INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indy Eleven are coming off a banner year.

Their biggest win was upsetting Atlanta’s MLS Team, the Atlanta United, in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals. That victory got the Boys in Blue to their first semifinals in club history, and they were the only USL Championship team to make it that far in the bracket.

“We kind of knew before the game that we somehow we were going to pull a win out of this,” keeper Hunter Sulte said. “It was awesome going as far as we did.”

“There was a belief from the coaching staff down to the players that we could do this,” forward Romario Williams said. “Obviously, that belief grows with every single game, because the more games you win, the more confidence you gain.”

The historic win also brought Indy’s team notoriety on a national scale.

“I think it was great because it kind of put us on the nationwide map,” head coach Sean McAuley said. “I was really pleased with the players because they got all the recognition which you don’t usually get if you just play in a way week in and week out in USL.”

The last time the Boys in Blue played a game at home it was in the playoffs last year — the first time the Eleven has hosted a postseason game since 2019. They didn’t get the result they wanted, but the expectations of making those playoffs remain the same for this season.

“If you were to say we need to be better than last year, that would mean making it to the Open Cup final and finishing in the top three, and I’m not saying we’re not going to go for making the Open Cup final, but it’s going to be incredibly difficult,” McAuley said. “And it’s going to be incredibly difficult to get into the top three, because that then discounts all the other teams in the last five years that have gotten in the top three, and we haven’t been one of them. So we need to make sure we become a regular playoff team before we start thinking about other stuff.”

“We all want to win. But you don’t win in match week one. You don’t win 18 games into the season,” Williams said. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I’m sure we all understand that and we know what’s at stake.”

And know that it’s all possible — thanks to last year’s Open Cup run.

“I think it shows what we can do as a group,” Sulte said. “I think our team gets along very well. We all enjoy hanging out with each other. We don’t have to plan team events to hang out. We just enjoy it, and I think that plays a huge part of us making these runs, and I believe we’ll do it again this year.”

“We did ourselves proud as a group, as a team. We represented the city, the league well and hopefully we can do it again,” Williams said.

The Indy Eleven try to start their next run beginning in the third round of the Open Cup, which they’ll host right here in Indianapolis. That match will be April 15 or 16 at Carroll Stadium on IU Indianapolis’ campus.