This was an aesthetically ugly game. Neither team played particularly well. I’d say Louisville City turned in the worst performance of the season so far. To wit:

• Before Saturday, Louisville City averaged about 450 passes per game, the high being 611 against Richmond, the low being the season opener against Nashville, 411. On the big (and bouncy) Lucas Oil Stadium turf, City only attempted 340 passes, completed 63.8% of them, and just over 50% in the attacking half. That’s bad.
• Paolo DelPiccolo, half the team’s midfield engine, had just 22 passes in 90 minutes. Speedy only had 40; he usually has almost twice that.
• Only 3 shots on target. 10 inside the box isn’t bad, but three on target isn’t going to produce many goals.
• Indy only had one on target, so at least the defense was doing a good job limiting Indy’s chances.

The injury bug is partly to blame, in my opinion. This game goes differently if Shaun Francis or Pat McMahon are on the field, in my view. Kyle Smith did fine as a centerback, but it’s not his best position. Cuatro is not a wingback. He actually played better in this game than he did against Bethlehem, but the right side of the field in general was ineffective. That lack of cohesion allowed Indy to focus their defense on Oscar. The team’s leading chance creator’s touch map is largely corralled to the left touch line. Oscar only had three key passes all game, all three from set plays.

Ilija completed just over half his passes, and while he did generate a couple chances, he was largely marked out of the game. Cam had just one touch in the Eleven’s 18 yard box all game. City just couldn’t get the ball in dangerous areas, largely because their ability to transition the ball from defense to attack is blunted when Kyle Smith has to play centerback.

The handball. A handball occurs if any player, other than the team’s goalkeeper within his own penalty area, deliberately handles the ball when in play. The word “deliberately” is always problematic because it becomes a referee’s judgment call on whether the player who handles the ball did so deliberately. Deliberately basically means intentionally. Intent here has to be determined in context, but at the end of the day the ref has to make the call based on whether he thought the offending player “meant to do it.”

I’m obviously biased, but I sure as hell didn’t see anything intentional in the play that led to the penalty. Paco’s arm wasn’t in any different position leading up to the cross than he did when the ball hit him. Yes, the ball hit him in the arm. I think it was ball to hand, not something he did unnaturally to influence what happened on the play. This is the USL, though, and bad calls happen. They happen in the Champions League, too. It’s just too bad City couldn’t find the net themselves.

It’s not as though Morados were actually going to go undefeated. A loss was going to happen at some point. When you play poorly away from home, you’re probably going to lose. That’s what happened here. It’s a shame that City couldn’t take advantage of an Indy team playing their second game in four days, but they just didn’t have it on Saturday. Move on to the next one and beat Nashville on Sunday.