Freedom Insider

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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Last year one of the biggest benefactors of the exposure she received in WPS was the Freedom’s Sonia Bompastor. Even to the most die hard fans she was a relative unknown, in part because the French National Team hasn’t had much International success.

When I talked to fans about Sonia before she arrived the most anyone could tell me was that she was a defender from France. But just a few weeks after the start of the 2009 season that all changed and Sonia was one of the most talked about player in the league, mainly because people were literally in awe of how good she was and how much she meant to the Freedom.

And Sonia wasn’t the only player. Former Freedom M Lori Lindsey had only 1 cap with the USWNT before WPS began, and that cap was back in 2004. But with one solid season of helping orchestrate the best attack in the league (at least in terms of goals scored) and Lindsey found herself back in USWNT camp.

With that in mind I would like to present the latest player deserving of a moment in the spotlight – D Becky Sauerbrunn.

Becky is THE ironwoman of WPS – she has played every minute of every game for the Freedom. USWNT legend Kristine Lilly has been another ironwoman in WPS but her streak ended when she was subbed out in last Saturday’s 0-0 tie at the SoccerPlex, leaving Becky as the last woman standing.

And while minutes played may not be the most descriptive stat, I would imagine that if Becky hadn’t been pulling her weight at any point in time she would’ve been subbed out. We all know Jim Gabarra is not afraid to try something new if it will put a W on the board.

Like Lori, Becky had a brief stint with the USWNT, representing the team at the 2008 Algarve Cup in Portugal. Becky earned 2 caps during the tournament but has not appeared with the team since. It’s true the USWNT is loaded with many fine defenders, but Becky should get a chance to prove herself again.

Hopefully as the season wears on Becky’s consistency will stand out as a reason for the Freedom defense improving. She’s certainly put in the time to be recognized for such.

Other News Items

I have been trying to refrain from just posting links posts so in a continuation of that effort, here are a couple of links you should check out:

• Talent aplenty in Washington Freedom midfield (Potomac Soccer Wire) – Great primer piece on each of the Freedom’s midfielders and what skills they bring to the table.
• Freedom’s FIRST Shutout and My FIRST Blog Entry (soccer365.com) – Cat Whitehill now has a soccer-related blog. So for those of you who are more interested in her soccer thoughts as opposed to her college football thoughts, be sure to regularly check in with this blog.
• Washington Freedom Goal Keeper Erin McLeod to Choose Home Team or Homeland (Washington Freedom homepage) – No Pele-style split squad action for GK Erin McLeod when the Freedom face the Canadian National Team on May 23. Erin gets the unenviable task of choosing to play for her team or her country. Which one would you choose? Stay tuned.
• Finally, it looks like Ali Krieger’s time in Germany is finally paying off as she was named to the 22 player roster for the friendly with Germany in Cleveland. Krieger has played for both FFC Frankfurt and the Freedom in between injuries and it now seems like she is healthy enough to try and continue her USWNT career. Hopefully at some point she will stop renewing her German contract to once again play for the Freedom.

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It has been fun to see readers getting involved here on the blog over the past couple months so I thought today would be the perfect day to see if I could generate a discussion. To do that, I am going to ask the following question in hopes of getting some responses: What would you do to fix the Freedom’s defense?

I don’t want to dominate the discussion here but here are some thoughts to get it started. Given the start to the season it seems entirely possible that the Freedom could once again lead WPS in both goals scored and in goals allowed. So what can be done to improve the defense?

I would argue that GK is not the problem and that Erin McLeod is one of the top 3 or 4 GKs in the league. Not much can be done there. So what change to the D of M would be the most beneficial? Does the team need to pay whatever it takes to get Ali Krieger back (assuming the team could actually get her out of Germany at all)? Will a healthy Brittany Bock and/or Sarah Huffman help anything?

Let me know what you think? I know I don’t have all the answers so it will be interesting to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment and let’s see if we can actually come up with a solution.

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I have been trying my hardest to avoid the generic link posts as they don’t seem to be all that popular around here but with all of the snow and issues I have had personally related to the snow, I felt like this was the easiest way to get something new on the blog until I could put together something more substantial.

Also, I am still updating Roster Tracker – the Sol disbanding really throws the whole thing off – so it probably won’t be updated until after the start of camp. My apologies, but if you any suggestions on any changes or additions that should be made to the file let me know via the comments or the contact page.

Ok, enough stalling. Here are the links:

In Their Free Time, with “Bookworm” Christen Karniski – Christen may be a free agent but she is also a dear friend of the Insider. It’s great to see her get some time on the web.

Frankfurt verlängert vorzeitig mit Krieger – According to Google Translate, Krieger means Warrior in German. And according to this article, defender Ali Krieger has renewed with FC Frankfurt until 2012. Who knows what that means in terms of her coming back on loan but we won’t have Krieger as a full time Freedom player until after that.

WPS Committed to Supporting Nationwide Campaign to Address Childhood Obesity – Briana Scurry recently visited the White House to help First Lady Michelle Obama kick off her campaign to fight childhood obesity. Great exposure for the league.

Freedom Futures Point The Way Forward – The W-League squad is churning out future WPS players. It appears Jim Gabarra’s model is having a good effect on the league.

Again, I will try to keep these types of posts to a minimum. And as always, if you have anything you’d like to see discussed, drop me a line.

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Now that the drama has subsided, I guess it’s finally time to take a look at how the Freedom roster is shaping up for the 2010 season.

But before we get to far let’s look at those who are already under contract for 2010:

F: Lisa De Vanna, Lene Mykjaland, Abby Wambach

M: Brittany Bock, Sonia Bompastor, Jill Gilbeau, Sarah Huffman, Allie Long, Rebecca Moros, Homare Sawa

D: Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Singer, Cat Whitehill

GK: Erin McLeod, Briana Scurry

*From what we have been told by the league, those selected in the dispersal draft were under contract for 2010, although Nigerian International Faith Ikidi (the Freedom’s second round dispersal draft pick) is under contract in Sweden. This move means the Freedom relinquish the International rights to Nilla Fischer, also under contract in Sweden. Previously the Freedom had held the International rights to Louisa Necib.

**Note: While she is not under contract right now, expect D Ali Krieger to rejoin the Freedom at the conclusion of the German Bundesliga season. Last year she joined the team in June.

The Freedom entered the offseason with most of last year’s roster under contract again for 2010 but with the unexpected disbanding of the Los Angeles Sol, the number of open roster spots the team has to fill has decreased while the caliber of the competition trying to win spots has increased.

The lone signing before the draft was that of Norwegian forward Lene Mykjaland, a player the Freedom have been trying to get to the U.S. since before the 2009 season. Mykjaland adds even more firepower to the dangerous duo of Wambach and De Vanna, and if Jim Gabarra decides to play a 4-3-3 at any point this season he will be able to put a huge amount of pressure on any opposing defense.

After losing Lori Lindsey and Sarah Senty in the expansion draft, it was clear the biggest needs the Freedom had entering last month’s draft were a defensive midfielder and a defender. Gabarra addressed defender with his first pick, selecting Nikki Marshall from Colorado. Gabarra followed that up with midfielders Carly Dobratz (Washington State) and Beverly Goebel (Miami) with his next two picks and went defender in the fourth round with Kristi Eveland out of North Carolina.

Before Thursday’s dispersal draft I would have guessed the team’s top four draft picks would have been locks to make the roster with the final three picks – GK Lauren Robertson, M Mara Osher and F Caitlin Miskel – all having a good shot to earn a spot on the developmental roster.

With the addition of Bock, Gabarra has stayed true to his philosophy and added another player that can be plugged in anywhere on the field. Obviously Marshall has the inside track on one of the remaining roster spots and two of either Dobratz, Goebel and Eveland should finalize the 18 woman roster. There is still a chance someone like KJ Spisak or Freedom W-League standouts Brittany Tegeler, Katie Watson or Kimmy Germain earn a developmental roster spot but it looks like preseason camp will open with a fairly completed roster.

And hopefully that roster is good enough to get back to the playoffs and make a run at the 2010 WPS Championship.

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