NASL Jacksonville Armada FC

Storybook Inaugural Season Ends in Front of Record Crowd

November 1, 2015 - North American Soccer League (NASL)
Jacksonville Armada FC News Release


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A storybook inaugural season may have come to a tough end for the Jacksonville Armada FC on Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 loss to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, but thing became apparent - the passion for soccer in Northeast Florida is here to stay and will only get stronger in time.

A boisterous crowd of 9,083 showed up to Community First Park, which was a new facility record for soccer. Add two other attendance records - 13,934 against the Philadelphia Union on Feb. 7 at EverBank Field to set a North American Soccer League preseason record and an NASL regular season record crowd of 16,134 on April 4 against FC Edmonton - also at EverBank Field - and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone to dispute that "the beautiful game" is on the rise on the First Coast.

Midfielder Lucas Scaglia, a scrappy, bulldoggish Argentinian that has been the Armada's unsung hero all year, was named Farah & Farah Man of the Match after frustrating the Fort Lauderdale attack most of the night while also being active in feeding Armada forwards and getting a couple of looks at the goal himself. Goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo also had a solid three-save performance.

Fort Lauderdale's (8W-6D-6L NASL Fall, 11W-8D-11L Combined) 87th minute goal by Marlon Freitas was aided by a lot of congestion around the goal, and Armada defenders backed off him for a split second. Erase that mishap, and on paper, it looked as though the Armada had a firm grip on the match.

Jacksonville (5-4-11, 8-8-14) dominated possession by a margin of 57-43 percent and also had an advantage in shots (10-7) and corners (6-3). Armada forward Alhassane Keita had two early looks in the fifth and 10th minutes right in front of the goal, but Strikers 'keeper David Meves put a stop to both attempts. In the 79th minute, Jacksonville was inches away from going up 1-0 when Akeil Barrett's shot from a sliding Jemal Johnson cross want just wide of the goal.

The Strikers came into the match needing at least a draw to grab the final spot in The Championship, the NASL's four-team postseason tournament, with Tampa Bay's 2-0 loss to New York on Saturday. With its win, Fort Lauderdale will head to New York this Saturday to take on the top-seeded Cosmos in the semifinals.

Jacksonville will now go into the offseason to rest and plan for next season, which starts in February with a preseason friendly with Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union at Community First Park. Season tickets for 2016, starting at $10 per match, are on sale now and can be purchased by calling 1.844.2.ARMADA or visiting armadafc.com.



North American Soccer League Stories from November 1, 2015


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