Freedom Insider

A lot has been happening at the WPS site the past day or two and so I thought I would gather all of the info together and put it in one place. How thoughtful huh?

First off, the All-Star game has a presenting sponsor – the U.S. Coast Guard. What does this mean? Well, the name of the game has now doubled in length and become a mouthful. But it also means the jerseys will feature a Coast Guard logo and the Coast Guard will present the 2010 Goalkeeper of the Year award.

Speaking of awards, the league has opened up fan voting for its year-end awards, including the Michelle Akers Player of the Year award, the MedImmune Defender of the Year (apparently MedImmune is a presenting sponsor of the championship game, something I missed along the way) and the Goalkeeper of the Year award (which will have the Coast Guard’s name on it next season). There is a fourth award, the Hint Water Sportswoman of the Year, but that award is voted on by players only.

Of the players nominated, Sonia Bompastor and Abby Wambach are up for the Player of the Year and Erin McLeod is up for Goalkeeper of the Year. I don’t want to be too hard on the home team here but I will say this, Sonia definitely deserves the nomination but I have a feeling Abby comes away with the highest fan vote total, which I don’t know if it’s deserved. Abby did struggle most of the season and had scored in only a couple of games before getting hot at the end of the year. As for goalkeepers, if Erin had played all season the Freedom may have been in a different position and in the playoffs. But visa problems cost Erin a few games and fellow Canadian Karina LeBlanc, put on clinic after clinic in year one. If anyone other than LeBlanc wins, this vote was rigged.

The other big topic to come out this week was the details of the expansion draft on Sept. 15. In a snake-style draft, the teams will select at least one player from each team. Current teams will start by protecting 10 players and each time a player from their team is selected, they can protect another player. Current teams cannot lose more than three players and expansion teams will draft up to nine players. Following the expansion draft, Philadelphia will draft first in the International Draft (should be International Rights) on Sept. 22 and Atlanta will draft first in the 2010 WPS Draft on Jan. 15. Oddly enough, Philly selects 2nd when the draft is being held at the NSCAA Convention in Philly.

And finally, for those of you watching tonight’s playoff game, make sure you get caught up on the history between Saint Louis Athletica and Sky Blue FC by checking out KC Albertina’s preview. It is very insightful, even if you don’t have the time to read it in depth. A quick scan can get you caught up on all of the basics.

Ok, I have more things in the works but I will save those for later. Enjoy the game tonight.

Bookmark to:

Well, I think I speak for most Freedom fans when I say the end of the 2009 season came earlier than expected. Regardless of how far you thought the team would go in the playoffs, I am almost positive everyone thought we would beat Sky Blue FC at home in the first round.

But that was not the case and everything you see from the Freedom players on Twitter now talks about how they are packing to head home for the offseason.

Even though we were able to overcome the loss of Sonia Bompastor earlier in the season, her loss at this stage of the season proved to be too much. And even with all of their dysfunctionality, SBFC held together long enough to earn a shot at Saint Louis in the Super Semifinal.

One of the bright spots Saturday had to be the return of Sarah Huffman, who took the field only four months after injuring her ACL. Her loss at the beginning of the season kept the lineup in a continual state of flux all year so her return will hopefully settle things in the midfield in 2010.

Ok, more analysis to come in the next few weeks. The plan is to recap the season by game, by player and take a look at the strategy for which players will be protected during the expansion process. But for now, there is still a WPS champion to crown and an All-Star game to be played, so go enjoy the rest of the postseason.

Bookmark to:

Leave it to Abby Wambach.

On a roll since scoring that 100th international goal in Rochester last month, Abby was named the WPS Player of the Week for the third time this season after helping the Freedom secure the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.

Abby has been through a lot lately and it’s nice to see her finally getting back to where she was before last year’s leg injury. Congrats to Abby and here’s to hoping for another POTW-worthy performance again this week.

W-LEAGUE COMBINE PARTICIPANTS

The first set of participants for this year’s W-League combine have been named, which include 3 Freedom W-Leaguers – Brittany Tegeler, Katie Watson and Jesstine Wolfe. While this combine is not run by WPS, it will give WPS coaches a chance to look at potential players for next season. Of course if you are Jim Gabarra, you will get to see how close your own players are to being WPS ready as compared to others.

The most interesting thing about the Freedom participants has to be the fact that Tegeler and Watson were in camp with the WPS Freedom this year.

COMING UP ON THE BLOG

I haven’t been much for previews this year but I plan to change that this week as I will look back and ahead at the year vs. Sky Blue FC. I do plan on doing a full season recap, breaking down player, game and position performances but feel that nothing should be done in that regard until there are no more games left.

If you have any suggestions for what I should talk about, leave a suggestion in the comments or e-mail me at admin(at)freedominsider(dot)com.

Bookmark to:

They waited until the final game but the Freedom finally got themselves into the playoffs, and earned a home game in the first round for their troubles.

With a 3-1 win over Sky Blue FC on Saturday, Washington forced SBFC to be the team seating bullets and handed control of the final playoff spot to the Boston Breakers. The Breakers couldn’t capitalize though, and so we will have a rematch of Saturday’s match this week, with the game scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Maryland SoccerPlex.

If Abby Wambach can take control of this game early like she did last week, there is no reason the Freedom won’t be heading to St. Louis to take on Athletica next Wednesday.

W-LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP

Bad news for the W-League team. Hosting the championship game on Friday, the Freedom let an early lead slip away and eventually fell to the defending champion Pali Blues 2-1. These two squads now have a bit more history as the Blues knocked the Freedom out of the W-League playoffs last year.

OTHER NEWS AND NOTES

With a roster littered with European players that will be unavailable for the game, WPS announced roster replacements for the league’s All-Star Game on Aug. 30th in St. Louis. For the Freedom that means U.S. National Team players Abby Wambach and Cat Whitehill will be part of the team that takes on Umea IK on Sunday, Aug. 30.

Bookmark to:

With a chance to seal the deal, the Freedom failed to clinch a playoff spot … at least for the time being. With Boston losing and Sky Blue FC off, the Freedom remain in 3rd place heading into their final regular season game, at home on Saturday. I know Jim Gabarra was nervous about this stretch of the schedule and while there is no need to make excuses, going from Chicago to DC to the Bay Area would be a tough stretch for anyone.

And with the first season coming to a close, the Freedom have signed another goalkeeper, presumably in an effort to keep coach Nicci Wright from having to join the full roster. After the W-League team beat the Charlotte Lady Eagles in the W-League playoffs, the Freedom signed Charlotte’s goalkeeper, Katie Forbis, for the rest of the season. With KJ Spisak and Briana Scurry both still nursing injuries, I guess it was only inevitable.

OTHER WPS NEWS

Fallout from the Freedom-Breakers game last week was that Boston coach Tony DiCicco was suspended again for his comments on the game’s officiating. The fine and community service hours (really, that is a punishment?) were increased over the previous infraction.

Want to know how WPS attendance compares with MLS or USL-1? What about how the team’s are comparing with each other? Kenn has compiled the numbers and it looks like the Freedom have the second best attendance numbers in the league, falling just behind LA and world sensation Marta. (h/t to USA Today’s Beau Dure for pointing this out on his twitter account)

W-LEAGUE

On the plus side, the W-League Freedom advanced to the W-League final by defeating the Ottawa Fury on penalty kicks. Exciting finish for the team’s first home playoff game and the only way it is topped is the fact that the W-League final will be hosted by the Freedom. The Freedom will host Pali Blues (the “farm” team for the LA Sol), the defending W-League champions and the team that knocked the Freedom out of the playoffs last year. The game will be at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Also in W-League news, USL announced the 2009 All-League team and award winners. No Freedom players made the team, but with a couple of awards still under consideration it should be pointed out that goalkeeper Chante Sandiford is up U19 Player of the Year Finalist. In 9 games, Sandiford had a .495 GAA with 38 saves and 4 shutouts. Sandiford currently plays collegiately for UCLA.

Bookmark to: