Jul 2, 2009
Wrath of Chicago
The last time these two teams played – only a couple of weeks ago – it set me off on a rant about how I think Washington-Chicago is the first league-grown rivalry in WPS.
Given the opportunity to finish a game at full strength, the struggling Red Stars did what every good rival does, rises to the occasion to give the other team all it can handle (and in this case Chicago became the first team in WPS history to erase a deficit and come away with win).
Makes you wonder what would have happened if those other games had been finished at full strength. I’m not going to go into the game itself – if you need info check out the WPS story here – but as you know, I will offer my thoughts on what happens next.
First, it was nice to see Abby Wambach get back on the board. That was much needed and hopefully that gives Abby the confidence she will need this weekend when finishing against Karina LeBlanc of LA, who has made more than one great save against Abby.
Allie Long has had one roller coaster of a season but it seems the team is lost without her. The Freedom have won games without Sonia Bompastor, without Abby and without Erin McLeod (although not many) but the team has struggled since Long broke her toe. Apparently she has more of an effect on the team than we thought.
The Freedom have now lost two straight heading into their final matchup with LA. The Sol have beaten the Freedom twice by a combined score of 5-0 but both of those games had the Freedom making the cross country flight to LA. Will that flight have any affect on the outcome this Sunday? If the Freedom continue to play like they have the last two games, then probably not. I still think Homare Sawa needs to step up on the offensive end for the team to even have a chance but I will get more into that in the next day or two.
And on a slight tangent, according to Steve Goff of the Washington Post, Wednesday’s move to waive Joanna Lohman was to clear a roster spot for Sarah Huffman, who went down the first week of preseason with an ACL injury. There is a hope that Huffman will be back in time for the playoffs and she could be a spark for the team at that point. Of course, the Freedom need to remain in contention in order for that plan to work. The idea is for Huffman to help ease the loss of Sonia Bompastor, who would miss the playoffs and All-Star game for the European Championship.
This is an important stretch for the Freedom (of course what stretch of the season isn’t important) and how they respond Sunday will give us a realistic view of what the team could accomplish if they even make it to the playoffs. Of course maybe getting to the playoffs in the third of fourth position is a safer proposition if you believe in curses.
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