It’s officially March which means the 2024 USL season has begun. We are two full weekends in with the Indy Eleven having played on both weekends. The team sits on three points through the two games and a goal differential of zero having scored three times and being scored on three times. Here’s a quick recap of the first two games of the 2024 campaign.
Indy started the season with a matchup out on the west coast against the Oakland Roots. Oakland scored in the third minute of play, after that it would take four yellow cards and forty minutes for the Indy Eleven to find the net for the first time in the regular season. Jack Blake gets the goal in the forty third minute and that would be the final action of the half. Five minutes into the second half Oakland would find the back of the net again. That would be the final goal of the game and the Eleven would return home with a 2-1 loss out in Oakland. Indy won the possession battle 60% to 40%, they had 19 total shots with 5 of them being on goal and 10 corner kicks. Indy definitely looked very dangerous on the attack and a bit uncoordinated on the defensive side of the ball.
Indy’s second game of the year was a matchup with former rival Memphis 901 FC. The boys in blue would be awarded a penalty in the twenty-sixth minute with Jack Blake converting from the spot giving us our first lead of the year. Douglas Martinez would then find the back of the net in the forty-second minute. A Memphis player was given a second yellow card sending him off the field giving the Indy Eleven a man up and a two-nil lead at the half. The second half would kickoff and it was back and forth until the first minute of a six minute stoppage time when Memphis would get one back making it 2-1. The game would end with another red card given to a Memphis player and the Indy Eleven would win their first game of the year. Memphis won the possession battle 58%-42%, Indy had twelve shots with four shots on goal.
The Boys in Blue currently sit at the seventh position on the table, not that there is much to look at yet. The Indy Eleven finish the month of March +1 with their home opener next Saturday, the twenty-third, for a matchup with Sac Republic before back to back rivalry games. First with a home matchup against DCFC on the thirtieth and then a trip down to Louisville City on April sixth. Tickets to the first two home games of the season can be found at www.indyeleven.com/Tickets or at brickyardbattalion.com/byb-tix