Riverhounds put up valiant fight, but suffer late despair in Indianapolis taken at Highmark Stadium (Riverhounds)

Indy Eleven

Riverhounds defender Pat Hogan and captain Danny Griffin argue with referee Elijio Arreguin following Hogan's dismissal against Indy Eleven

For the second time in three games, the Riverhounds surrendered a goal deep into stoppage time. And for the second time in three games, you are left wondering what sort of impact this devastation could lead to regarding their playoff push. 

The Riverhounds were once again left to deal with a late heartbreak as Danny Griffin’s goal was canceled out by Romario Williams with the final kick of the match as they were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw in Indianapolic having played almost the entire fixture with 10 men after Pat Hogan's controversial red card inside of five minutes. 

Almost immediately the Riverhounds were under pressure and came very close to falling behind, Sebastian Guenzatti latching onto a cross and having enough time in the area to take the ball under control and get a shot away, but thankfully Hogan was there to block the attempt.

The two would meet again two minutes later as the Riverhounds defender was sent off for a high tackle on the Argentinian. The challenge initially only earned Hogan a yellow card, but in the eyes of referee Elijio Arreguin and his assistants, they upgraded it to a dismissal. So before Bob Lilley’s men had managed to get a foothold in the game, they were faced with the unenviable task of playing out the remainder of the game with ten men, something that both Riverhounds owner Tuffy Shallenberger wasn't shy in airing his views about:

And speaking after the game to the Riverhounds media staff, Lilley wasn't too happy about it either, as he let rip at the officials and their handling of the matter, :

"I don’t agree with a number of the decisions, and it’s a shame at this point of the season a game is being refereed that way. (Hogan) won the ball; he didn’t go through the man. Yes, his foot was high. Maybe it warranted a yellow, but that’s never a red unless he’s violently going through or he misses the ball. There was no attempt to do anything but play the ball. It’s two players going in opposite directions, and (Sebastián) Guenzatti’s in the air with his foot up, too. For a ref to change his call when he has the best view… it’s not something he didn’t see. He’s right there, but he let his fourth and the linesmen influence his decision when he has the best view of it. It's sad. That affected the outcome.”

Undeterred by the rather bizarre setback, the Riverhounds immediately went on the attack themselves and came close to taking the lead from Sean Suber’s header off a corner, but it didn’t take long for the pressure to come back their way, as Guenzatti fired a half-volley wide after some neat buildup between him and Williams.

The only benefit that could be argued for the Riverhounds about Hogan’s sending off, is that the team didn’t need to change too much in terms of personnel or playing style, with the back line just asked to compress a bit more and the fullbacks tucking back a few yards, and given how much Lilley preaches defensive stability, the extra work rate was never going to be too hard to come by.

The Riverhounds, as you might expect, didn’t get many chances to move forward, and apart from a Griffin freekick that was blocked by the wall, it was a lot of one-way traffic for the vast majority of the opening period, but they managed to sustain it well, limiting the home side to just 3 shots off the back of 72.7% possession:

Possession stats from the first half of Indy Eleven vs. Riverhounds in the USL Championship

USL Championship Match Center

Possession stats from the first half of Indy Eleven vs. Riverhounds in the USL Championship

Attacking stats from the first half of Indy Eleven vs. Riverhounds

USL Championship Match Center

Attacking stats from the first half of Indy Eleven vs. Riverhounds

The only question, was whether the Riverhounds would want to carry on playing that way after the restart, or given how perilous their playoff chances were, go for broke and try to push forward that little bit more. 

The second half started off the way the majority of the first half played out, with Indy Eleven getting deep into Riverhounds territory but not causing Eric Dick many problems, but once the first ten minutes had played out the Riverhounds fought back, with Jackson Walti having an effort strike the woodwork and Emmanuel Johnson carve out an opportunity that was blocked by Ben Ofeimu.

The mindset of Lilley and his plan for the rest of the game though became apparent with his first substitutions of the night, as Edward Kizza and Dani Rovira (forward and defender), were replaced by Pierre Cayet and Bradley Sample (defender and defensive midfielder) … or at least that’s how it seemed to be.

But it wouldn’t be the 2024 Riverhounds if there wasn’t a shocking twist in there somewhere, and that came in the 73rd minute, as Griffin fired the team into the lead with a powerful volley off of Illal Osumanu’s knockdown to silence the Brickyard Battalion and leave the home side needing to chase a game that shouldn’t have even been a close encounter:

As for Indy Eleven’s efforts to get back into the game? It seemed as if they were destined to end the night embarrassed for not being able to break down a side with only ten men. Other than a cross from Logan Neidlinger that managed to creep goalwards and an effort from Williams that flew high over the bar, Dick wasn’t forced into any significant saves as the minutes wound down and the visitors worked themselves to the bone to make sure the clean sheet remained. 

That clean sheet though was soiled with the last kick of the game, as Williams ensured that the home side would get something out of the game with a perfectly placed freekick into the top corner and leave the Riverhounds dejected:

Lilley felt that the blame for the goal fell in two places. The first was the players for not seeing the game out, but he also called out the officials once more for how they handled the amount of additional time at the end of the 90 minutes:

“We have to stop making mistakes at critical times, and this one was more painful than the Colorado Springs game at home, because of the way the guys fought to get the lead. Our guys fought, and they shouldn’t have had to play the match down to 10 men, but we still have to make the right play. 

"They called for five minutes (of stoppage time) after the sub — I'm not even convinced it should have been five minutes — but it was past five minutes, and we didn’t clear it. Instead, (Maalique Foster) dribbles three guys and wins a free kick.”

The game against Colorado Springs, which was a draw, felt like a loss because of how the game played out in the closing stages. This game though is a little bit harder to summize. 

Yes a draw is a good result given the circumstances, and something they would have taken as soon as Hogan was given his marching orders. But failing to see out a game like this after doing so much hard work to keep the opposition out, do you really see it as a positive, especially knowing that the final kick was in essence a three-point swing (two points dropped by the Riverhounds, one gained by Indy)? 

Much like after Colorado Springs, I wondered if the emotional toll of conceding with the final kick would set the team up for a fall, and they responded well to that by smashing Birmingham last week. Now they’re going to need a similar response against Rhode Island next Saturday night at Highmark Stadium. 

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