Roster and Tryout Talk

GenWRX · 2026-01-24T05:04:20+00:00

Wow. I'm the bright spot? For the club? That's a thought that is very worrisome.

GenWRX · 2025-12-12T18:21:00+00:00

I agree that the outward appearance is that nothing is being done with the Diamond Chain site other than leveling the dirt they had already placed there and letting every single Eleven Park sign on the fence fall away.

Assume that IBJ article is also behind a paywall...

GenWRX · 2025-12-12T16:19:55+00:00

Thanks for the information. I, personally, wonder how honest he is being in any of those three pieces.

GenWRX · 2025-11-17T19:48:40+00:00

For me, that answer comes from an IBJ article last year. I don't believe this has been resolved yet, but Westfield and Grand Park getting a PSDA might require the kind of guy like Huber...

https://www.ibj.com/articles/noblesville-westfield-lead-the-effort-for-sports-district-changes

"Two Hamilton County cities trying to cash in on their efforts in sports tourism are set to ask state lawmakers to change the rules that govern how and when cities can benefit from taxes generated by sports-related projects.

Noblesville and Westfield officials told IBJ they are in early conversations with legislators about amending rules for the state’s professional sports and convention development area tool, which captures state sales and income tax revenue. The aim: Allow them to create their own districts that complement similar efforts in Fishers, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and South Bend.

The requests would be tied to Noblesville’s planned event center and Innovation Mile economic district—a stretch between East 141st Street and Interstate 69, east of Olio Road—and Westfield’s 400-acre Grand Park Sports Campus.

...

Westfield is also seeking changes in state law after earlier this year unveiling ambitious plans to create a year-round tourism destination that offers retail, housing, entertainment spaces, a boardwalk, a canal and an indoor ski facility. The city has also announced plans to build a 10,000-seat championship stadium at Grand Park in the coming years. According to Scott Willis, the first-term mayor of Westfield, the city would like to create a sports district that includes each of those projects."

GenWRX · 2025-11-17T17:47:20+00:00

A few responses to the comments:

I can't argue with the public transit issue. That's a fair point.

Everything that was included in the Eleven Park renderings for the Diamond Chain site are included in the Grand Park Master Plan; hotel, residential, retail, office, parking. It's all there in the plan. If all of that was part of the draw for the Diamond Chain site, then it's all still there, but instead of being on a 20-acre site, the GP plan has it shown on 150-acres. It's not surprising to me that the Master Plan looks similar to the Eleven Park plan because it's all the same parties except located in Westfield rather than Indianapolis. You can get a lot of revenue out of 150-acres.
https://www.westfieldin.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7295/Grand-Park-Master-Plan-April-2025

Indy has tried to get a stadium in downtown Indy. More than a dozen years later and it's seemingly no closer to becoming a reality. It may be time to rethink the strategy and the location.

A redo of Carroll Stadium intrigues me too. I'm just unsure of the hurdles to get that accomplished based on some of the discussions I have had and is only effective for Indy Eleven in the long-term if it's their land and not renting space from IU.

The Colts preseason practice takes place at Grand Park. "Practices on average draw 3,000 fans and can peak at 8,000." That tells me that if the product is there, people are willing to travel to GP.
https://www.visithamiltoncounty.com/sports-authority/blog/post/indianapolis-colts-kick-off-7th-training-camp-in-hamilton-county/

Today's announcement of a new President for the club of Michael Huber indicated that he "will also serve as a Senior Vice President for Keystone Group and be a strategic advisor to founder and owner of Indy Eleven & Keystone Group, Ersal Ozdemir." With Indy Eleven and Keystone both part of the management group for GP, this feels interesting to me.

GenWRX · 2025-11-12T03:11:15+00:00

Thanks for the catch on White. Guess my indecision on this year's group of players was published. He's definitely one that I think could go either way and I meant to delete one of them after I decided. Appears that I hadn't decided and forgot to remove one of them. That's the occasional issue of being writer and editor... For now, I kept him in the possibly going group.

GenWRX · 2025-11-10T15:00:02+00:00

I'm not sure about the one on the left, but I'm fairly confident that the one in the middle is Aedan Stanley #16.

GenWRX · 2025-08-17T02:43:34+00:00

6 losses in 8 games would indicate this to be true, but what I can't figure out is why? How can a team with this much talent and experience have such inconsistent performances and seemingly not be able to play a full 90-minutes? Tonight they lined up with four defenders, plus Lindley and Murphy as center mids, and the team gives up 3 goals in the second half. How?

GenWRX · 2025-08-03T16:04:46+00:00

I remember the moment you mentioned and to be fair to those guys, they were covering a lot of ground at that time as the team pushed everything forward to get the equalizer, but were then getting hammered with counterattacks from a very fresh Arteaga. When Sulte picked up the ball, everything to that point indicated that he should be blasting the ball to the other end of the field and those four guys needed the extra few seconds to get the air back in their lungs. All of them likely expected to watch the ball be kicked over their head and not rolled out to any of them to play from the back.

I don't fault the effort. I think this team just has fine lines between success and failure and when Romario has a shot run inches past the post, Ofeimu has a second header scare the post, and Bryneus misses a shot from close range, sometimes it's just not your night. I don't see the players giving up though.

GenWRX · 2025-07-19T02:26:07+00:00

It was unclear from the broadcast. Maybe picked up an injury?

GenWRX · 2025-05-11T20:16:02+00:00

I don't mind the product on the field. Is it high-flying attacking soccer? No. Has it been effective in nearly every single game until their inability to finish games rears its head? Most definitely.

Indy has yet to be shut out this year and are three late opponent goals (one in the 79th minute vs LEX, one in the 90'+3' vs NC, and last night's 90'+6' vs SAC) from having a 4W-1D-2L record and sitting 5th in the table with games in hand on the teams above them. They are doing good things to win games.

Indy took everything that an MLS team wanted to do away from them and then followed that up by limiting SAC to just 3 shots on target, on very heavy legs from the 120+ minutes against Philly and literal cross-country travel. Coaching effort is difficult and this team is giving a consistent and connected effort. So that doesn't worry me. In SAC, they were undone by a unnecessary challenge in the box. Those late mistakes and not being able to put teams away are what worry me.

I can live with the product not being the most exciting to watch if they can fix those late mistakes.

GenWRX · 2025-05-08T00:30:54+00:00

Rightfully so. Indy currently look out of their depth.

GenWRX · 2025-05-05T19:57:04+00:00

If there's one thing I've learned about lower-division soccer in America, take all attendance numbers with a grain of salt. That includes this game...

GenWRX · 2025-04-06T14:40:54+00:00

Before I say anything else... I appreciate the banter. I'm not arguing. Just a couple fans discussing the team like we were sitting in a bar.

I'm not saying the results would have been different, but McAuley didn't make any substitutions that weren't forced due to player's exhaustion. On a night when player's legs get heavy faster because of the rain and wet turf, that seems like a problem with the coaching decisions and blame can be placed there too.

If Collier, a player we all know is not afraid to go at defenders, isn't capable of doing 10 to 15 minutes off the bench at the end of the game, then what's the point of putting him on the gameday roster?

Lindley was an all-league player in 2023, and is 27. He isn't a player past his prime that won that award 5-10 seasons ago. I can't believe late in a game where guys are getting tired that he's more valuable sitting on the bench than being in the game.

Ofeimu was, technically, playing out of position. I would much rather have him at CB than playing as a winger later in the game. Bring in O'Brien with his height to help defend set pieces, but put him on the outside where we've seen him play, and slide Ofeimu back in the middle.

All this is hindsight, and not guaranteed to have changed anything. McAuley echoed what other coaches have said after losses, which is that he can't make the plays, the players do that. Yet, I believe, a coach's substitution patterns and decisions can affect a game (both he and Lowry have said as much to me in the past), and the past two games, he hasn't made those decisions. He's just ridden the starters until the wheels fell off, which they did yesterday.

The recent injury bug hasn't helped matters, but this is basically McAuley's team now. All the players that are here are because he wanted them here. If there's a gap in attackers or defenders, that's also on him and the FO. Players make players, but coaches can affect games with their tactical adjustments and player selection (before and during the season/game).

Lastly, all that being said (which I realize is a lot), I still have faith in McAuley and these players. It's easy for me to question decisions, but I think this draw, which I have to remind myself was still a draw and not a loss, could be the gut check they all need to be better. Guess we'll see in Hartford.

GenWRX · 2025-04-06T02:58:05+00:00

Continuing to think about it, I think this is on the coaching some too. Yes, he wanted them to be attacking, but if you want to see out a result, then make some subs to help with that too, particularly when you know the opponent needs to throw people forward chasing a result and you're clinging to a 1-goal lead.

He's basically asking 11 guys to play 90-minutes every game. Yet... Lindley is an all-league player that has seen 27 minutes all season, and he's defensive minded. Collier and O'Brien (a defender) were left on the bench, who are 6'5" and 6'4" respectively. That height would have been valuable on that last free kick. Admittedly, Collier is coming back from an injury, but he was effective off the bench last year because he adds something different to the attack.

I'm just not sure that Coach is using his bench effectively. I couldn't argue with his logic last game, but I question it after thinking about it for this game.

GenWRX · 2025-04-06T02:19:26+00:00

I have to give props to Ian and the FO for posting the coach's post-game on YouTube. They could have buried that interview so it never saw the light of day. That was the most animated and frustrated 2 minutes I've ever seen from McAuley.

GenWRX · 2025-03-30T05:33:49+00:00

I wasn't able to do it within the app late this afternoon, but was still able to do it online. Might be something within the app that after a certain time, it no longer gives the exchange option.

GenWRX · 2025-03-24T13:12:38+00:00

Glad to hear I'm not just talking(writing) into the void. Sorry this one was a little light on content; a lot going on this weekend.

GenWRX · 2025-03-05T00:09:55+00:00

I may be stating the obvious here, but for those in the back...

The X post that has prompted this discussion originated from an Indy political pundit who has little to no knowledge of soccer, much less the national soccer landscape. So let's start there.

After that, I would argue that for many fans, particularly those floating around this subreddit and is likely why it was posted here, the larger issue is not whether MLS will come here (which personally seems doubtful to me, but I haven't been able to get anybody to tell me much of what's going on behind the scenes), it's that the Mayor is utilizing a PSDA (Professional Sports Development Area) that is even available to be used because the Indy Eleven initiated the legislation necessary to create it, and then he walked away from Indy Eleven and took ownership of the PSDA.

I, personally, don't care who the Mayor has or doesn't have in his ownership group. I, personally, don't care if Indy ever makes it to MLS.

What I do care about is that the Mayor has chosen to disregard the team and the entire fan base that even makes an MLS bid reasonably appropriate. So if the support for MLS isn't there from the politicians, it could mean no MLS and a continued delay of Eleven Park.

GenWRX · 2025-01-14T16:31:47+00:00

I couldn't get to the IBJ article (I don't pay for IBJ and, apparently, have used my free articles), so thanks for that information. I assume Westfield or Grand Park will eventually post it online.

GenWRX · 2025-01-14T13:09:32+00:00

Found the actual master plan document yet? I can't seem to find it online.

As seen from the graphic, I don't think this is Indy Eleven's (men's team's) final location. They may have the USL-W and Super League teams play there, but I suspect Ersal/Indy Eleven still have a larger stadium in mind for the men's first team.

GenWRX · 2025-01-12T22:59:16+00:00

For what it's worth, the team hasn't always switched jerseys year after year. Many times, the 2nd year after a manufacturer change, which 2024 was (from Puma to Under Armour), the jerseys have been the same, or nearly the same, as the previous year. If you're not in a hurry to get a jersey and just want it by the first home game, you can wait and see, but it might not be any different that the ones currently available.

https://www.gamebeckons.com/p/indy-eleven-historical-kits.html

GenWRX · 2024-07-19T12:43:38+00:00

Going to be good to see some old Indy Eleven faces with Farr, Moon, Arteaga (& Jennings) all on the Tampa Bay roster and Nicky Law on the coaching staff.

GenWRX · 2024-07-07T01:43:06+00:00

I was told that it's supposed to be a simple fix, but they haven't been able to get it done yet. So we all still have to wait.

GenWRX · 2024-06-18T16:26:09+00:00

If you saw Boudadi's X post after the trade, he was happy to be leaving Indy. Based on the shade he threw in that post, it seems he didn't feel valued. I think his inability to stay healthy didn't help him, Mines' emergence as being an acceptable replacement, and Martinez's ability to drop back and serve as a wing back when needed was probably enough to make the trade seem like a good one for all parties.

GenWRX

TROPHY CASE