Freedom Insider

I discussed this topic a little in my recap of Sunday’s loss, but it’s something that I’ve heard being discussed a lot lately so I thought I would delve into the topic a little more. Can anyone out there tell me what’s going on with Alex Singer?

The No. 8 overall pick in the 2009 WPS Draft, Singer was a key piece on last year’s Freedom backline, starting 13 of 16 games for a total of 1,143 minutes. Granted, her playing time tapered off as the season went on but a lot of that seemed to be due to a concussion she suffered midseason. She had played every minute of every game to that point and seemed adept at holding her own against the top-level talent in this league.

At the conclusion of the season, Singer seemed to be in good enough shape that she went with F Lisa De Vanna to play in Australia’s W-League and from all accounts it seems she played well there. And she seemed to be doing well enough that she earned a spot on the Freedom’s protected list. In fact, it seemed more people were concerned about why we were keeping Allie Long over Lori Lindsey.

So, if Singer was considered one of the 10 best players on the team at the time of expansion, what happened since then? She has logged only 60 minutes in 4 games played, and was one of only two players not to play last week when the team was extremely short-handed.

I don’t know how much sense it makes to shake up a defense that has produced 4 shutouts already but given the fact that the Freedom have struggled to score since learning De Vanna broke her leg while on Australian National Team duty, it seems like it might make sense to move Rebecca Moros or Nikki Marshall up top so Lene Mykjaland and Christie Welsh can revert back to their roles coming off the bench since they seem to be more productive in that sense.

Moving Moros or Marshall would then open a spot on the backline and given Singer’s experience starting with Cat Whitehill and Becky Sauerbrunn last year, doesn’t that seem like it would be a natural evolution of the lineup? The one wrinkle to all this is it seems Kristi Eveland has earned the role as the first defender off the bench but maybe it makes more sense to keep the rookie in that role and see if Singer still has what it takes to contribute to this squad. If she can’t, then maybe she needs to be the next one to go.

I hate sitting here at my computer and second-guessing Jim Gabarra’s decision not to play Singer because truthfully I have no idea what is going on behind-the-scenes. It could very well be that Singer suffered an injury in practice at some point and isn’t fit to play or it could be that she really has fallen that low on the depth chart. But since I can’t find any mention of either of things, I can only sit her and postulate on what I know. And what I know is Alex Singer used to be considered a top defender on this team and now she isn’t.

Hopefully as Gabarra continues to tinker with his lineup in an effort to jump start his club, he will keep Singer in mind. And hopefully if I’m missing something really obvious in this situation, someone will be kind enough to let me know.

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I don’t really know what to say about yesterday’s ugly loss other than I guess it was nice to see the Freedom continue to try to fight back until the final whistle. If you want more analysis than that, check out some great recaps here, here or here.

The losses of Abby Wambach, Sarah Huffman and Allie Long to WNT duty certainly hurt but the real issue is the Freedom have not found a suitable replacement for the loss of Lisa De Vanna. What we have seen since the injury is that Lene Mykjaland is a great sub for De Vanna and Christie Welsh is a nice fourth forward – someone who can provide fresh legs at the end of the match but can’t be counted on for more than 20+ minutes at a time.

And when Wambach is away, that only leaves Mykjaland and Welsh up top. Nikki Marshall seems to be a nice option to move up when desperate but who knows what impact moving her to forward full time will have on the defense. There may not be another forward that can step in at this point in the season but this is an issue that won’t be going away before the end of the season either.

At this point I think it would be beneficial to see Jim Gabarra shake up the roster a little more in an effort to not let this season get away. Alex Singer continues to sit on the bench and maybe she needs to start playing so Marshall and/or Rebecca Moros can move to forward (Moros played both forward and midfield last season).

Will that solve the Freedom’s consistency issues? Not likely, but it could be enough to keep this team from falling out of contention by August. Hey, when you’ve gone five straight matches without a win what do you have to lose?

LINKS

Here are some stories to take your mind off the Freedom’s woes…

• ‘Taz’ chasing WPS dream with Force (Reporter-Herald) – 2010 Freedom draft pick Lauren Robertson hasn’t given up on her quest to play in WPS.
• Freedom Newbies: Rookie Nikki Marshall (BleacherReport.com) – Speaking of Marshall, here’s an in-depth profile on the rookie.
• Show Your Support: The Washington Freedom’s Bravehearts (All White Kit) -Jenna Pel talks with one of the Freedom’s two supporters groups in this Q&A.
• Soccer: All or nothing for Wambach (Omaha.com) – The WNT is in Omaha tomorrow so the local paper talked with the Freedom’s star to preview the match. The best thing about this article is it talks both about Abby’s time with the WNT and the Freedom – that doesn’t seem to happen too often.

That will do it for today. As always, feel free to leave your opinions in the comments below.

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By StarCityFan

I like to think I don’t have high demands as a fan. Having followed the Freedom since 2001, I’ve been with them through two championships (2003 and 2007), a magical season that fell just short of a championship (2002), and many other less momentous but still enjoyable periods. I’d like to see them add a WPS championship to their trophy case someday, but it doesn’t have to be this season, or even next season. All I ask is that they play hard and have some measure of success. Or, to put it more succinctly, don’t suck.

The Freedom sucked Saturday night in West Chester. I could go into the gory details of how they seemed completely overmatched for the last half-hour, how they looked like the team that was playing their third match in eight days, not the Independence, as they lost race after race to the ball, and how the third, losing goal seemed almost inevitable the way they were playing, but I don’t want to write it, and unless you’re a Philly fan, you don’t want to read it.

However, I am going to gird my loins and talk about the implications. Any team can have a bad night, but the Freedom are having them on a regular basis. This marks the third match in a row and the fourth this season that Washington has scored first but has been unable to hold on for the win. The Freedom have done well in that in their nine matches that have had goals, they’ve scored first in all but one of them. But their record in those matches is a lackluster 4-2-2. By comparison, FC Gold Pride is 7-0-0 when they score first. If the Freedom had done likewise, they’d be the team at the top of the standings.

To put things in perspective, comebacks have been very rare. Teams that score first are 25-3-7 in WPS this year and were 52-3-10 last year.* Making matters worse, twice in three games the Freedom have been unable to come away with a win despite a two-goal lead. I was thinking this was unprecedented, but then remembered the match last year where the Freedom were down 3-1 to Saint Louis Athletica but managed to eke out two goals for the tie. Still, it shouldn’t happen.

*Two of this year’s losses are the Freedom’s, of course, while the third is the Breakers yielding to Sky Blue FC two weeks ago. Last year, the Freedom and the Red Stars split comebacks, with the third being the L.A. comeback against Boston that knocked them out of the playoffs.

So why is this happening, and what should the team do about it? On paper, the Freedom look solid defensively. We have one of the best goalkeepers in the league, two all-stars and our top draft pick on the back line, and two solid holding midfielders in front of them in Sarah Huffman and Allie Long. Rebecca Moros’s resume is less impressive, but that’s no reason to make her the scapegoat.

Online discussions have suggested putting in true defenders like Kristi Eveland and Alex Singer rather than converted attacking players like Nikki Marshall and Moros. I can’t say that I have any solid solutions, but Jim Gabarra and the team urgently need to come up with a solution as they approach the midpoint of the season. You’d have thought that before now, though – in fact, what rankles the most about this match is that after the last visit to West Chester, everyone had to be thinking, “Never again!” How does “again” happen despite that attitude?

If this can be fixed, I think the team, with all its offensive weapons, has a shot at the regular season championship. As things stand, the Freedom seem to be mired in the second tier, ahead of struggling teams like the Breakers and Red Stars, but behind the league leaders FCGP and Independence, and yet to have to deal with the defending champions SBFC and the recently revamped “Atlantica” Beat.

P.S. You might wonder how a season can be magical if it doesn’t include a championship. I could write essays on the marvels of the 2002 season (and have), but I’ll just point out here that the Freedom had four comeback wins that year, including one to clinch a playoff spot.

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Once that opening kickoff is taken tomorrow, all of the prognostications, projections and preseason hype will become irrelevant. We will finally have an idea of what team the Freedom will be in 2010, although as they showed last year, that can quickly be altered.

So, with only a few hours remaining before this entire exercise becomes antiquated, let’s look at some keys to success for the Freedom in 2010.

Let’s start at the obvious – this team had firepower but it also had a lot of defensive holes in 2009. The Freedom led WPS in goals scored and goals allowed and had a goal differential of 0. A lot of the damage came early on when the Freedom struggled to score and went through multiple GKs before Erin McLeod finally joined the team. The defense had a strong central presence with Cat Whitehill and Becky Sauerbrunn but was slow on the outside and consistency seemed to elude the team all season.

So who were the two biggest free agent acquisitions this offseason? Forwards Lene Mykjaland and Christie Welsh, who only add to the formidable firepower provided by Abby Wambach, Lisa De Vanna and Rebecca Moros. And while those moves were definitely adding to the strength of the squad, the Freedom also addressed the defensive side of the ball.

Thanks to the disbanding of the LA Sol, the Freedom acquired a strong defensive presence in Brittany Bock and addressed the lack of speed on the back line by drafting defender Nikki Marshall in the first round of the 2010 draft. Those additions should take pressure off of Whitehill and Sauerbrunn and allow Jill Gilbeau, Alex Singer and fourth round pick Kristi Eveland to provide much needed depth.

Ok, enough from me. But that’s not all I have for this post. I believe in being informed and in looking at multiple resources when trying to get a handle on a topic so with that in mind, here are some other team previews I have found to be very insightful. And as always, if you have any that I missed, leave a link in the comments, send me an e-mail or send me a tweet and I will check them out.

Probably the biggest loss this offseason was that of M Lori Lindsey (Philadelphia), but from the reports out of training camp indicate Homare Sawa is ready to take a step forward. The international vet was the subject of much fan consternation last year as many felt she was miscast by Jim Gabarra as a defensive midfielder. However, what often gets lost is the fact that Sawa’s versatility and experience forced her into that role when Sarah Huffman went down before the season with an ACL injury. With Lindsey gone and Huffman back, hopefully Sawa will slide forward and provide yet another option to the team’s deadly attack.

Of course a 2010 preview can’t be written without mentioning M Sonia Bompastor, who seems to be the spark plug that makes this team go (we all know what happened when she missed the first round of the playoffs last year due to national team duty). So it seems logical to conclude that as Sonia goes, so will the Freedom. That both excites me and scares me. Hopefully when she misses time this year someone else will be able to step up in her absence.

Unlike a lot of teams this year, the Freedom returns most of its 2009 roster and is hoping that once again continuity will be the key success. That strategy fell flat early on in 2009 as the team struggled out of the gate but it eventually paid off in a playoff appearance. Gabarra is obviously sticking to his guns once again and obviously fans hope the team once again reaches the playoffs.

Despite the addition of two teams, the rosters of the other seven squads all appear to be as stacked as Washington’s so strategy and execution will play an important role in determining which teams extend their seasons. Given that fact, I like the Freedom’s chances, especially with the experienced bench players the team now has. What a difference a year makes.

• Previewing 2010: Freedom bolster defense (womensprosoccer.com)
• Washington Freedom 2010 – Are They Defensive Enough? (Women’s Soccer Weekly)
• 2010 Season Preview: Washington Freedom (The Equalizer)
• Previewing the 2010 Washington Freedom (All White Kit)
• Full health means Freedom to roam (Gazette Newspapers)
• Abby Wambach on WPS, year two (Penalty Kicks)

Only a few hours to go – do you have your fantasy teams locked in and have you joined the Freedom Insider WPS league? Time’s running out so get to it.

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Just a brief post today but as I was looking at my notifications on Twitter I noticed that there are certain teams that seem to have a lot of players with a consistent social media presence. Now I realize the Freedom set up Twitter feeds and Facebook fan pages for everyone on the roster last year but it seems only a few players actually used them and most of them stopped once the season ended. I also realize President and GM Mark Washo has been very active on Twitter.

Last year the players who updated fans online consistently seemed to be Cat Whitehill, KJ Spisak and Alex Singer. With Spisak now in St. Louis it seems the Freedom players are falling behind in web presence. So the question is this, which Freedom player would like to see develop more of a web presence? Leave your comments below and who knows, maybe we can use this discussion to lobby that player!

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