Makel Rasheed earns Team of the Week nod in Indy Eleven surge

Makel Rasheed’s July 7 Team of the Week selection came with more than a highlight and a headline. The Indy Eleven defender earned the honor after helping the Boys in Blue beat Charleston Battery 2-0 on Independence Day, a result that extended Indy’s home unbeaten run in USL Championship play to 10 matches, with a 9-0-1 record in that stretch.

Rasheed was at the center of the decisive sequence that broke the game open late. Captain Aodhan Quinn served a free kick into the six-yard area, Rasheed climbed to head the ball across goal, and Josh O’Brien finished the chance with a volley for the opening goal. Bruno Rendon added stoppage-time insurance, and Indy walked away with a victory that also gave O’Brien his third league goal and fourth in all competitions this year.

The selection fits the numbers Rasheed has put together since settling into the lineup. He completed 38 of 42 passes against Charleston, won 6 of 8 duels, and added a blocked shot, four clearances and three interceptions. It was the kind of all-phase performance that has started to define his first season in Indianapolis, especially with Rasheed now starting Indy’s last five matches while the club has allowed just one goal in that span.

That defensive run has changed the shape of Indy’s season. The club has four shutouts in its last five matches in all competitions, sits at 6-3-3 in league play, and had allowed just 12 goals in 12 USL Championship matches at the time of the Charleston win, tying for second fewest in the league. Eric Dick recorded his 34th career shutout in the victory, another marker of how hard Indy has become to break down.

Rasheed’s rise has been building for months. Indy signed him on December 11, 2025, ahead of the 2026 season after he spent the previous year with South Georgia Tormenta FC, where he led the club with 26 blocks and 130 clearances, finished second with 49 aerial duels won, and produced four goals and one assist. Before that, Nashville SC picked him 65th in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft, and his college résumé included an All-Big East First Team nod at Xavier after the Musketeers won their first conference title, plus three seasons at the University of Indianapolis that produced a 47-7-8 record, two Division II semifinal runs and two Great Lakes Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year awards. His debut at Brooklyn FC offered an early clue, when he led Indy with 14 duels won, 10 aerial duels won and 10 clearances, and the Charleston night suggested that he is moving from promising addition to reliable backbone.