It’s a quick turnaround for RIFC (and us here at Tide Talk) as the team travels to Indianapolis for a meeting with Indy Eleven on Wednesday night. We are coming off a 1-1 draw in Detroit while Indy are coming off a 5-0 loss in Charleston. Check out the Postmatch Beacon and Player Ratings for more info on our draw last time out. There’s a lot to discuss for this midweek match, so let’s get to it.

The quick turnaround for us presents an opportunity to make some changes to our starting 11, although I don’t know that we will. We have stuck with the same 3-5-2 formation for several games now and we’ve had the same starting 11 for the last 3 games. If we do make changes, I feel the most likely place is in the midfield. As we know, that is the area of the team where we have the most depth. We’ve been playing Marc Ybarra as a 6, Clay Holstad as an 8 and Noah Fuson as the number 10. As we’ve seen in the last 2 games, Zach Herivaux can come in for Ybarra and play the more defensive role in the midfield. Conor McGlynn can play in Holstad’s spot and Joe Brito can be a more advanced midfielder in Fuson’s spot. Obviously I don’t think all of these are going to happen. But if I had to guess, I think the most likely change would be Herivaux for Ybarra. That being said, Khano has done a great job of managing minutes. In the last 2 games, Ybarra played 60 minutes against North Carolina and 45 minutes against Detroit City. As a big Ybarra fan, I choose to believe that those subs were more about managing minutes rather than a reflection on his recent performances.

As for other changes, I don’t see any that make much sense. We might see one of our CBs get a break and not go the full 90 if Gabi Alves or Kofi Twumasi are fit but I haven’t seen any indication that they’re ready yet. You could also give Albert Dikwa a break and play Mark Doyle but again, I don’t think that’s likely. From everything we’ve seen with Khano, we don’t really rotate the team much. We’ve found an 11 that works and I think Khano will mostly try to manage minutes by making some in game substitutions rather than change the starting 11.

Indy Eleven have had a very strange season so far. They won just once in their first 7 games but followed that up with 8 consecutive wins. Since then, Indy are winless in their last 6 games, losing 3 and drawing 3. This includes the 5-0 loss in Charleston last Friday night. They were in that game for awhile but gave up the first goal in the 52nd minute and proceeded to concede 4 more from the 70th minute on. The loss means Indy Eleven have conceded 12 goals and only scored 4 over their last 6 games. 3 of those 4 goals came against us at Beirne on July 5th, but more on that game soon. While their recent form in the league has been poor, I have to say Indy deserve a ton of credit for representing the USL Championship so well in the US Open Cup. They are the only USL team left in that competition, having reached the semifinals.

When it comes to players to look out for, I’m a big fan on Indy midfielder Cam Lindley. He is the player who makes everything tick in their midfield, even if it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. You may look and see that he has 0 goals and 1 assist this season (which came against us), but he is so much more than those numbers show. Speaking of the numbers though, Indy Eleven’s leading goal scorer this season is midfielder Jack Blake with 8. Blake hasn’t played since the first half against Orange County on June 22nd though, which was the start of Indy Eleven’s recent 6 game winless run. You have to think that has been a pretty big factor.

It’ll also be important for us to keep an eye on Aedan Stanley. Stanley leads Indy Eleven in assists with 7 from his LWB spot. You can look for forwards Augustine Williams and Romario Williams to try to get on the end of his crosses. Augustine is 2nd on the team with 5 goals while Romario hasn’t scored yet since coming over from Hartford. Coincidentally, or maybe not, Romario’s first game for his new team was that Orange County game that started this recent downturn. It would make sense that he brought some that Hartford stench over to Indianapolis.

Lastly, I’m interested to see if midfielder Aodhan Quinn starts in this one for Indy Eleven. Quinn has been out for almost a year, as he suffered a season ending injury last September. He played his first game back last time out, playing the entire 2nd half in Charleston. Quinn was a crucial player for Indy Eleven last season and was 2nd on the team with 9 goals. They will be thrilled to have him back, especially with their recent poor form.

Since it’s later in the season now, we once again have an opportunity to look back at a previous matchup against our upcoming opponents. We played Indy Eleven on July 5th at Beirne and got a point in a thrilling 3-3 draw. Some poor defending on our part helped Indy Eleven to take a 2-0 lead into halftime. Frank Nodarse responded with a second half brace with both goals coming from corners swung in by Marc Ybarra. We would concede again to go down 3-2 but Isaac Angking was there for some late heroics deep into stoppage time to give each team a point. Revisiting this game now, it’s a little disappointing that we gave up 3 goals. As I pointed out earlier, these were 3 of the 4 goals Indy Eleven have scored in their last 6 games. At the same time, it was really encouraging to see our ability to fight back in a game that wasn’t going our way.

With all of this being said, I think this is going to be a tough game for us Wednesday night. I know I’ve pointed out several times that Indy Eleven are on a bad run of form, but they’re one of those teams that’s better than their recent results. And trust me, I get that that might sound a bit crazy with them coming off a 5-0 loss. I just think that Indy Eleven match up with us well. They also play 3 at the back and have a pretty good midfield. The difference is going to be who can be more clinical with their chances. I back our guys to get a couple goals and see this one ending in a 2-1 win for RIFC.

I’m heading to Providence Brewing Wednesday night for the watch party and the 2nd ever Tide Talk live show. It promises to be a great time and I encourage everyone to come hang out. It’s also the official watch party location for the team this week and I’m hearing Chip’s availability is a game-time decision. Either way, there will be some great beer flowing and some entertaining podcasting to go along with what we hope will be an RIFC win. All I have left to say now is UP THE TIDE!