Not Built for the Championship, Yet.
Prinx Tires USL Cup, Group 4 — Fort Wayne FC vs Indy Eleven — 2026
Match Recap & Analysis
Fort Wayne Football Club drew Championship side Indy Eleven 2-2 in the inaugural Victory & Liberty Derby, aka Hoosier Hostility, at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, then fell in penalties as Fort Wayne picked up its first point in USL Cup.
Fort Wayne FC 2 – 2 Indy Eleven (Indy wins 3-1 on penalties) · Prinx Tires USL Cup 🏟 Ruoff Mortgage Stadium 📅 May 16, 2026 ⚽ Healy (33’), Thomas (90+1’) / Quinn (26’), Rendón (64’) 📋 USL Cup Group 4: 0-1-1 · 1 pt
The Match
Fort Wayne Football Club and Indy Eleven played to a 2-2 draw before Indy won the shootout 3-1 in the first meeting between Indiana’s two professional clubs.
Aodhan Quinn put Indy ahead in the 26th min. He intercepted a Fort Wayne pass thirty yards from goal, drove through the defense, and finished a rebound after Aurie Echevarría had saved his initial chip. Echevarría was making his first start since the season opener on March 7 after a long injury layoff.
Fort Wayne answered in the 33rd min. Lilian Ricol dummied a ball at the top of the box to release Javier Armas, who kept his shot on target. Eric Dick parried, and Taig Healy followed up to score his fifth goal in the last six matches.
Indy regained the lead in the 64th min. Loïc Mesanvi laid the ball back to Jack Blake outside the area. Blake’s one-touch service across the box found Bruno Rendón arriving at the back post for 2-1.
In dramatic fashion like any good derby, Jack Thomas’s equalizer came in stoppage time. Kabiru Gafar, an Indianapolis native playing for Fort Wayne FC, set up the substitute Thomas, who was returning from a three-match injury layoff. He curled a shot from outside the top of the area past Dick. It was Thomas’s first professional goal.
In the penalty shootout, Ricol converted Fort Wayne’s first attempt and Blake answered for Indy. Healy struck the crossbar on the next, but Quinn buried Indy’s second to make it 2-1. Dick made a diving save to deny Emerson Nieto, and Josh O’Brien stretched the lead to 3-1. Thomas’s final attempt sailed over the bar.
Saturday’s draw gave Fort Wayne its first Prinx Tires USL Cup point. Echevarría finished with four saves on six shots faced, and Dick stopped three of five for Indy. Fort Wayne remains unbeaten in regulation at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, where it returns to action in USL League One play on Wednesday against Corpus Christi FC.
The Defender’s Verdict
If this were USL League One we’d take our point and move on. Indy Eleven came to Fort Wayne mid-table in the Championship’s Eastern Conference, winless on the road since opening day, and left needing penalties to get out of Fort Wayne. We hung with them for 95 minutes before the shootout settled it. It was the usual narrative for both sides. Indy Eleven struggling to dominate in 2026, and Fort Wayne proving a tough out no matter the league or tournament.
What settled the shootout was Eric Dick. The 2025 Championship Finals MVP is an experienced professional goalkeeper who made the box look smaller than it was. Championship players know how to read the game a half-second sooner, find a half-yard or half-space that opens up an attacking sequence. It’s the small details at the next level, where youthfulness over-indexes at times to rely too much on raw talent versus the mental side of the game. Slow down to speed up. That isn’t an indictment of our group; it’s what experience at the level above does to a less-experienced team, and it can’t be shortcut.
If Fort Wayne were to take the next step on the field, it would require a few roster decisions that are becoming clearer as this season progresses. The strength of this team is through the spine, the middle of the pitch, and our defensive shape. Michael Rempel, Tiago Dias, Juan Solís and JP Jordan are a back four that’s held up against professional attackers since March. Javier Armas, Jeremy Garay and Emerson Nieto are the foundation for our midfield. Taig Healy at the #10 with Jack Thomas as his depth, and Lilian Ricol leading the line. This is a professional core in good shape for League One.
The trouble lives in the wide channels, where we aren’t dangerous enough and where tonight added to an early season observation. We’re relying heavily on first-year professionals and the USL game rewards pace, end product and decision-making in the final third. While this roster has bench depth, we’re probably short two professional wide players, which would be worth the investment for this squad. There’s also a depth need at the #9, because Ricol is shouldering a workload that needs support. Once Ryan Becher is back from injury, he’s the type of player, both professionally, and technically, that can provide support at this position.
One of the bright spots tonight was Thomas’s equalizer. A substitute midfielder driving home a goal in stoppage time of a derby against a Championship side isn’t a routine arrival, and it makes the case that he can be trusted in late minutes at this level. Another observation was Javier Armas keeping a long shot on frame. Leading up to this match, he struggled to keep his limited shots on target, and by forcing Indy’s keeper to parry his shot, it created a goal-scoring opportunity for our finisher, Taig Healy. These are the little things of development, which has been a joy to watch.
So besides a strong core of players, a strong spine and defensive shape, we now know where we need to see improvement. If new additions do not arrive in the wide channels, we’ll have to develop our young professionals in order to meet the demands of USL League One and the Championship. It’s a credit to Oliver Gage for building a solid foundation in Year One, and to the coaching staff for the development of the players on our roster. Nobody is asking us to put a Championship roster on the pitch in 2026. The question is what this side has to become to compete at the next level, and tonight gave us another measuring stick on how we think about our roster today and for tomorrow.
Always FWD
There were some weird tactical decisions that reared their head in the game. For the first 26 minutes of the game leading up to the first goal, we tried to play possession build up from the back that’s just turned into turnover after turnover. For the remainder of the first half we adjusted and pushed up more to a more connected midfield. The same thing reigned in the second half. After conceding again in a similar way, we woke up and were the better team. The team is a little raw but the tangibles are there to end in a successful season.