Indy Eleven backup GK job up for grabs?
Photo credit: Rayo OKC/NASL
INDIANAPOLIS — Sorry, goalkeepers, but having a third one of you on the roster is a waste.
That’s always been my belief. And someone who knows way more about soccer than I, Indy Eleven coach Tim Hankinson, agrees. Or at least he used to.
“It’s been my theory (throughout my coaching career),” Hankinson explained after an August 2016 training session at Carroll Stadium. “It’s a luxury to have a third ‘keeper in training just so that the repetitions that the ‘keepers take during shooting practices don’t wear one of them out or fatigue them. That’s when you get into injuries.
“So two is good, and then we usually invite a local ‘keeper — former college ‘keeper — to come and participate in training so that we can keep our guys fresh. But we don’t need more than two on the roster.”
Indy announced the signing of a third goalkeeper Thursday, former Indiana Hoosiers backstop Christian Lomeli.
Wait, what? The Eleven already have goalkeepers Jon Busch and Keith Cardona under contract for 2017. One plus one equals two. Add one more and that’s three. Hankinson doesn’t like three; Hankinson likes two. We want answers.
My initial thought was that Busch or Cardona picked up a serious injury, or one of them was set to leave the club. But after conferring with multiple people close to the situation, neither hypothesis proved correct. Busch and Cardona were both fully healthy with no plans to depart the team.
The answer then became as crystal clear as an overpriced bottle of Fiji water: The Eleven are not satisfied with Cardona’s performance.
Photo credit: Rayo OKC/NASL
After showing signs of promise early in his Eleven career, Cardona labored through last season in limited action on his way to a less-than-ideal goals against average. The Philadelphia Union gave him an opportunity as a trialist before the start of the 2017 Major League Soccer season, but the 6-4 ‘keeper ultimately wasn’t offered a contract. When he returned to camp with Indy, he clearly failed to impress.
The signing of Lomeli is a clear symptom of buyer’s remorse pertaining to the decision to re-sign/extend Cardona.
While Busch remains the rock-steady first choice in the Eleven net, the No. 2 goalkeeper job is very much an open competition between Lomeli and Cardona. And if Cardona doesn’t improve his play in training and in games, the newcomer might just have the inside track on the gig.
You can follow Kevin on Twitter @KJboxing.
