Three first half goals and a solid defensive effort was enough to propel Indy Eleven to a 3-0 home win over Detroit City FC on Wednesday night in the Round of 16 of the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.
An early own goal by DCFC and a pair of goals three minutes apart by Augustine Williams and Ben Ofeimu proved to be the difference at historic Michael A. Carroll Stadium in Indianapolis. Indy goalkeeper Hunter Sulte faced 17 shots and made seven saves to earn his club a third straight clean sheet.
With the win, Indy Eleven advances to the Quarterfinals for the first time in club history and becomes just the second Indiana team to ever reach the last eight. The only other team to do it was the Indianapolis Inferno in 1992. Indy’s next opponent in the competition will be a road match against Atlanta United FC (MLS) the week of July 9-10.
Detroit City FC and Indy Eleven were the lone USL Championship vs USL Championship matchup in the Round of 16, guaranteeing that a team from the Division II league would make it into the Quarterfinals of the US Open Cup for the seventh consecutive year and 15 of the last 16 tournaments.
However, the day before, New Mexico United and Sacramento Republic beat Detroit and Indy to that honor by beating NYCFC II from MLS NEXT Pro and San Jose Earthquakes from MLS, respectively.
Detroit reached the Round of 16 by defeating MLS’s Houston Dynamo, the tournament’s defending champions, after coming from behind to send the game to extra time after a 3-3 draw. It then took all 30 minutes of extra time and 20 penalty kicks when Houston’s goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell pushed his attempt wide, and DCFC’s goalkeeper Carlos Saldaña finished his attempt down the middle to send the defending champs home.
Indy Eleven’s path was smoother as they defeated San Antonio FC 2-0 thanks to early goals from Augustine Williams and Jack Blake.
Tonight’s US Open Cup match between Detroit City and Indy Eleven marked the third time this season that the league foes have played each other. Indy came out the victors in a 3-1 preseason affair in late February. In an early season matchup a month later, Detroit City flipped the script and pulled a late-game 2-1 winner in the 88th minute thanks to Maxi Rodriguez. The teams came into tonight’s game even in points in the Eastern Conference table, but with Detroit City having games-in-hand due to a less cluttered early season schedule. Since the two teams faced each other on March 30, Indy has played seven league games while Detroit City has played five games. While Indy is in the midst of a stretch of three games in eight days, Detroit City hasn’t played since May 11 and don’t have their next game until May 29. Clearly the teams came into this game with different needs for managing player’s bodies.
They also came into the game as different teams than when they faced each other in March. Detroit has gone 2-1-2 in league play since the March matchup, while Indy came into the game on a seven-game unbeaten streak across all competitions after taking a couple of bad beatings from Louisville City and the Charleston Battery. Indy’s confidence in their recent run-of-form versus Detroit City’s confidence of having beaten an MLS side to reach this game was what was at play tonight. It was Indy’s confidence that ultimately won the night.
Starting lineups from both teams showed that they were taking the game seriously, with players that they would use in a normal league game. The teams had all the appearances of playing this game like a league playoff game. In early action, both teams looked to put themselves on the front foot to try and get an early lead. A breakaway for Detroit led to a tangling of feet, a yellow card to Indy’s Ofeimu, and a free kick for Detroit from just outside the 18-yard box. The kick was blocked by the wall, but the yellow card to Ofeimu put pressure on Indy’s back three to prevent a scenario where they were playing down a man, which generally spells defeat for teams in knockout games.
As the game approached the quarter hour, Indy’s Ben Mines sent a pass to an overlapping Ofeimu on the right side of the pitch, who promptly sent a cross to the six-yard box towards Martinez. The ball didn’t reach Martinez, but instead ricocheted off of Detroit’s Stephen Carroll to get the scoring started for the home team. It would be difficult to say the goal was completely against the run-of-play, but much of the play up to the goal had been in Indy’s defensive end, but generally in non-threatening positions. The goal by Indy ramped up Detroit’s pressure as they looked to immediately bring the game back to level.
Just shy of the 22-minute mark, Detroit finally and cleanly broke through the middle of the Indy lines and forced Sulte into a low stretching save to prevent Morris from finding that equalizing goal. The goal was pushed to his left and out for a corner kick that was cleared away by Indy. At this point in the game, Morris and Rodriguez were pulling the strings in the center of the pitch, but the team couldn’t get clean shots on target.
The lack of ability to get on the board came back to haunt Le Rouge as Indy tacked on goals in the 33rd and 35th minutes. For the first goal, after a series of corner kicks from both teams, Indy recycled a ball that Blake put over the top as both Martinez and Williams beat the offside trap. Martinez one-touched the ball to Williams who slotted it past Saldaña to double Indy’s lead.
Two minutes later and yet another corner kick for Indy resulted in a headed goal from Ofeimu from Stanley’s back post kick.
In the remaining 10 minutes, Detroit continued to dominate possession, but Indy was content to sit back and absorb some of that pressure to prevent the late goal from Detroit that would give have given the visitors some life and momentum going into the halftime locker room. As the half progressed through the three minutes of stoppage time, Detroit forced Indy into intense defending and spectacular saves from Sulte.
A seventh corner kick in the first half for Detroit as time was expiring nearly found the left side of the goal, but Sulte blocked the shot up into the air, and then punched the resulting ball out of bounds, allowing Indy fans to take a deep breath as referee Araki blew his whistle for the halftime break. On the flipside, a raucous Detroit contingent of fans was left wondering what changes head coach Danny Dichio would have in store to get their team back into the game after watching the first half largely take place in Indy’s defensive side of the pitch, but sitting in a large hole.
Detroit immediately made substitutions out of the locker room, taking off Brett Levis and Maxi Rodriguez for Alex Villanueva and Victor Bezerra, respectively. A surprising substitution bringing Rodriguez off given his importance to the recent Open Cup result. Indy, contrarily, despite the fixture congestion this week, stayed with the starters to open the second half.
There didn’t appear to be any major tactical changes for Detroit with the substitutions as they continued to try and play through the center of the pitch, looking for moments when they could unbalance the Indy midfield and defenders. The corner kicks continued to mount for the visitors, but continued to be off on their delivery.
Around the 60th minute, the physicality took another step up as the referee’s early lack of whistle translated to players realizing that the minor fouls called during league play were not going to be whistled today. The Indy players felt aggrieved when Matthews appeared to purposefully kick Martinez after a corner kick. Then Amoo-Mensah picked up a yellow card in the 61st minute after a hard challenge to even the card count briefly before Blake picked up Indy’s second yellow card seconds before he was substituted out of the game.
The remainder of the game took on a much different pace as Detroit began to look like they realized it wasn’t their night and Indy was content to defend to keep a clean sheet and counterattack when possible. Indy’s manager Sean McAuley continued his trend of substituting in his normal substitution windows to manage his player’s minutes looking ahead to their league match on Saturday against Phoenix Rising. Indy could be described as efficient in their offense in the first half and they let it carry them to the victory tonight.
“We were dangerous when we needed to be. We scored three goals and we had a chance to get another couple,” said McCauley. “Everybody knows their role, of what we want them to do, where to be at the right time, and what to do defensively. It’s people know their jobs, and once they know their jobs, you ask yourself ‘can they do their jobs?’ Currently the form is showing, yeah they can. When you win the ball back, you know you’ve got the opportunity to create numbers up in spaces they’ve left, and I thought we did that really well. Efficiently, in the first half.”
Indy and Detroit will face off yet again this season in league play so this rivalry will once again be on display later this year. For the night, though, in the 109th edition of the US Open Cup, Indy Eleven took the victory and move onto the tournament’s quarterfinals
Much has been documented recently about Indy Eleven’s stadium and MLS controversy, but the Indy fans can take solace in the fact that their team is proceeding through the U.S. Open Cup with a series of games without conceding a goal.