INDIANAPOLIS — The Indy Eleven did a lot of things right for 43 minutes Saturday afternoon. They were comfortable on defense. They were lethal in attack. The team had a pretty good day picking up its third win of the season for a temporary share of first place in the USL Eastern Conference.

The win was thanks to Indy forward Soony Saad and his breathtaking brace in the opening 45. The second half wasn’t as notable, but the team saw it through to the end and improved its position in the standings.

Saad is new to Indianapolis and new to the 2018 version of the Indy Eleven. If you didn’t know him then, I bet you know him now. His tallies in the 15th and 34th were a thrill to watch and they were all the boys in blue needed to dispatch visiting Nashville SC and its five travelling fans.

The most impressive part of the two-goal performance was not the number, but the two distinct types of goals. Showcasing an impressive attacking range, Saad used awareness and pace to separate for the first goal. He used ambition and technique to put away his second. Where do we start?

The goal in the 15th was a foot race. A looping ball played with precision from the back by Ayoze gave Saad all he needed. Two touches later, the ball was in the back of the net. Nashville goalkeeper Matt Pickens did all he could, but it was never going to be enough at that distance. In a postgame interview, Saad described the lead up to the goal.

“Jack (McInerney) checked in and the defender had gone with him, leaving up some free space,” he said. “Then Ayoze saw it and played a perfect ball, and I was able to out-stride the defender that went for it. It went over his head and I was able to capitalize and finished. I almost thought it was too good to be true. I stayed cool and put it in the back of the net.”

The goal in the 34th minute was even more impressive. Indy Eleven earned an indirect free kick from at least 35 yards out. McInerney and Saad stood over the ball, having training ground whispers about what was to come.

This is where the ambition comes in that I alluded to before. Somehow a seam opened up, and Saad smacked in an absolute stunner after the ball was set in play on a tap from McInerney. The ball had class and curves for days. And Pickens? He didn’t have the first clue what do in order to keep that ball out. Saad’s second shot of the day put the Eleven up 2-0 with Nashville SC not showing any signs of answering. Here’s video of the goal, courtesy of the USL’s Twitter feed:

Truthfully, I was looking away at the moment of the strike. I was probably in a Twitter battle about something really important. But honestly, I was jolted back to the game with the audible boom from the foot of Saad heard all the way from section 344. My mouth fell open as I watched the ball go in.

Indy fans have fond memories of laser beams from the likes of Kleberson, Nicki Paterson, Kyle Hyland or the legend known to us all as Brad Ring. But I don’t remember the sound. This will not soon be forgotten — an explosion so loud and so dirty that it seemed as though the entire Indy Eleven roster was compelled to polish the boots of the new superstriker. It was nasty. Or the team was reenacting a Fortnite celebration. It’s still not clear to me and I feel old.

“I wasn’t going to hit it at first until Jack said, ‘Hey, listen to me. Strike this one,'” Saad explained. “He said he’d play it to my right and it was something we actually worked on a couple times in training. I called the celebration afterwards. I said, ‘Alright, so we do Fortnite afterwards?’ He said yeah. So he plays it, and as soon as I hit it I kind of knew I struck it well, but what I wanted to get most importantly on that ball was the swerve. If I can get it on target with swerve the ‘keeper’s not going to get it or he’s going to make a mess of it. I didn’t expect him to be out of the picture completely. That’s a veteran keeper too. He told me after the game it moved a bit last second. And I know it moved, but at that point 2-0 up is the most important thing for the team. We kind of conceded late in the first half which changed the outlook of the game going into the second half, but we stayed disciplined, we stayed organized and we got the three points at the end.”

Indeed, the Eleven got the three points they were after, but not before a very late fist half hiccup. It appeared the team was mentally in the locker room already. They got carved up and the 2-0 lead was halved with a pretty easy looking finish from six or eight yards out by Ropapa Mensah.

“I called the celebration afterwards. I said, ‘Alright, so we do Fortnite afterwards?’ He said yeah. So he plays it, and as soon as I hit it I kind of knew I struck it well, but what I wanted to get most importantly on that ball was the swerve. If I can get it on target with swerve the ‘keeper’s not going to get it or he’s going to make a mess of it. I didn’t expect him to be out of the picture completely.”

Everyone on the team knows they need to work on it: playing to the whistle. I talked to Indy head coach Martin Rennie after the game and asked him what they talked about at halftime. “It was more like a rant,” he replied. That is what you would expect when a team plays well for 43 minutes, then takes its foot off the gas early and erases part of the lead it worked so hard to get.

“At 2-nil we felt very comfortable,” Rennie said. “We were playing well. We knew we were the better team. We didn’t track well from midfield, they won the second ball, then we didn’t track a runner from midfield and they got a goal. At halftime it wasn’t so much a conversation, but a rant to make sure that we don’t do that. You have to respect the game. You have to respect the opponent. You have to respect the whole game until the last minute, whether that be halftime or the end of the game. We didn’t do that. We let down just a little bit and we got punished. It made the game much harder than it should have been. At 2-nil we felt like we were playing very well and we were comfortable. I thought in the second half we managed the game well and had a few good chances, and didn’t give up too many.”

The Eleven have been great defensively considering the musical chairs that has been going on. They can get a little loose, and collectively have been lucky that other teams haven’t gotten a few more lucky bounces. Indy was the better side for most of the first frame Saturday, just like in North Carolina the previous week. Complacency is something to watch for as this relatively new team starts to find its way.

What is also abundantly clear is that the Indy Eleven are not yet firing on all cylinders. There is room for improvement and cohesion. The coaching staff is clear to point that out when you read the subtext of a Phil Dos Santos tweet:

@IndyEleven Important 3 pts today. This team is growing each day. We are learning how to win under different and difficult circumstances. Big thanks to all our fans for the amazing support @sh19indy @The_BYB — Phillip Dos Santos (@Dos_Santos_Phil) April 15, 2018

Learning and growing are great characteristics for teams on a pathway to success. This is nothing to be ashamed of. The Eleven have three wins from four games. They have not yet played to their full potential. USL take note: Soony Saad is wearing a bow tie.

Follow Aaron on Twitter: @AGunyon.

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