Freedom Insider

By StarCityFan

For the fourth year in a row, the W-Leaguers earned a spot in the Eastern Conference championship, a two-round, final four-style elimination tournament where the team that wins both its matches goes on to the W-League Final Four and everyone else goes home.

This year the tournament was hosted by the Atlantic Division champion Atlanta Silverbacks and started on Friday evening with the Futures facing the Charlotte Lady Eagles, the runner-up team in the Atlantic Division.

Meghan Lenczyk opened the scoring in the 69th minute with a 25-yard shot from the right wing that was too high for Charlotte’s Alyssa Whitehead – statistically the best goalkeeper in the W-League – to reach. But Charlotte equalized in the 81st minute off a goal from supersub Megan Bellingham, who got a low through ball from Jessica Rostedt that Futures goalkeeper Yewande Balogun and several defenders failed to grab or clear, leaving her with an easy putaway into an empty net.

Late in regulation, the Futures’ star forward, Omolyn Davis, was injured and had to come off. Shannon Foley came in to replace her.

The 90-minute mark came with the score still tied 1-1, so the match went into extra time. Another Washington star forward, Furtuna Velaj, scored in the 109th minute, after collecting a ball that bounced off the post and sending it into the side netting.

The Futures held onto the lead into stoppage time, but with time running out Bellingham struck again from the left side of the 18-yard box, tying the score at 2-2 and sending the game into penalty kicks.

Washington and goalkeeper Balogun held on through the first round, with each netminder making two saves and leaving the score at 3-3. However, Whitehead made a save on the Futures’ eighth attempt, while Shelly Lyle put Charlotte’s eighth past Balogun. That ended the match with a final score of 2-2 (6-5).

So is the glass half-full or half-empty? On the one hand, it’s the worst finish for the W-Leaguers in their brief history. On the other hand, the bar has been set extremely high: previously, the team has either won the W-League Championship themselves or lost to the team that did (That will not happen this year alas, as Charlotte fell 1-0 to Atlanta the following evening). The bottom line though, is their record this year is a stellar 10-2-1, with one of those victories over the regular-season champion Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues. These young women certainly have nothing to be ashamed of.

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By StarCityFan

As previously reported, the Freedom Futures faced a critical match last weekend against the New Jersey Wildcats for the second and final playoff spot in the Northeast Division. After a hard-fought match with hair-tearing-out blown chances on both sides (think of the World Cup Final without all the cards and ugly fouls), the Futures eked out a 1-0 win, thanks to a goal in second-half stoppage time from forward Omolyn Davis.

Davis received the ball near the top left corner of the box and, despite defenders challenging her, managed to retain possession and weave her way across the top of the box before she saw an opening and ducked in, finally releasing an angled shot that went high and into the net (again, similar in location to the World Cup-winning goal).

That was enough to send Washington into the W-League playoffs for the fourth consecutive year (The only senior-level Freedom team that hasn’t made the postseason was the original WUSA team in 2001).

The Futures would go on to defeat the North Jersey Valkyries on Sunday, 3-0, with Meghan Lenczyk scoring the first two goals and Davis scoring the final one on a penalty kick.

The W-Leaguers have one match remaining in their regular season, Saturday at 7:30 pm against the Northern Virginia Majestics at Hellwig Memorial Field Stadium in Manassas, Va. (If you’re in Virginia and wanted to see a Futures match but didn’t want to make the trek to the SoccerPlex, here’s your chance.)

Following that, they will be playing in the Eastern Conference championship, location to be determined but most likely in either Charlotte, N.C., or Atlanta, depending on whether the Charlotte Lady Eagles or the Atlanta Silverbacks come out on top in the Atlantic Division.

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By StarCityFan

New Jersey Wildcats (6-2-1, 19 points, 3rd place) at Washington Freedom Futures (7-1-1, 22 points, 2nd place)
Saturday, July 10, 4 p.m. EDT
Maryland Soccerplex, Boyds, Md
All-time series: Washington leads 5-3-3
Last meeting: 3-3 draw at the College of New Jersey Lions Stadium, Ewing, N.J.

It’s a battle for second place in the Northeast Division this Saturday, with the winner all but assured of a playoff spot, while the loser has to rely on other teams’ results in order to get in. If you’ve ever thought about attending a W-League match but wanted to wait for a worthwhile one, then wait no longer – this is it!

The Futures are one of the elite teams in the W-League, like the others something of a regional (if not worldwide in some cases) all-star team, while most of the other teams are either doormats, who lose to everyone but each other, or middle-of-the-road teams, who beat the doormats, split among each other, and at least look respectable against the elites.

You might think being an elite team in this league is a pretty cushy position, and you’d be right – so long as there aren’t more elite teams in your division then there are places in the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Futures, this year in the Northeast Division there are three elite teams and only two playoff slots. Under those circumstances, there’s little room for slipping, slipping meaning anything other than winning.

The other two elite teams are the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues and the New Jersey Wildcats. Washington has done well against them this season, beating Hudson Valley and tying New Jersey. As a result, the Futures were in a great position last weekend. As of Sunday morning, they were coming off a solid 3-0 win against the 4-6-0, middle-of-the-road New Jersey Rangers, thanks to two goals from Lydia Hastings and one from Furtuna Velaj, and held first place in both the division and the league. Later that day, they had what seemed to be the minor task of getting past the New York Magic, perennial league doormats who had a 1-7-0 record on the season.

By the end of the evening, though, the Magic had somehow withstood a 21-shot-on-goal barrage from the Futures attackers without letting a single one in, while Rashidah Sherman, a candidate for the league’s Golden Boot, had put in two for New York.

Just like that, the Futures went from leading both their division and the league to having a nontrivial risk of missing the playoffs entirely and turning Saturday’s match into a must-win.

Even though the Lady Blues lost to the Futures, that’s their only slip, letting them take over first place in both the division and the league. The Futures have two slips, the tie with the Wildcats and the recent loss. Finally, the Wildcats have slipped three times, tying the Futures and losing twice to the Lady Blues.

That sets the stage for the upcoming showdown. If the Futures win, they clinch a playoff spot because the Wildcats can’t catch them. If the Wildcats win and win the rest of their games, the Futures can’t catch them and will be in third place, out of playoff position (This relies on the first W-League tiebreaker being head-to-head competition, which will go in favor of whichever team wins this match).

There is some hope for the third-place team: if Hudson Valley wins the regular-season championship, which they would do if they win their last three games, they get a bye into the W-League final four and don’t figure into the divisional standings. So the third-place team would make it into the playoffs after all. But I doubt either Washington or New Jersey wants to count on that.

As indicated by the all-time series record given above, Washington and New Jersey have a long history of competition, having played a home-and-home series every year since 2005. It’s actually been something of a seesaw battle. The Wildcats back in the middle of the decade were the team to beat in the W-League, compiling a 41-1-0 record from 2004 through 2006, winning the regular season championship in 2004 and 2006 and the overall championship in 2005. Their roster featured names familiar to WPS fans like Karina LeBlanc, Kendall Fletcher, Formiga, Kelly Smith, Kacey White, Lindsey Tarpley, Heather O’Reilly, and our own Christie Welsh, Rebecca Moros, and Cat Whitehill.

The Freedom Reserves (as they were called then) mustered only an 0-3-2 record against this team, though every match was a battle (Their very first meeting, on July 9, 2005, is still one of the best women’s club matches I’ve ever seen, a hardfought 1-1 draw. The Freedom goal was scored by Joanna Lohman and assisted by Ali Krieger).

New Jersey then fell on hard times as their coach left for Sky Blue and then for the Pali Blues, and Washington chalked up five wins in a row against them. Last year they were a clear middle-of-the road team, finishing fourth out of eight in the division with a 7-6-1 record.

However, this season the Futures went up to Jersey and had their hands full, going down 2-0 after 23 minutes, pulling back to tie, then going down again 3-2 in the 48th minute before equalizing in the 60th minute on a goal by Omolyn Davis. The three goals given up by the Futures in that match are as many as they’ve given up to every other team combined this season. On the other hand, Washington hasn’t given up a goal at the SoccerPlex since the Pali Blues scored two on them in last year’s W-League championship.

So Saturday should be a real battle. Again, if you only catch one W-League game this season, this should be the one. As usual, WPS Freedom season ticket holders get free admission, as they do to all Futures matches.

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By StarCityFan

The professional Freedom may have had an uneventful weekend, but it was just the opposite for the Freedom Futures, who both with some help and through their own efforts took over first place in the sprawling, 29-team W-League.

Their own contribution was to travel to Newburgh, N.Y., and defeat their division rivals (and 2009 regular-season champions) Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues, 2-1. That was the first-ever regular-season loss for Hudson Valley after going 12-0-2 last year, eventually losing in the semifinals to the eventual champion Pali Blues.

The Washington goals were scored by forwards Omolyn Davis and Furtuna Velaj, while Hudson Valley defender Emma Thompson got one back late off a corner kick.

The Futures now have a one-point lead in the division standings over the Lady Blues and a 5-0-1 record halfway through the season with their two toughest matches behind them.

Meanwhile, two of their top rivals stumbled over the same weekend. The previously 4-0-0 Ottawa Fury were held to a tie by the Quebec City Amiral. Most shockingly of all, the Pali Blues, winners of the last two W-League championships and undefeated in their entire existence (27-0-5), were downed at home by the Vancouver Whitecaps, 2-1. Based on the second W-League tiebreaker of total goals scored, this put the Futures into first place overall in the entire league.

This is a big deal because the regular-season champions earn a bye into the W-League’s Final Four, putting them only two games away from the W-League trophy. If the Futures aren’t the regular-season champions, they then have to win two matches in the Eastern Conference Championship (likely including a rematch with the Lady Blues) just to get into the Final Four.

As of now, the Futures just need to win their final six matches in order to at least tie for the regular-season championship. The Fury can do likewise by winning out, but they have to play seven more matches, including one against the team that just tied them and two against the second-place team in the division. The Futures have just one more tough match left, against the New Jersey Wildcats, who held them to a tie when playing on their home turf.

It’s worth noting that the Futures have accomplished this without stacking the deck. The core of the W-League team has always been the best local players. The 2007 championship team, in particular, had a roster made up entirely of players who either grew up locally, went to college somewhere in the region, or were holdovers from the WUSA team.

By contrast, the Pali Blues (and to a lesser extent, some of the other top W-League teams) cast a wide open net, recruiting the very best amateur players from around the world. It’s no surprise that they’ve been so successful – frankly, their recruiting philosophy makes that almost a given. Can you tell that I’m not a big fan of the Pali Blues?

So kudos to the Futures for prospering by cultivating the best local talent, and consider coming out to the SoccerPlex to support them at 1 p.m. on July 10 for their toughest home game of the season, against the New Jersey Wildcats.

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By StarCityFan

I have just a bit of nostalgia for the pre-WPS days at the SoccerPlex: the hamburgers were delicious, freshly grilled right in front of you and then delivered straight to your bun, the crowds were small and quiet enough that you could hear everything the players said on the field, and best of all, you pretty much knew Washington was going to win. Sunday night was a repeat of this experience (minus the burgers, alas), as the Washington Freedom Futures easily downed the Hampton Roads Piranhas, 5-0.

The Piranhas are a storied team, one of the founding members of the W-League and the 2003 champions. They’ve featured players like Angela Hucles, Christie Welsh, Amy Taylor, Lori Lindsey and Kele Golebiowski. So far this year though, they’re 1-4-2 and in fourth place in the five-team Atlantic Division.

They didn’t even have to face the Futures’ best. After playing Friday night, Washington rested most of its starters and put in the B-team, captained by the team’s youngest player, 18-year-old Molly Menchel, who doesn’t even start college until this fall. Even then it took only four minutes for the team to score, as Hayley Siegel received the ball off a short corner and crossed it to Meghan Lenczyk, who headed it in. Twelve minutes later, Shannon Foley fell when in contact with a defender on the left side of the box. It looked marginal to me, but the referee awarded a penalty kick. Foley took it herself and slid it into the left corner for a 2-0 lead.

In the 29th minute, Menchel made a run down the right side and centered a ball to Foley right outside the goalmouth. Foley was able to turn and touch the ball in for the third goal.

The rest of the game was somewhat more even, as the Piranhas stepped up for most of the rest of the first half, and the Futures dialed it back, particularly in the second half. As time wore on, most of the play took place within the width of the penalty box, and there was no more scoring until the 79th minute when Menchel intercepted the Piranhas’ goalkeeper’s punt, drove in to the corner of the box, and unleashed a hard low shot that the goalkeeper managed to dive and get in the way of, but the ball spun over her and went on into the net.

Head coach Win Puffer had put much of the A-team back in by that point, but they seemed to have little effect on the run of play, though the Futures did get a final tally from Lenczyk, who sent it in from the opposite corner of the box after receiving a feed from Kika Toulouse.

The final result was 5-0, though in the Piranhas’ defense it should be said that they likewise had had to play earlier in the weekend, and with a shorter roster, did not have the luxury of being able to start a lineup of mostly rested players.

Lenczyck finished with two goals, Foley had two as well (one off the PK), and Menchel scored a goal and an assist.

The Futures have yet to give up a goal at home and, with a 4-0-1 record, are now in sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division. They’re tied with the Atlanta Silverbacks as the teams with the best record in the W-League among those that have played at least four matches (Ottawa and Laval have won all of their games so far, but they’ve only played 3 and 2, respectively).

However, Washington will face their toughest match of the regular season next weekend, as they take on their division rivals, the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues, on the road in Newburgh, NY.

The Futures have two more regular-season matches at the Soccerplex, on Saturday, July 10, at 1 pm against the New Jersey Wildcats, and the following day at 6 pm against the North Jersey Valkyries. The former promises to be the most competitive home match of the season, as the Wildcats and Futures played to a hardfought 3-3 draw on the Wildcats’ home turf. So if you only make one W-League match this year, that would be the one.

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