McInerney Saves The Day With Stoppage-Time Goal - Indy Eleven V Pittsburgh Riverhounds REVIEW

Jack McInerney netted early and late to salvage a 2-2 draw with Pittsburgh.

By: REBECCA TOWNSEND (aka The Pitch Bitch)

When Indy Eleven hosted the Pittsburgh Riverhounds at Lucas Oil Stadium Wednesday, both teams were riding unbeaten streaks: The Hounds with five and Indy with six.

By the game's end, each team had extended their streak by one. Thanks to a stoppage-time goal from experienced striker Jack McInerney, the hosts walked away with a two-two tie, which holds them steady at sixth in the United Soccer League's 17-seat Eastern Conference. The Hounds, meanwhile, slipped from second to third. Both remain favored for the playoffs — and with only four home games left before post-season, every game remains critical.

The match was textbook topsy-turvy.

The Pitch Bitch's first game notes of the night read: "Two minutes into the game, relative chaos in Indy's box." Less than two minutes later, Jack McInerney scored a goal thanks to a tough fight for possession in the midfield from Captain Matt Watson, who, after securing the ball, sent a beautiful pass through into the attacking third where McInerney was waiting in perfect position. (Always play hard, like Matt Watson, kids, because you never know when the pass you make after winning a hard-fought duel will end up being an assist!) 

The Hounds' goalie, Michael Kirk, stepped up to try to intercept the pass, but McInerney held the ball and his position as Kirk overcommitted, leaving Jack to step around one last defender and, like a trained assassin, deliver a swift and decisive kill shot, putting his team in an excellent position to pile on Pittsburgh's pain. But the visitors were resilient.

At minute 8, the Pitch Bitch was nervous when the Hounds found the foot of a weak-side runner steaming toward the left goal post. He couldn't keep his effort on frame, but if he was more Cristiano-or Lauren Cheney Holiday-like he would have.

In the 14th minute, the PB notes read: "A LOT of fucking around in front of the goal almost had us eat an ugly goal."

Twenty minutes later, defender Karl Ouimette almost netted his third goal of the season, exhibiting gorgeous touch and a solid shot across the goal mouth. Minutes later, the Hounds' Christiano Francois beat Indy in their defensive third to unleash a threatening shot, but fate would not have it stay on frame. Indy was back on the attack next, with Watson and McInerney nearly executing a repeat performance of the evening's first goal.





In first-half stoppage time, the Hounds found Indy's net off a Joe Greenspan-headed Francois freekick. Then, in the 59th minute, Francois made up for his missed opportunity earlier in the evening by reading a mistimed defensive pass, using his considerable speed to intercept the pass and elude Indy keeper Owain Fôn Williams. 

The situation looked bleak as the game's final minutes slipped away with Indy trailing. As Indy's head coach Martin Rennie said in post-game comments, sometimes the clock works against the team, but other times the opposite holds true. (In a recent game against Toronto, in which it seems stoppage time expired, the team somehow managed to score a tie-winning goal against Indy. Against Pittsburgh, though, the stoppage time goal went Indy's way.)

In the 94th minute, Ben Speas controlled the ball in the central channel about 30 yards from the Hound's goal and lofted a pass just over the central defenders' heads, as McInerney ran in from the weakside to control the ball off his chest and around the keeper to finish with immaculate finesse.

He then gave himself a yellow card by giving the ecstatic home crowd a shirtless display of surging testosterone. But his coach didn't care. Martin Rennie had his attention focused on this bigger picture of how his team is functioning as a unit.





In a post-game interview, Rennie said he is taking confidence from a couple main points: 1)
His team stayed unbeaten against one of the toughest rivals in the conference. 2) Indy scored two goals on a team that doesn't give up many goals 3) They opened up the Hound's formation on a number of occasions, finding viable scoring opportunities 4) Team defense is looking good. The errors tend to be isolated individual mistakes that can be minimized with, for instance, a more decisive response to balls entering the defensive third and a reduction in the instances in which a ball is left to bounce, setting up 50-50 balls. The general idea being that, even if you lose possession of a ball, but clear it away from the area where it poses an immediate threat, that tactic is better than scrapping for a loose ball in front of the goal.

"This is one of those seasons that is a grind," Rennie said. "We have to work hard for everything but, by doing that, we're building a lot of resilience and character — and, ultimately, you need those things to be a team that wins at the end of the season. As much as everyone would like things to be easy, it doesn't really make you stronger..these games are hard but at the end of the day we're getting results, they make us strong and so overall I'm very happy."

Whereas the Pitch Bitch was losing her mind about some of the ref's calls — or lack thereof — throughout the evening, including the blatant — and uncalled — foul against Indy that preceded the Hounds first goal, Rennie adopted a circumspect attitude post-game when asked if he would launch a formal complaint.

"In life, there's lots of things we can't control," he said. "Officiating is one of those things. They say in the course of a season that things even out. We're in for a ride at the end if that's the case."

USL Eastern Conference playoff positions as of 8/30/2018

Just four home games remain ahead of the playoffs. Indy will host the Richmond Kickers on Sat., Sept. 1 (broadcast locally on WISH TV 8), and the New York Red Bulls II on Wed., Sept. 5. The season will conclude with a Wednesday game against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Sept. 26 and Bethlehem Steel FC on Oct. 6.  (The final three home games will be broadcast on MyIndy 23 TV.) Kickoff time for all these matches is 7 p.m.

Fans may also consider a road trip to Cincinnati on Sept. 29, when Indy will visit the league leader.

Fee-free tickets are available for purchase through the Brickyard Battalion supporters club at BYBtix.com. The team has plenty of good deals, as well, at IndyEleven.com. 

Indy Survive Battle Of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Riverhounds V Indy Eleven REVIEW

Carlyle Mitchell never likes leaving the field, unfortunately for Indy he left early in this match.

By: James Cormack

Indy Eleven hit the road for a Friday night match this week against the only remaining undefeated team in USL, Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. The Boys in Blue entered the game undefeated away from home. At the end of the night, the song remains the same, Pittsburgh is still the only undefeated team in the USL and Indy have still not been beaten on the road nor have they conceded a goal.

Indy Eleven notched their fifth clean sheet of 2018 and picked up one point in a very hard fought 0-0 draw at Highmark Stadium. All respect should be given to the home team for making this match a very difficult one for Indy Eleven, they will be sore for not finding the net after their efforts. They attacked well and defended even better but also failed in scoring.

The first 20-25 minutes of the first half was somewhat cagey, both sides probing but not able to find a way to unlock their opposition, there were purple patches and scary moments for either side. From about halfway through the first half the tempo picked up and it did not cease for the entirety of the game.

Pittsburgh pressed Indy Eleven very well and as the second half wore on Indy found it harder and harder to settle into any kind of rhythm, Riverhounds controlled the pace of the game and they made it very hard work. It was an incredible feat of survival really for Indy's normally calm and collected defense, at times they looked shell-shocked and confused but still managed to hold down the clean sheet.

Nico Matern (left) in action against Lou City was the second casualty of the night, replaced by Juan Guerra.

Martin Rennie again made slight changes to the starting lineup going with what looked like a 4-1-4-1 with Matern holding down the defensive midfield and Jack McInerney the lone striker. Kevin Venegas, who left the Louisville game late through injury was rested and Brad Ring again stepped in at right back. Justin Braun started to give us another attacking option and Watson was again rested.

Starting Lineup: Fôn Williams, Ring, Mitchell, Ouimette, Ayoze, Matern, Lewis, Braun, Steinberger, Saad, and McInerney. Subs: Farr, Rusin, Watson, Amankona, Speas, Guerra and Moses.

It was enough of a shuffle to expect Indy to require a little time in this game to find themselves in a new formation. At a point in the game where Indy looked like they were settling, they were dealt a hammer blow when Carlyle Mitchell had to leave the field in the 35th minute. The pack was shuffled again and Brad Rusin stepped in alongside Ouimette.

As we know Indy has that luxury of roster depth and Rusin is a more than capable replacement and played a large part in Indy not conceding a goal. Indy was dealt another injury blow in the 62nd minute when Nico Matern also had to leave, replaced by Juan Guerra. Mitchell and Matern are a critical part of Indy's defensive steel, credit to our team for still keeping the Riverhounds shut out for the remainder of the match.

For the second consecutive away game, Martin Rennie chose not to use all three subs, the same happened in Charlotte, I am sure there is a good reason but I am not sure what it is. In both matches, Indy has a following Wednesday game.

A lonely night for Jack at times, but he made the most of tough situations.

I guess one could be forgiven for expecting a 0-0 draw, as mentioned Indy has not given up a goal on the road this year and Pittsburgh arguably have the best defense in the league having only conceded 3 goals in 8 matches. Neither side can be described as prolific in front of goal, although the Riverhounds have notched up 10 goals compared to Indy's 7 for the season so far.

A goalless draw it was though, not much in the way of highlights but over the course of 99 or so minutes, Pittsburgh definitely looked like the team most likely to break the deadlock. Most of Indy's attacks were opportunistic at best in the times between having to defend against a determined Pittsburgh attack. The Riverhounds back line has been touted as the best in the league, and on the evidence of this game, you can see why.

Positives: Indy again showed they are a difficult team to break down, they came under intense periods of pressure in this game and still did not concede a goal. We know we are defensively strong and in this game probably more than most they really had to endure and after losing two critical players who make up that defensive mettle Carlyle Mitchell and Nico Matern. Indy was pressed very hard and had to think on the fly, at times it was not pretty but they survived and denied Pittsburgh a win.

Jack McInerney can probably be given the man of the match award, despite Indy being determined to throw 50/50 balls up front, McInerney despite not being the tallest player on the field won a lot of them and also created great scoring opportunities with clever distribution for Braun and Saad among others but they couldn't be finished. He was trying to make things happen.

Denied. Several opportunities but nothing in the net for Soony Saad.

Negatives: Unfortunately for Indy again, thinking on the fly was not a strong point in their attack building, they can be forgiven for losing the ball or being thwarted when Pittsburgh put them under pressure, but there were plenty of moments with space and time in the game where the Eleven wasted it. Indy has more than enough ability to play a great passing game, but again poor decision making in possession stopped them from creating enough clear-cut scoring opportunities. 

Examples of this, in the second half Brad Ring playing out of a tight spot and passes up the line to Lewis who back heels to set himself up but spins and loses the ball, rather than try a fancy trick control the ball, pass back and move, maintain possession. Soony Saad hammering a ball goalward from distance when he had space and time and players in front of him. Many moments in this game we took the hardest road or the least sensible decision to try and force a scoring opportunity instead of using the easiest pass. Decision making, thinking on your feet.

The guys on the left and right width in our attack need to produce more and we still are failing many times and we won't improve as an attack until we get this figured out.

It's okay to go back in order to go forwards but it seemed the intensive pace of the game set by Pittsburgh caused Indy to feel they had to do the same thing and too much of our play was rushed instead of trying to shift the tempo, slow it down and create good chances. Trying to quick counter an extremely solid defensive team at home with long balls did not work.



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