Days removed from the club’s first international friendly against Monarcas Morelia that ended in a scoreless draw, Indy Eleven now turns to their ultimate goal. This fall, Indy Eleven will be well motivated towards qualifying for their first playoff birth in the North American Soccer League.
At the time of this piece, Tim Regan still holds the interim tag on his status as head coach. While Peter Wilt has been quoted as saying that Regan is at the top of their list of candidates, nothing is secured as far as who will be leading the team by the end of the season. Despite that uncertainty, the club is ready to hit the ground running on the back of three positive results.
Three Keys To Fall Success For Indy Eleven
The issues that once plagued the team under Juergen Sommer have all but vanished under the leadership of both Tim Regan and Jose Kleberson. However, there are still a few keys for the team to look at as the season begins:
Three Keys To Fall Success For Indy Eleven:
- High quality play on the field.. The issues that caused Indy to slide downward midway through the season was the painful state of play that mainly existed on the road, but showed up in home games as well. The Jacksonville Armada game, in which Indy Eleven was almost nonexistent in terms of transition and offense on the field provided the height of what can only be seen as cruel and unusual punishment for the play at the time. Indy needs to keep up the intensity and be able to actually play like a home team when they are home and actually get off the bus when they play away from Indianapolis.
- Controlling matches. While ideally everyone would want to be able to snap their fingers and take control of a game, it’s unrealistic to expect. What Indy has struggled with though is giving up that control of paces for a game and having no moves or fight in them to actually take control back. Indy does much better when they hold onto the pace of the game and play their game rather than catch up with whatever team they face. This needs to be a focus on the field as the team prepares for a marathon of a Fall season.
- Youth has been a large positive and negative for Indy Eleven. Charlie Rugg, Brian Brown, Wojciech Wojcik, and Duke Lacroix sit in their mid to early 20s in age and have struggled to be consistent in front of the goal. Players like Brian Brown, who took a full 90 against Monarcas Morelia is a product of what the club needs to do in the Fall. Tim Regan was asked about why Brown saw the full 90 minutes and his answer is exactly what is needed for the forwards to get comfortable, “It wasn’t the original plan, but as the game went on we thought that he would benefit from playing a full 90 minutes to keep getting himself around goal more and get used to the good movement that he’s shown in and around the box. Perhaps he could take a chance or two better, but I thought the quality of the runs and the work rate were great.” While age shouldn’t be a factor in play, the forwards would benefit from aggressive style pushing in order to get the time in front of the net and increase chances at goals. If the forwards get in front of the goal and often then the troubles of scoring will be a thing of the past.
Youth, controlling the game, and maintaining intensity of play through out the season are just three of the many things that Tim Regan and crew have to do in order to continue to rise back up to the top of NASL.
Indy Eleven begin their campaign in New York against the Spring season winners New York Cosmos Saturday Night at 7:00 PM live on WISH-TV (in Indiana) and ESPN 3 otherwise.
