Indy Eleven prepare for U.S. Open Cup semifinals
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indy Eleven’s underdog run in the U.S. Open Cup will be put to the test on Tuesday.
The USL Championship team will face off against Sporting KC of the MLS in the semifinals of the tournament.
The Eleven pulled off the upset in the quarterfinals against Atlanta United by the score of 2-1 in July.
This is the farthest that the Eleven has ever made it in the tournament.
“I think it’s probably a huge occasion getting to the semifinal because that’s creating history,” Indy Eleven head coach Sean McAuley said. “We’ve never gone this far before. So, we’ll just continue to do what we’ve done in terms of preparation and keeping the players focused.”
“It’s going to be really important that we go in with the mentality of not being overawed by the competition,” McAuley said. “But we’re well aware of what the competition is in terms of the standard and the quality of players they’ve got.”
“If we stay focused and stay intense throughout the 90 or 120 minutes, we feel like we come home on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning with a good results,” Indy Eleven midfielder Cam Lindley said.
In the four U.S. Open Cup games so far, the Eleven have been excellent defensively, holding their opponents to just one goal.
“It’s going to be vital for us to defend really well,” McAuley said. “If you look at KC, when they’re on, generally they score a goal. So, we’re not going in there thinking clean sheet. We’re going in there with a defensive strategy to try and keep it as close of a game as possible so that if we get an opportunity and we take it, then we’re in the mix to win it.”
The U.S. Open Cup is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States. Teams across multiple levels of U.S. soccer compete in the cup, like the MLS and the USL Championship.
In the USL Championship, the Eleven are currently in fifth place in the East with 10 wins, nine losses, and five draws. Sporting KC is 12th in the West division of the MLS, with seven wins, 14 losses, and six draws.
The game will be played on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Children’s Mercy park in Kansas City, Kansas.