Freedom Insider

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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Yesterday’s news that WPS is discontinuing the operation of the Los Angeles Sol is a huge blow to the league. It’s bad enough the league has taken on the inherit challenges that come with trying to establish a successful soccer league and successful women’s league in the U.S., but to lose the team that dominated the regular season and had the most talented female player on the planet on its roster looks really bad.

If this was the NFL, NBA or MLB, the franchise could have been saved for a while a new owner was found (that’s how we here in Washington got our baseball team after all) but because WPS is only one year old, the option of the league running the franchise is simply not an option.lo

Jeff Kassouf of The Equalizer has attacked this story from all sorts of angles and it is worth checking out his various posts on the topic to get a more complete picture of how this news impacts everyone involved.

My personal, shortened take on this situation is that WPS and its franchises have been in survival mode since the league formed and there will continue to be casualties as the league tries to take hold. I personally have been one of these casualties. You can’t take these things too personally though because everyone making the decisions is just doing what they think will help this thing survive.

As the fallout of this situation continues to ripple throughout the league, the excitement many players and fans felt after the recent draft has been altered. As has been mentioned elsewhere, mid and late round draft picks will now have a tougher fight for a roster spot and players who were on the fringe last year will probably be headed back to the W-League or WPSL to wait until the next round of expansion opens more slots.

The impact on International players will be even more severe, given that teams are still limited to five active International players and most squads have already filled those slots. If you look at the Freedom’s roster, do you cut loose Lisa De Vanna, Homare Sawa, Erin McLeod, Sonia Bompastor or the newly signed Lene Mykjaland if you can bring on Karina LeBlanc or Aya Miyama? Glad I am not the one that has to make that call.

This situation may actually benefit the Freedom in a way also. With the Freedom Futures of the W-League under its umbrella, Jim Gabarra and company will be able to bring in more players, place them on the W-League squad and see how they perform in Gabarra’s system without having to use a pro roster spot. Obviously this is a blow to the players since the Freedom Futures is a completely amateur squad, but I bet there are plenty of players out there willing to play one more year as an amateur if it increased the odds of being raised to pro status in 2011.

As I have also seen mentioned, the problems with the Sol are in no way a reflection of what’s going on with WPS. The spin WPS is using is that it did add two expansion teams this year before this situation went down and if you look at the players brought in this offseason from overseas, there are plenty of people who believe this league will still succeed.

The thing that we need to do as fans though, is actually make sure it does.

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Well, I am finally over the bug/virus that wiped me out for all of last week so now comes the task of getting back to business as usual.

Apparently the new way to break news in WPS is in 140 characters or less … or at least it is that way for the Freedom. Over the course of the past week we have learned via Twitter that the team has retained the rights to International players Lene Mykjaland and Louisa Necib and that the 2010 options for Abby Wambach, Homare Sawa, Lisa De Vanna, Erin McLeod, Rebecca Moros, Sarah Huffman, Becky Sauerbrunn, Allie Long, Jill Gilbeau and Alex Singer have been picked up.

Don’t bother looking for that news on the team web site, it has only been mentioned on Twitter and on the team’s Facebook page.

For those of you looking for something longer than 140 characters, check out this article on the W-League combine. Coach Jim Gabarra is quoted throughout and it looks like 4 of our W-League players (Jessie Wolfe, Kimmie Germain, Katie Watson and Brittany Tegeler) were there to participate. As of Tuesday morning the WPS Draft is still 108 days away, but it is never to early to speculate who from the farm team might make an impact in WPS this year.

Finally, a bit of sad news out of Germany. According to this article (which is very poorly translated via Google’s translate page), Ali Krieger has yet again broken her foot. There was no mention of how long she will be out but this is not good for her. If you remember, it was her recovery from a broken foot last year that got Frankfurt FC to loan Krieger to the Freedom in the first place but with her contract up in June, you have to wonder what will happen. This situation bears watching.

Ok, enough from me. As always, feel free to leave a comment or you can send me an e-mail through the site’s contact page.

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Part 1: The 2009 draft
Part 2: Roster review
Part 3: Top 5 moments of 2009

Another week, another look back at the 2009 season. This is going to be my last look at the 2009 season unless there is a public outcry for more. After looking at the Top 5 moments of the season last week it seems only fair and balanced to look at the Bottom 5 moments as well. So without further delay, here are the moments I am sure all Freedom fans would like to forget from 2009.

5. Freedom lose league opener in LA

The Freedom were the only team in the league to maintain an existence outside of the WUSA and WPS. The coaching staff spent years looking at talent and preparing for this moment where most coaches only had months because they had just been hired. The coaches had been active in the top level amateur league and already had the foundation of a team in place. On draft day, the Freedom took most of those players, banking on our chemistry to get them through the early part of the season.

And just like in the WUSA, the Freedom had the opportunity to kick off this new league. With the deck supposedly stacked in the team’s favor, the Freedom fell flat and lost to LA in the league opener 2-0.

The reason this loss is No. 5 is because after the match, this loss certainly felt like less of a loss. Having gone six years without a pro league at home, players like Abby Wambach and Lori Lindsey were happy just to have the opportunity to play pro again in the U.S. while many others were happy to finally have the opportunity. And while that feeling was good for the first match, it was a good thing it didn’t last.

4. The Chicago Red Stars

Despite the fact they struggled against everyone else this season, the Chicago Red Stars quickly became the Freedom’s nemesis on the field. Even though the Freedom didn’t lose to Chicago at home in 2009, that fact becomes little consolation once you consider the Freedom ended both of those matches with an 11 v. 10 advantage.

In April, defender Frida Ostberg picked up two yellow cards for her rough style of play, being sent off shortly after the start of the second half. But Washington couldn’t get through the Chicago defense and wound up with a 1-1 tie. Then in June, Karen Carney received a red card for a hard foul on Abby, putting the Freedom a woman up with 30 minutes left in the match. And once again, Chicago hunkered down and preserved the scoreless tie. Once Chicago finally finished a game against the Freedom at full strength, the Red Stars won 2-1. Washington did finish the series with a 3-2 win at Chicago while trying to secure a playoff berth, but instead of posting a 1-1-2 record against them this season, it easily should have been 3-1-0. Hopefully this isn’t a pattern that will repeat again in 2010.

3. Huffman goes down for the year

I mentioned a little about this when talking about the makeup of the roster but Sarah Huffman’s injury was a huge blow to the Freedom. Going down during the first week of practice, the loss of Sarah really jumbled things up in the midfield. I am convinced that if Jim Gabarra had everyone healthy to start the season we would have seen Sonia Bompastor play defender, her position on the French national team, and we would have seen Huffman pairing with Homare Sawa, Lori and Allie Long in the midfield. Who knows if that midfield would have produced better results but losing the No. 1 overall pick from the first domestic draft the league held certainly hurts.

Here’s to hoping Sarah is recovered and ready for 2010.

2. Goalkeeping in crisis mode

During the January draft, Gabarra surprised everyone when in the fifth round he drafted the most capped keeper in U.S. history, Briana Scurry. Having pulled out of previous drafts, it seemed that Scurry was seriously considering retiring before the Freedom selected her in the draft. Gabarra drafted her as insurance in case starter Erin McLeod wasn’t quite healed from the ACL injury she suffered in the 2008 Olympics but as the season got closer and McLeod got held up on Visa issues, it became clear the backup plan would be put into effect.

Scurry started the first three games and the results were not pretty. Not that everything was her fault but when the offense had scored only 2 goals in 3 games and the defense had given up 6 in that same span, Gabarra turned to his third option, KJ Spisak. KJ would be in net for the teams first win but would give up 3 goals in the process and the following week she gave up 3 more goals in a tie against Saint Louis. Fortunately that was enough time for McLeod to get her Visa straightened and lock down the goalkeeping situation for the Freedom.

1. Playoff loss to Sky Blue FC

Using another card analogy, the deck was supposed to be stacked against SBFC as it began its playoff journey. As the last team into the playoffs, SBFC had the unfortunate task of needing to win three playoff games on the road in order to win the inaugural WPS Championship. That road began in Washington against a Freedom team they had finished 0-2-1 against during the regular season. The Freedom suffered the big blow though as Sonia missed the playoffs because of the 2009 Women’s European championship. Apparently that leveling of the field was all SBFC needed as they beat the Freedom at the SoccerPlex, making the Freedom the first WPS team to lose a playoff game at home. At least they weren’t the last.

That does it for my recap. Agree with my moments? Disagree? Let me know either by the poll or in the comments.

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Part 1: The 2009 draft
Part 2: Roster review

As I continue this look back at the 2009 season, I thought it made the most sense to recap the season with a Top 5 moments post and a Bottom 5 moments post. Obviously, this post will be the Top 5. Two caveats to this list before we begin. First, there were definitely more than 5 great moments this season, I just felt these were the season-altering moments. Second, I included the buildup from last year in this because one year ago, no team had a single player. So to go from a team in name only to the conclusion of the first season in less than 12 months is a pretty significant feat and is an important part of what happened in 2009.

Ok, on to the moments.

5. Abby Wambach hits her stride after scoring her 100th goal wearing a U.S. uniform

Freedom fans were excited to see the star that had developed right before their eyes was returning to her roots to anchor the newest version of the Freedom but it was a rough go for Abby Wambach to open the season. Wanting to put the nasty leg injury that kept her out of the 2008 Olympics behind her, Wambach found it tough to get back to form and opened the season with only two goals in her first 16 games.

Something changed for Wambach though during the last four games of the season and I believe the goal she scored on July 19 in front of her hometown crowd in Rochester (No. 100 for her international career) finally relaxed her enough that she returned to D.C. finally able to pass the hurdles she had struggled with all season. She returned to score 5 goals in the season’s last 4 games, including 2-goal efforts against Chicago and Sky Blue FC, on her way to helping the Freedom clinch the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. That final outburst also made Abby the team’s leading scorer in 2009, finishing with 8 goals.

4. Freedom finally record first shutout

The 2009 season for the Freedom seemed to be filled with multiple hurdles the team struggled to get over. One of those hurdles was recording a shutout. Having to use 3 goalkeepers to start the season, partly because of Erin McLeod’s delayed arrival, the Freedom opened the season as the team to allow the most goals and most goals per game, a stat they would never overcome in spite of also scoring the most goals during the regular season.

Looking to fix the leak in the back, Jim Gabarra finally got one of his prized pupils – USWNT pool allocation Ali Krieger – on loan from her club in Germany to help fix the problem. By combining Krieger with McLeod and moving French international Sonia Bompastor back to her natural position of defender, the Freedom posted their first shutout of 2009 on June 13 against Chicago in one of the team’s 3 doubleheaders at RFK. The downside though was that the offense failed to score, meaning the game ended in a 0-0 tie. Sonia would subsequently be moved back to the midfield role she manned all season but after finally posting a shutout the Freedom would go on to post 3 more during the season. Not bad for a team allowing 2 goals per game up to that point.

3. Freedom pick up first WPS win

As that old cliche goes, it is never a matter of if but a matter of when. The Freedom had to keep telling themselves that as they started off the season 0-2-1 and had never led a game at any point so far in the season. With Abby having failed to score and with a goal differential of minus-4, using the term rough start might have been too kind. Then came the fourth game of the young season, a cross-country trip to the Bay area of California to face FC Gold Pride.

With a change at goalkeeper and with Sonia gone to play for the French national team, the pressure was on the Freedom to make something happen. Abby did that by scoring her first goal of the season, which coincidentally gave the Freedom their first lead of 2009. That’s only half the story though. After going up 3-1 in the second half, FCGP rallied to tie the game at 3-3 and it appeared as though the Freedom would need another week to notch that first win as the game headed to stoppage time.

With a free kick the only thing left to wrap up the contest, Cat Whitehill booted the ball into the box to the head of one Abby Wambach, who put the ball past Nicole Barnhart for the win. That goal would be the first of many late-game goals the Freedom would score this year to either win or tie up a game. After numerous wins in WUSA and the W-League, the Freedom now had a win in WPS to count among its accomplishments.

2. Abby returns to her professional roots

Ok, this post may seem like one big “Abby Wambach is great” post but this her return to D.C. was huge for the franchise. While this happened in the offseason, Abby’s acquisition (even coming off of a leg injury) made every fan in town feel that maybe things wouldn’t be so different with the new league after all. If Abby had come back and played with LA for instance, every D.C. would have felt betrayed and many of the diehards probably would have turned away feeling the league was stacked against the only team to wait out the return of pro soccer.

Abby was one of the faces of the Freedom when the WUSA was forced to take a hiatus and when she came back, much of the local attention the team had earned during those days started returning as well. There were many other players who played an important role on the field in the Freedom’s playoff run, but no one else has Abby’s off-the-field impact.

The only reason this event doesn’t rank No. 1 is because of what her return brought during this first year.

1. Freedom make playoffs and host first ever WPS playoff game

While the path taken to get there and the end result weren’t the prettiest, the fact the Freedom made the playoffs in the league’s first season is huge. Between piecing this roster together – including adding many pieces after starting the season – struggling to find offense, struggling to find consistency on defense, struggling to pick up that first win and having to wait until the final game to lock down that playoff berth, the Freedom managed to hold on and finish third in the inaugural season.

Compared to the WUSA days, in which the Freedom ended that first season with only 6 wins fielding a squad that featured Mia Hamm, a playoff appearance is a good accomplishment. There is still plenty of room to improve for 2010 but the base is there to build on and all of the hard work Jim Gabarra and Clyde Watson put in while waiting for this return was well rewarded with the playoff berth.

Those are my Top 5 Freedom moments for 2009. Next week I will give you my Bottom 5. In the meantime, let me know what you think of my list. Was something ranked too high? Too low? Did I leave something better off the list? Let me know in the comments. And make sure you take a moment to vote in the new poll on the front page.

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