The Indy Eleven have just finished their second spring season in the NASL. After 10 games the Eleven find themselves sitting in the middle of the pack, currently sitting in 5th place in league standings. While that isn’t a bad place to be, it’s sure to be disappointing for most fans of the Eleven and was clearly disappointing for team ownership.
Eight games into the spring campaign head coach Juergen Sommer was relieved of duties. Over the course of those eight games Sommer had managed to lead the Eleven to a mere single victory; leaving the team sitting at the bottom of league standings.
It was a difficult day for Indy Eleven history, or at least that’s what team president Peter Wilt said about the firing, adding “Juergen is Indiana soccer and he worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week to see this team be successful. We determined if Indy Eleven was going to go forward and get the best out of the players we have we needed to go in a different direction.”
Following the termination of Juergen Sommer as head coach assistant coach and former MLS defender Tim Reagan was tapped to take the helm on an interim basis. Under Tim Reagan’s short tenure as head coach the Eleven won two straight games to end the spring season. Good enough to bring them out of last place and into the middle of the pack.
As things sit right now the Eleven sit just 1 point behind the Carolina Railhawks and Minnesota United FC who hold the number 3 and 4 spots in the rankings, respectfully.
What’s worth noting for fans of the Eleven though is this; they’re currently in a better spot than they were this time just 1 year ago. At the end of the 2014 Spring Season the Eleven were sitting at the bottom of league standings with 0 wins, 4 draws, and 5 losses. They had a total of just 4 points on the season. They end the Spring Season this year in the number 5 spot with 3 wins, 4 draws, 3 losses and a total of 13 points.
While things didn’t go quite the way that the Eleven had hoped to coming into the Spring Season, things ended in much better fashion than they had started. Ending the Spring Season on a two game win streak was the best case scenario for the Eleven following the termination of Sommer. The team now finds itself in the middle of the pack and very much in the hunt as they prepare for the Fall Season.
