Tonight’s game against Indy Eleven (7:00pm, ESPN+) is a key matchup in the tightly contested midsection of the Eastern Conference. The Legion has a 2-point advantage over Indy but has played one more game, so potentially creating a 5-point split is important. A win would also vault the Three Sparks over Rhode Island and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds into 6th place, at least until they both play this weekend.
Indy has been in much the same shape as the Legion, record-wise. They are 1-3-5 in league play and have won both Jägermeister Cup games. The last two were both against League One teams (Forward Madison and One Knoxville). The only league win was all the way back in the season opener when they beat The Miami FC 3-1 away.
Their record through May is interesting. They lost 1-3 to El Paso Locomotive (the same score by which the Legion beat El Paso), drew 2-2 with Detroit City and most recently drew 4-4 with Hartford Athletic in a crazy game seven days ago. They also drew 1-1 with Sacramento Republic (who come here this month). A real mixed bag. The Legion of course drew 2-2 with Detroit (as well as 1-1) but lost embarrassingly 0-1 to Hartford.
It should also be noted that the Legion’s remaining Cup schedule includes the same Forward Madison at home and, later this month, Indy away (in addition to the away league fixture in September). In the Cup Indy has the tiebreak advantage right now so getting points in that game is also important. But beating a team twice in a month is tough.
The Eleven plays with a variety of formations, having used a 4-4-2 against Hartford and previously 4-2-3-1 and 5-3-2. Their best scorer in league play is Elvis Amoh on 4 goals; behind him is Romario Williams on 2. They’ve bagged 17 goals in league play so far and allowed 20. The Legion has scored 12 and allowed 15.
Asked about Indy’s strengths Mark Briggs said, “They’re a very nature team. They’ve got a lot of experience. They’re a very big team. So, set pieces, long throw-ins, corner kicks, free kicks. You know, we want to avoid giving those away. We want to defend properly and not give up cheap fouls because those are opportunities where they can put balls in the box and they’re miles bigger than us.”
As for Indy being mature, their average age is 26.4. Excluding goalkeepers it’s 26.8. That’s unusual. Elvis Amoh, for example, is 33, as are also Aodhan Quin and James Musa. The Legion averages 25.7. Field players only are 25.1. Not sure if Briggs was being at least a little snarky about that but Indy has only 4 players younger than 24. The Three Sparks have twice that.
He’s not wrong about them being big. Indy field players average a hair over 6 feet; Legion’s average just under 5’10”. This could be a brutal test.
Prediction: Despite the Legion working on much shorter rest and also being without Phanuel Kavita and Ramiz Hamouda on international duty, that size advantage could work against Indy as they try to deal with a very big field in hot humid conditions. This will be close but I expect 3 straight wins for the good guys.
