USL Cup: Indy Eleven defeat One Knox 1-0
Amoh's wonder shot and Indy's defense lead them to a 1-0 victory at Knoxville, and continue their perfect start to the USL Cup.
The Indy Eleven travelled 538 miles South to USL League One side One Knoxville SC in what was ripe for the League One side to win. The Eleven have been on a poor run of form since their last USL Cup win at Madison, and were looking a little frazzled. The home team however, recently beat FC Tulsa on PKs in their USL Cup opening match and have had a good start to their league campaign.
After 45 minutes, this was a tight affair entering halftime at 0-0. Indy was in control of possession (55%), got themselves a few good chances, but ultimately couldn’t find the back of the net. The frustrations seen all season, looked to be repeating themselves again in Knoxville. Then Elvis Amoh’s decided to flip the script.
In the 47th minute, Amoh was able to quickly gather the ball after a fast restart after a foul at midfield, dribble up a little, and then proceed to launch the ball 35+ yards into the back of the net. Out of nothing Indy was winning 1-0 early in the second half. Knoxville goalkeeper Sean Lewis just wasn’t ready after the fast restart, and was unable to recover fast enough to stop the long-range effort.
From here, Indy would do what they are built to do - bend but don’t break defensively and hit on the counter. Indy had 32% possession in the second half while One Knoxville kept pushing and pushing for the equalizer. Indy got themselves a few small chances offensively on the counter, but the defense really held their own. Reice Charles-Cook put in another solid performance in the net for Indy, while the backline prevented Cook from being too busy. The defense really bunkered down and led this team to a gritty 1-0 win on the road.
With the win, Indy remains in 1st place in Group 3. With the second round matches for the other teams coming next weekend. This is how the table currently looks:
Indy’s USL Cup Record (W-D-L): 2-0-0 6 pts
Next Match: USL Championship vs Hartford Athletic on May 28th at 7pm EST from Michael A Carroll Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
*A penalty kick win counts as 2 points in the USL Cup