Previewing the competition for 2015: Indy Eleven

In most ways, the Indy Eleven were a fantastic success story during their inaugural North American Soccer League campaign. The club sold out every match during the 2014 season, averaging over 10,000 fans despite playing on a college campus. It will be a huge surprise if they don't do the same again in 2015, filling Michael A. Carroll Stadium for every home match. They also produced a truly fantastic broadcast for fans to watch, something that much of the NASL failed to do, and were a step ahead in terms of social media all season.

On the pitch, however, the results had to be a bit disappointing for the Eleven and their fans. The nine match spring schedule saw Indy go winless, the only team in the league to accomplish that dubious feat. The fall season was significantly better, with the Eleven managing six wins and five draws from their 18 matches played, and producing a -5 goal differential after posting a -6 in the spring, despite playing only half the number of games.

The early struggles were probably to be expected from the expansion side, and management seemed relatively pleased with the progress made over the course of the full season. They'll be hoping that positive trend continues, as Indy made very few changes to the squad ahead of their second season.

Notable additions: Greg Janicki (San Antonio Scorpions), Osman Melgares (Real Sociedad de Tocoa), Dragan Stojkov (LA Galaxy), Wojciech Wojcik (Tampereen Ilves)

Key departures: Mike Ambersley (St. Louis FC), Chris Estridge (Charlotte Independence), Jhulliam (Resende), Jermaine Johnson

2015 outlook: It's hard to look at the changes made to the roster this winter and come away too excited, as this looks to be more or less the same core unit that finished ahead of only the Silverbacks in the combined table last season. I'd expect the Eleven to be closer to the team that finished seventh in the fall season as opposed to the bottom of the table squad from the spring, but even with the tremendous support the club is certain to get from the Eleven's very impressive fanbase, I have a hard time imagining them finishing in the top half of the table.