“I have that same kind of feeling this year, that we can go up and up,” added Martinez about Indy’s chances to soar even higher in the Cup this year. “These fans here deserve it, to see that together we can do big things as a club.”
The challenges for McAuley’s team, the lone surviving Division II club in the Semifinal Round, are greater than those of their MLS opponents. The squads are smaller – made up of a majority of players on short-term (often one-year) contracts. Effective rotation is less realistic. And a slog through to the Final is a heavy lift.
When Indy Eleven meet four-time Open Cup Champions Sporting Kansas City on August 27th at Children’s Mercy Park (LIVE on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV) the differences between the two teams will be great.
“There’s always a little extra motivation when you face an MLS team because you want to show, as a player and as a club, that you measure up,” said Martinez, who, coincidentally, helped his Sacramento Republic beat this very SKC in the Semifinal two years ago. “No one was thinking we could do that, no one was believing in us – and that’s a big motivation in itself.”
One for All & All for Eleven
McAuley has his finger on the pulse of what’s possible.
The energy in the Indy Eleven locker room is thrumming and the belief is real. “Everybody gets involved,” said the coach. “Everybody has a voice and if we're going to be successful, it'll be down to all of us. And if we're going to have some rough times, it'll be down to all of us that way too.
“I’ll always put guys out on that field who I think can win the game,” the coach went on, looking ahead to a huge test with much on the line. “And we'll also have people on the bench who are ready to come on.”
Whether it’s Martinez or Augi Williams or Benjamin Ofeimu or the all-heart Cam Lindley – doesn’t seem to matter. To hear the players tell it, they’re all in this thing together. Indy Eleven and their Brickyard Battalion, who’ll make the 500-mile trip to Kansas to roar on the boys in this dangerous – and exhilarating – year, fancy their chances.
As Indy Eleven’s first president and long-standing club icon Peter Wilt will never tire of telling you: “Anything can happen in the Open Cup.”
Martinez gets it: “Every game we play, we’ll fight to the end. You can count on this.” Lindley is right there with him when he says, “I will never stop fighting for this club.” But it’s McAuley, the USL Championship Coach of the Month for May in his still-thick Sheffield accent, who has the last word on the matter.
“Why not us?”
Maduro is a senior reporter at large for usopencup.com.
