Freedom Insider

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.

Bookmark to:

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.

Bookmark to:

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.

Bookmark to:

In case you haven’t heard, the Freedom will once again kick off the WPS season, this time as the host in a match against the Boston Breakers on April 10 at the Maryland SoccerPlex. If you are not into the season ticket thing, today (Friday, Dec. 18) will be the only day before February to purchase single game tickets for this contest. Make sure you call before 5 p.m. ET.

The Freedom struggled against the Breakers last year, finishing with a record of 1-2-1, the only win coming at the end of the season. Boston has undergone a number of significant changes though so it will be interesting to see how that plays against a Freedom squad that should return mainly intact.

Links

A couple of articles Freedom fans should check out (I apologize for how old these are).

First, the Post’s Dan Steinberg interviews Freedom Futures GM Jo Lohman about her aspirations to become GM of a more prominent local team. It’s too bad they hired someone else for the job yesterday.

Second, speaking of the Futures, many of them are in camp with different national teams this month. It’s good to see that the future of the club has some of top stars of tomorrow.

Third, WPS has asked some experts to rank the best draft prospects by position. I am sorely lacking in my knowledge of women’s collegiate soccer so if you are looking for news on the players that should be contributing to the league in 2010, the league breakdown seems like a good place to start. And if you want to have your own debate or post your own rankings, do so below and help educate me in the process.

Finally, the Roster Tracker is back up to date and I didn’t wait a month this time to do it.

That’s it for now. As always, feel free to use this post as a place to discuss anything Freedom related.

Bookmark to:

Interesting story from the Washington Business Journal. [UPDATE: Here is the article from the Freedom web site, which includes the new logo] Apparently, Joanna Lohman has been named the GM of the Freedom’s W-League squad. And her first item of business is changing the name of the W-League squad from the Washington Freedom to Freedom Futures according to the story.

This move is interesting on multiple fronts but the two things that jumped straight into my head are this is a good move for Lohman, who has stated before that she would love to eventually become the GM of the Washington Redskins. There is still a long way for her to go to get there but being the GM of a team is a good start to getting there so congrats to Jo.

Second is what impact will this have on Jo’s playing career. Jo was moved from the full roster to the developmental squad during the 2009 season and is currently a free agent. However, given the fact that she will only play for Washington because of her off-the-field job it seems that if she continues her career it will again be as a developmental player. It will be interesting to see how this situation develops.

Finally, one non-Freedom news item. For those starving for roster news, Saint Louis has added two international players, Swedish forward Madelaine Edlund and Brazilian midfielder Elaine. Both previously played for Umea IK.

That’s it from me. As always, feel free to comment on anything Freedom or WPS related below and have a happy and safe holiday.

Bookmark to: