Jacksonville To Use Indy's Success In 2016 As Inspiration Heading Into Third Season

Photo credit: Todd Drexler/Jacksonville Armada FC

Jacksonville Armada FC is in a new era under Mark Lowry as the coach gets set for his first full year in charge. The club is entering its third NASL campaign and will be looking to emulate another NASL side’s success when the 2017 season rolls around.

In 2016, Indy Eleven had an unbeaten Spring Season to claim the club’s first trophy and then reached The Championship Final, taking the defending champion New York Cosmos to the brink, only to fall in a penalty-kick shootout.

Indy’s success and turnaround in its third season can be taken as a model for Jacksonville in the coming year.

“If we can pull off some hope and inspiration, we’ll use it,” Lowry told NASL.com when asked about Indy’s success this past season.

“You look at the timeline and it was the third year and we’re going into our third year so the similarities are there. It’s both good soccer markets, both teams have good fan bases.”

Lowry, who officially took the reins as head coach on Oct. 4, saw a strong finish to the year from his side. The Armada FC was 3W-1D-2L to close out the year, taking 10 points from clubs that were in the running for the postseason down the stretch. Starting the year the way the club ended in 2016 is imperative to possibly replicating Indy’s third-year success.

“You have to find consistency,” he said. “You have to start the season off well. If you can pick up points early it provides a good platform going into the second half of the season.”

Lowry has been busy finding the players to fit his system for the upcoming season, but is looking to the players retained from last year’s roster as the building blocks.

“We have a good core that we have in place,” he said. “I believe that back four was playing tremendously well. There’s still room for them to grow.

“We have a good mix. We’ve got experience and we want to blend that and balance with young, dynamic, and hungry players.”

Under Lowry the team will certainly play a different style than what Tim Hankinson employed during Indy’s run to the Final. Jacksonville will have a dynamic and youthful feel while trying to play a possession-oriented game.

While the styles won’t be the same, the Armada FC certainly wouldn’t mind similar results in the table.

“If we can go somewhere close to what they achieved this season and have the success and results that they managed to achieve [that’d be great] – obviously it was deserved, they deserved to reach the Final.

“It can give us motivation.”