Is Ben Speas Indy Eleven’s missing puzzle piece at left mid?
WESTFIELD, Ind. — Indy Eleven signee Ben Speas has a bit of an appetite for the spectacular.
At North Carolina, he slalomed through a pack of defenders before producing a game-winning golazo in the NCAA final. For Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew SC, he scored a beauty in a friendly against Premier League side Stoke City FC. He’s incredibly dangerous from distance, sneaky in the box, and also a gifted creator for teammates.
Speas was back to his old tricks last season, finishing off a brace for Minnesota United FC with a flicked pass over a defender — to himself. Oh, and the final victim of the play was the best goalkeeper in the North American Soccer League in 2016, Matt VanOekel. No big deal.
So where will Indy Eleven’s shiny new weapon line up?
Speas can play as a central attacking midfielder, second forward or winger, but typically mans the middle of the pitch. That’s exactly where Sinisa Ubiparipovic started toward the end of last season in Indy’s 4-4-2 diamond.
Eleven coach Tim Hankinson hinted at a possible solution to the dilemma: play Speas at left midfield.
“Ubi’s more comfortable centrally,” Hankinson explained. “He doesn’t have quite the flexibility that Speas has. Speas can play — if we talk about playing the diamond that we finished the season with — either side, and play centrally.”
When asked if Speas might receive some minutes as a second forward, Hankinson didn’t rule out the possibility.
“All of those are things that we will test in the preseason. In many ways, when Dylan left to go to Miami, it meant we needed a player that — not necessarily has to have the same qualities — but someone that we felt was not going to be an experimental player. We wanted someone with experience.”
Minnesota United FC/NASL
In addition to experience, Hankinson finds Speas’ natural tendency to drift inward very appealing from a tactical standpoint. It creates space for left back Nemanja Vukovic to do what he does best: join the attack.
“Also, as you know, Vukovic likes to get up the sideline on the left,” Hankinson added. “The fact that Ben doesn’t necessarily like to hug the sideline as a winger, but likes to come inside, kind of opens that door up for Vuko. Which is, in a way, the way Dylan played that position. He was a left midfielder but we really never saw him wide. He was more tucked in a bit. So we think (Speas’) movement off Ubi, with Ubi feeding those kind of runs in the box will create goal-scoring opportunities.”
Minnesota United FC/NASL
While the starting left midfield spot is still very much an open competition, Speas appears set to audition first. If he can string together a few quality performances in the preseason, the gig will be his to lose. Speas’ deficiencies as a defender might get exposed at left mid, but the dynamism he brings to the Eleven offense is intriguing.
Beyond the 26-year-old’s knack for the supernatural, his tendency to drift inside meshes well with Hankinson’s vision and perfectly compliments Vukovic’s skill set.
