #ThreePoints as the Eleven drew yet again, this time at the hands of FC Edmonton. An Edmonton team that was coming off three days rest having played (and lost) on Wednesday against Ottawa in the Canadian Championship. An Edmonton team that has been held scoreless in four of their six games and have only scored three goals all season. Not exactly an offensive juggernaut and the kind of team where a goal scored against them likely gets you the win.

Yet the Eleven forced Edmonton goalkeeper Konopka into making just two saves on twelve shots. Eight of those shots came from outside the box, which is nearly twice the team's normal average. Despite winning the possession battle and spending a great deal of time in Edmonton's side of the field, the Eleven only had a few solid chances on goal, but overall, the two team's played like a draw was the plan. For Edmonton, that might have actually been the case, but I doubt that Indy went into this game trying for a single point. So what turned a desired win at home into a deserved draw?

Injuries are clearly a factor. Ables (knee), Franco (leg), Manning (head), Smart (quad), Speas (abdominal), Vukovic (kidney) were all unavailable for the game. Meaning that Plumhoff and Poltronieri, who were officially signed to the team on FRIDAY, had to be available for selection and both entered the game. That severely limits Coach Hankinson's options to try and exploit opposing teams' weaknesses. He basically has to go with who is healthy and hope they can get it done.

Tonight, the team that he did put on the field seemed to be off with their first touches, which gave the Eddies enough time to stifle even the faintest of attempts by the Eleven. How bad was it? Even the normally accurate Torrado could must only about 60% pass completion rate. Every time a first touch failed a player, the rhythm of a run or a pass or a clearance were affected. It was not a pretty game.

One of the disadvantages of having the league select Braun as the Player of the Month (which is a well deserved acknowledgement of his efforts this year), he's not surprising anybody. The second he touched a ball, at least two Edmonton players closed the space to him so that he couldn't make a play. As I've said before, when the offense is relying so heavily on him right now, that makes the Eleven offense look anemic and means that somebody else is going to need to step up. And soon. Zayed has definitely stepped up his effort the last couple weeks, but the last year's team leading scorer needs to start putting some of his shots in the back of the net to help ease some of the burden on Braun.

I'm officially on the worried bandwagon. This team needs a win and they need it badly. If they can't get one at home against one of the worse teams in the league that was coming off a mid-week game, I don't have high hopes for maintaining the undefeated streak at Miami next week. League leading Miami. A draw in Miami next week might be high hopes at this point with so much of the team in the infirmary. Back-to-back games against Miami the next two weeks will put the team at the half-way point in the Spring Season and may go a long way to determine whether they have any chance at a Spring title or whether they stay middle to back of the pack.

Brad Ring. I don't care if he was tossed on a double yellow card scenario. In a game where the ref called a foul against the Eleven seemingly every time an Eddie fell down, it's actually more amazing that more players weren't shown yellows and Ring probably could have picked up a second one long before he did. His first one was deserved, his second one wasn't but he didn't shy away from any of the physical play. Though his yellow cards highlight a disturbing trend with the Eleven this year. They've received yellow cards at nearly a 4 to 1 clip compared to their opponents. Have they been physical? Yes. Have they been that much more physical then their opponents? No.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

I want to give this week's Game Beckons Game Ball to Larry Mason. During the 74th minute of the game, the normally boisterous group went silent for an entire minute as they paid tribute to Larry Mason, who passed away this week at the age of 74. The team had a moment of silence before the national anthems and the BYB released smoke in his honor. For those that don't know, Larry is the father of BYB President, Josh Mason, but Larry was an enjoyable presence on the endline as he took photos. I didn't know Larry that well, but he was always worth a good conversation. Ironically, the last time that the Eleven played Edmonton last year, Larry allowed me to use some of his photographs for my post. In fact, he knew that my normal photographer, my own father, was not going to be at the game and offered his photos to me without me asking for them. It was just something he wanted to do. That's usually what good guys do and Larry Mason seemed to be one of those from everything I ever observed of him. My thoughts are with the Mason family during this time.

Photos:

Highlights:

Indy Eleven vs Armada - 04.05

- Opponent: Jacksonville Armada
- Location: Jacksonville
- Attendance: 3,122
- Final Score: 1-1 D
- Starting XI: Busch, Franco, Falvey, Palmer, Keller, Ring, Henderson, Torrado, Ubiparipovic, Zayed, Braun
- Substitutions: Thompson 67' (Henderson), Watson-Siriboe 78' (Ring), Goldsmith 88' (Ubiparipovic)
- Unused: Cardona, Lomeli
- Goals: Braun 25' (assist Zayed)
- Bookings: Keller 28' (Yellow), Palmer 71' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: One

"You know my name is Simon and I like to do drawrings. I like to draw all day long. Come and do drawrings with me." Much like Simon, the Indy Eleven seemingly like to draw all day long too. Five games into the season and the Eleven have drawn San Francisco twice, Puerto Rico twice, and have finally played a third opponent in the Jacksonville Armada, but finished the game with the same result of a draw. Is it time to start worrying about this string of results or do you believe the team's hype of being #undefeated? Depends on who you ask. I'm not concerned. Yet. If the Eleven draw again on Saturday against Edmonton in the friendly confines of Carroll Stadium, I'll flip 180-degrees and will go into full worry mode. Even with an injury depleted roster, the home crowd should be enough to get the team off the draw train against Edmonton, who has looked worse than expected with only one win and four losses. A loss to Edmonton at home will be very concerning.

NASL/Opta Stats - JAX Distribution

Focusing on the game against Jacksonville, the official stats from NASL list some interesting things. Both goalkeepers, Jon Busch for the Eleven and Patterson-Sewell for Jacksonville, were both credited with zero saves. The Eleven and Jacksonville had exactly one shot on goal and both teams scored on their one shot. I'm not sure how often that occurs, but it would seem like a rare occurrence.

I don't know if it was more shocking, but I was surprised to see that the Armada held a 66% to 34% advantage in possession with a 546 to 274 advantage in the number of passes. There didn't feel like there was that significant a discrepancy in the amount of time that the two teams had the ball. What wasn't surprising about Jacksonville's possession and passing was that it mostly occurred in their own half, as can be seen from the NASL/Opta Stats graphic showing Jacksonville's distribution. Jacksonville's centerback Aaron Pitchkolan accounted for 4 of the team's 5 passing combinations, touching the ball 95 times in 90 minutes, completing 82 of 91 passes, but 83% of the time he was going left or right with those passes. Jacksonville wasn't exactly pushing the ball forward and the Eleven, due to the factors of weather and health, weren't really pressing the Jacksonville back four. Where we would normally see Braun pressing defenders and keepers to force mistakes, neither he nor Zayed did this as much for this game. The Eleven were content to let Jacksonville knock it around in their own defensive half and then use their energy on counterattacks. There were some moments of high pace and nervy moments by both teams, but really this was a game where both teams employed the same strategy of defend first, attack second.

This week's random stat/fact. The Eleven picked up two more yellow cards on the season to bring their season total to 10 (at least by my and the team's counts, though the league has the team at 12 in one place and 10 if you count in the match centers). I don't think the team is any more physical than the other teams they have played, but they're getting carded a lot more frequently by a 5 to 1 ratio. The only two cards the Eleven opponents have received were in the first game against San Francisco. Otherwise, the Eleven have picked up 8 yellow cards in their last four games while their opponents have a combined zero. Zero. Not sure what, or if, that means, but I thought it was interesting that another week passed with the opposing team's players getting words from the ref but never a card, while the Eleven were booked twice.

The Game Beckon Game Ball

I went into this feature on the site intending to give credit to the guys who stood out each game as the impact players for the team. Debated between Braun for his league-leading goal, Zayed for his assist (and overall stellar play), or Keller for once again stepping in and filling a role where needed (though it was the man he was marking that scored the goal so that dropped him some from consideration). Then I decided that I wanted this week's Game Beckons Game Ball to go to Coach Hankinson. Yes, Coach deserves a ton of credit for this run of draws. The Eleven have dealt with a lot of injuries already this season from a sports hernia to a kidney contusion (are you kidding me?!) and yet Coach has found the right mix of guys that have been able to get things accomplished and not let the season get too far away from them as they've had to let guys heal. Falvey, Thompson, Speas, Smart, & now Vuko have been the most notable injured and Coach got guys prepared. Keller and Watson-Siriboe started the year together as the CB pairing. Torrado played a LM role. In this game, the bench was so short, he had one forward, one midfielder, one defender, and BOTH backup goalies available for selection. Towards the end of the first half, Keller was injured and had to come off for a bit. Hankinson slid Ring back to LB to cover. Later in the game, Ring was hurt and had to be subbed off, however, Thompson had already come on for Henderson in the midfield. Coach brought on Watson-Siriboe who slid into the CB position and pushed Palmer up into a holding midfielder role instead of putting Keller in that position. We may not be satisfied with five draws, and I'm sure the players concur with that sentiment, but Hankinson is coaching his ass off right now to find the right pieces to work together while weathering this injury storm and I'm going to give him credit for that effort.

Highlights:

Indy Eleven vs Deltas - 04.04

- Opponent: San Francisco Deltas
- Location: Indianapolis
- Attendance: 7,124
- Final Score: 0-0 D
- Starting XI: Busch, Franco, Falvey, Palmer, Vukovic, Ring, Henderson, Torrado, Ubiparipovic, Zayed, Braun
- Substitutions: Thompson 60' (Ubiparipovic), Keller 62' (Palmer)
- Unused: Cardona, Watson-Siriboe, Goldsmith, Ables
- Goals: None
- Bookings: Palmer 44' (Yellow), Ring 67' (Yellow), Braun 71' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: None

I've spent a fair amount of the last 30 hours (with some obvious sleeping time exception) trying to figure out what to write about a game that was described by a couple that I overheard on the way out as "a very disappointing game." They weren't just talking about the final score, but rather the entirety of the game. With the exception of a few moments for both teams, the game was disjointed for both teams. Neither seemed to be able to consistently impose their will on the other team.

This team has most of the pieces back from a very successful team last year and yet four games into the season they've only been able to muster four draws. Granted, those four games are against only two teams thanks to the NASL's absurd scheduling so it's hard to know exactly where this team (or any of the teams for that matter) really stand, but I don't think anybody really expected the Eleven to not get at least one win at this point in the season. Yet that's exactly where they find themselves, staring at a road trip to league leading Jacksonville this coming weekend.

So what did 30 hours of ponder get me? Unfortunately, not much more than the notes I scribbled to myself during the game. So like the team's apparent desire to bypass the midfield against the Deltas, I'm going to go for the long ball too.

NASL/Opta Average Position

For all the things he is, Torrado is not a left midfielder. Torrado wants to be in the middle of the park and that can be okay when combined with Vukovic's desire to go forward. However, Torrado doesn't have Mares' ability last season to cover defensively when Vuko goes forward. So if Coach Hankinson is going to play someone out of position because of the injuries, putting Torrado on the same side as Vuko seems an odd choice. Torrado's average position was in the middle of the field, right next to Ring and Ubi, Zayed, and Braun are all on top of each other in the middle of the field as well. This lineup created absolutely zero width. More on this in a minute.

Photo: Don Thompson

On the other side of midfield, Henderson's first touch failed him frequently in the game and his defense was hit-or-miss throughout the game. I fully expected him to be one of the first subs after halftime and never would have pegged him to be one of the guys to go the full ninety minutes. Though given who was sitting on the bench, there weren't many other options. Particularly given that Coach has suggested that new signee Adrian Ables was brought on for depth. Yet, Coach's description of him on Soccer Saturday seems to fit nicely with what the team needed in the second half. A quick guy who's willing to take on players. Sounds like Lacroix 2.0. Instead Coach brought on Thompson for Ubiparipovic and Mr. Swiss Army Knife Daniel Keller for Palmer.

Photo: Don Thompson

Frias, I mean Palmer, has never been one to take two touches when one will blast it back down to the other side of the field, but on a day with 20+ mph winds, that approach wasn't overly effective. Palmer's not going to get out-muscled to a ball, but subtlety is not his strong suit.

The man that no coach has been able to keep off the field, Don Smart, was definitely missed. Don's speed, crossing ability, and his ability to stay wide would have been much more effective than the middle of the field gathering. In conjunction with the lack of width provided by the lineup, it's no longer a secret that Zayed isn't going to create his own shots. So if you want to defend the Eleven, find Braun and don't let the offense go through him. His work rate is going to continue to provide opportunities because opposing teams have to account for him at all times, but as of right now, the offense goes as Braun goes. Against San Francisco, Braun only connected on 63% of his passes, 43% of those were backwards, and he only managed two shots (neither on target). The Eleven managed two shots on goal, both of them from headers from Zayed, and both off of crosses. The team could have used some more crosses from Smart, who will continue to be out for a few more weeks. They need to find a better way to break down the final third than what they displayed on Saturday, but I'm not sure how I see that getting done.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

This game was difficult to select a player for the Game Ball, but I'm going to have to give it to Jon Busch this week. Buschy finished with 5 saves on the day, none of them more spectacular than the one in the 75th minute when Bekker blasted a shot from 30 yards out that was destined for the upper corner of the goal (see minute 1:10 in the highlights below). There weren't a lot of great opportunities in the game, but that was definitely one that looked like it was destined to end the undefeated streak at 19. While that was the highlight reel save from Busch that helped the team get to a modern-era 20 undefeated home record, his other saves were just as important and were a result of placing himself in appropriate spots in the goal.

Caption This candidate...

Highlights:

Indy Eleven vs Puerto Rico FC - 04.03

- Opponent: Puerto Rico FC
- Location: Bayamon, Puerto Rico
- Attendance: 3,933
- Final Score: 1-1 D
- Starting XI: Cardona, Franco, Falvey, Palmer, Vukovic, Smart, Torrado, Henderson, Ring, Zayed, Braun
- Substitutions: Ubiparipovic 45'+3' (Smart - Injury), Watson-Siriboe 72' (Falvey), Manning 79' (Palmer)
- Unused: Keller, Goldsmith, Lomeli
- Goals: Zayed 45'+3' (Braun)
- Bookings: Zayed 49' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: None

Three games into the 2017 season and we've watched three draws. Not just draws, three come from behind draws; twice on the road and once at home. At least early on, we can generalize that the Eleven continue last season's trends of having trouble getting wins on the road, as well as never giving up. Only time will tell us if the away draws becomes a trend this season, but the continued fight seems to be part of the DNA of this team and the players that have returned. I don't see that changing, which should give the Eleven a chance at good results throughout the season. Given the circumstances, 1) a night where the game time temps were in the mid- to high 70s and humidity was in the mid-90s, 2) on a field that was just missing the dandelions from my yard, 3) against an opponent they had just played a week before, getting a positive result was always going to be a challenge.

I routinely talk about the eyeball test for games and when I combine what I saw with what the stats tell us, a 1-1 draw was a good result. Both teams had chances in a wide open, back-and-forth affair. The stats indicate that 17.4% of the Eleven's passes were considered "long" with Puerto Rico's passes at 23%. Official stats have possession going to the Eleven, but this is where my eyeball test doesn't coincide with the stats as it felt like both teams had a much more direct appearance with possession at a premium.

So why did the Eleven have to come from behind? Because the Eleven started a new centerback pairing and they didn't talk properly. In the 19th minute, the Eleven had 7 guys back (plus Cardona) against 5 PRFC players so there shouldn't have been an issue. Yet, Ramos found a seam that shouldn't have been available from two experienced backs in Falvey and Palmer. As the ball is switched from the right side of the field to the left to Ramirez, Palmer was defending Ramos. Once Ramirez received the ball though, Palmer drifted off of Ramos as Falvey runs near Ramos. Falvey continues his run towards Ramirez, which was the deciding step.

However, Falvey didn't need to continue to Ramirez as Franco had put him in a difficult place with his positioning. If Ramirez tried to go left, he would have reduced any shooting angle. If he had tried to go right, he would have taken it into more traffic. Falvey needed to stay near Ramos or Palmer needed to continue his marking. Neither stayed near Ramos and he drifted perfectly into a halo of defenders that made it impossible to stop any shot when Ramirez found him. Ramos has shown that he is a dangerous player to leave in space and he it was far too easy of a shot from the spot where he received the ball.

The good news is that Braun's famous work rate is being matched this year by his production. The team leader in Points (6), Goals (2), and Assists (2) in three games perfectly picked out a trailing Zayed in stoppage time of the first half to bring the game level. A touch that was made possible because Braun was successful on a challenge 15 yards ahead of this. If Braun can maintain this kind of form, this can only help the Eleven's offense and take some of the pressure off of Zayed. Teams won't be able to focus their attention on the team's leading scorer last year.

Unfortunately, Smart left before halftime with an injury and Palmer left early with what had the signs of possibly being dehydration. Busch, Thompson, and Speas were all unavailable due to injury. Luckily for all, the team have a week off to heal before playing San Francisco on the 22nd at Carroll Stadium. A couple weeks of home cooking against a team they've already played once, hopefully that translates into a win. With the other results from the early part of the season, the Eleven are going to need a win to keep pace before they start playing teams that have more than a combined 30 games in the league.

The Game Beckons Game Ball

This was a hard game for me to pick and this current version of Braun is going to be a front-runner each week, but I'm going to give this week's Game Beckons Game Ball to Keith Cardona. Puerto Rico's goal really wasn't his fault and he made some good saves throughout the night. I've been saying he needs minutes with the first team and this was a good example of what he can do with those guys. I particularly like how he looks for the quick passes to players once he gets the ball to quick-start any potential counterattacks. These are the kinds of games we need to see to be able to determine if he will be Busch's replacement and he did a good job with it.

Highlights:

Indy Eleven vs Puerto Rico FC - 04.02

- Opponent: Puerto Rico FC
- Location: Indianapolis
- Attendance: 9,064
- Final Score: 3-3 D
- Starting XI: Busch, Franco, Watson-Siriboe, Keller, Vukovic, Smart, Thompson, Torrado, Ring, Speas, Braun
- Substitutions: Zayed 46' (Thompson), Henderson 73' (Ring), Palmer 80' (Keller)
- Unused: Cardona, Ubiparipovic, Falvey
- Goals: Braun 5' (Vukovic); Speas 10' (Braun); Braun 75'
- Bookings: Thompson 44' (Yellow); Busch 55' (Yellow)
- Adage goals: One

NASL/Opta Heat Map - 1st 15 Minutes

Given that yesterday's game against Puerto Rico took place on April 1st, if I told you that the Indy Eleven would score two goals in the first ten minutes, but would need a late game third goal equalizer for the draw, you would naturally expect that I would then say "April Fools!" Yet, that is exactly how the game proceeded. The Eleven jumped to a quick 2 - nil lead just ten minutes into the first half as Braun headed in a set piece cross from Vukovic in the 5th minute and then Braun assisted Speas in the 10th minute on a pass that broke the offsides trap before Speas cleverly chipped Spangenberg. The Eleven were absolutely dominant in the first fifteen minutes (see heat map above), but took their collective foot off the gas and Puerto Rico FC increased their physicality.

A physicality that the Eleven, seemingly, were not allowed to match from referee Luis Guardia. Some of that I'll put on the Eleven for not paying attention to the fact that if Puerto Rico fell down, they were getting the calls. The Eleven continued to fight to stay upright and would not get calls. The couple times where an Eleven player actually felt the contact and went to ground, they too got the call. Match stats indicate the Eleven with 16 fouls conceded to Puerto Rico's 14 fouls, but those two extra fouls were penalty kicks that were awarded to Puerto Rico. One in the first half by Watson-Siriboe and one in the second by Busch. Both penalty kicks were successful, the first from Ramos off the rebound save by Busch, the other directly from the spot by former Indy Eleven player Walter Ramirez.

Zayed was off. Let me rephrase that. Zayed's final touch was off, and only just slightly. He was a halftime substitute for Tanner Thompson and immediately made some deft passes to players. Yet, his own final goal scoring touch wasn't up to his normal standard. For a guy dubbed "Mr. Hat Trick" and "El Raton" because of his ability to be in the right space at the right time and put the right touch on the ball to get it into the back of the net, he had chances to do that and missed on all of them. There doesn't appear to be any injury per se, so maybe there's a bit of him being in his own head about not being in the starting lineup, but he just doesn't seem like his normal self.

Game Beckons Game Ball

Indy Eleven/Trevor Ruszkowski

This week's Game Beckons Game Ball goes to, not surprisingly, Justin Braun. A one assist, two goal game, with the second goal being the game tying goal to salvage a draw and continue an undefeated streak at Carroll Stadium will usually garner a player a lot of accolades. Yet, the man who turned 30 the day before showed his value for this team. Braun spent the entirety of the first half in the offensive half of the field (see first touchmap below) working with Speas to attack the Puerto Rico goal. Zayed's addition to the field in the second half did not push Speas back into the midfield, which is his officially listed position. Officially listed forward Justin Braun dropped back into the midfield and had a third of his touches in the defensive half as he came back looking for the ball and defended. Despite his presence in the defensive half, he seemed to always be available going forward. His work rate is undeniable and if not for an amazing reaction save by Spangenberg in the waning minutes, I would be writing about Braun being a major factor in winning three points instead of saving one.

NASL/Opta Touchmap - Justin Braun - 1st Half

NASL/Opta Touchmap - Justin Braun - 

NASL/Opto Average Position

One last graphic that surprised me during first inspection, but makes more sense as I look at it. The team listed the lineup for the game as a 4-4-2. On paper, that's the players that Coach Hankinson utilized. Their actual use, however, got inverted to a 2-4-4. With Vuko and Franco flying up the wings, their average position for the course of the game actually pushed them into the midfield. That pushes Smart and Thompson higher up the field. It's not a graphic we've seen, maybe ever, for an Indy Eleven, but in an early part of a season where the backline has been cobbled together in a fashion different from the preseason expectations, it looks like the best defense might be a good offense. Coach Hankinson has always stressed defense, but at least for this game against Puerto Rico, they showed that they have the talent and ability to be more offensive in nature. The Eleven are going to play Puerto Rico again on Saturday, in Puerto Rico, and I would be surprised if the team has the same mentality of going forward that they showed yesterday. A draw on the road has often been the goal and back-to-back games against the same opponent would seem like the time that Hankinson (and likely a Falvey led backline) would be more defensive in nature.

Highlights: