Indy Eleven: Three preseason subplots to follow

Photo credit: Trevor Ruszkowski/Indy Eleven

The Indy Eleven host United Soccer League side Swope Park Rangers on Thursday at Grand Park with kickoff set for 2 p.m. ET. While some things matter in the preseason and some don’t, here are three subplots to follow tomorrow and throughout Indy’s preseason:

Ubi’s form and the possible death of the diamond midfield

In Indy’s preseason opener against Butler, Brad Ring and Gerardo Torrado started in the central midfield. Perfectly harmless — it’s preseason, right? Eh, not so fast. The rest of the field players in the starting XI looked like a group of projected starters.

For central attacking midfielder Sinisa Ubiparipovic, it means he’s either not currently in form enough to run with the ones, or coach Tim Hankinson is temporarily burying his 4-4-2 diamond for a conventional 4-4-2. The latter seems the likely scenario since Ubiparipovic was deemed fit enough to play 45 minutes last week. And in his shift, he didn’t exactly look like a spry gymnast.

Henderson’s debut and role

Eleven supporters at the Butler match had hoped to see the debut of midfielder Craig Henderson, whom Indy inked in the offseason. It didn’t happen.

Unfortunately, a minor knock prevented the New Zealander from suiting up, but it sounds like that decision was mostly precautionary. He might give it a go Thursday. Whether Hankinson prefers deploying Henderson as a wide midfielder or centrally remains to be seen.

Trialists’ performances

A pair of former Butler players, Vincent Mitchell and David Goldsmith, are trialing for Indy, along with a few ex-Indy Eleven NPSL players — Jeffrey McClure, for one. Mitchell also impressed as a goal-scoring machine during a brief tenure with the NPSL side last season.

The Eleven have jobs available at the end of the roster, so one or two of the former Butler-NPSL guys might just end up with a contract offer.

But don’t be surprised if the Eleven find an out-of-contract player to bring into the fold in the near future, possibly from Latin America. A recent venture down to a player showcase in Mexico turned up empty, but coach Hankinson hinted that the team is still canvasing the countryside for a quality Latin player to add to the roster.

“We went down to a combine, looking at 40 free agents,” Hankinson told Indianapolis radio show Casillero Deportivo. “We did not select a player from that. We felt that the quality we were looking for needed to be a little bit higher, so our pursuit of an additional player for the team from Mexico continues.”

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