Freedom Insider

By StarCityFan

Washington Freedom (4-6-5, 17 points, 4th place) at Atlanta Beat (3-7-4, 13 points, 7th place)
Wednesday, July 28, 7:30 p.m. EDT
KSU Soccer Stadium, Kennesaw, Ga.
All-time series: Freedom lead 2-0-0
Last meeting: Freedom 2, Beat 0

Once upon a time this looked like an easy three points. Unlike Philadelphia, Atlanta was behaving like a proper expansion team, losing five matches in a row and being little threat to the competition. Of course, that was before the St. Louis Athletica folded and Atlanta picked up a bunch of their key players: Hope Solo, Lori Chalupny, Tina Ellertson, Eniola Aluko and Aya Miyama.

More recently, alas, it’s Washington that’s looked like the expansion team. Since the beginning of June, the Freedom have gone 0-4-4 and are on a three-game losing streak, while the Beat have gone 3-2-3 and are on a two-game winning streak.

When these two teams last played, the Freedom won 2-0 thanks in large part to a stellar, seven-save performance from Erin McLeod in goal. Unfortunately, McLeod is now gone for the season, and Washington will instead rely on their single pickup from the Athletica refugees, rookie goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris. Harris was the primary goalkeeper for the North Carolina Tarheels her sophomore and senior years and split the time her junior year. She’s also spent significant time on the US U-19 and U-21 teams as well as receiving a callup to the full national team last year.

Players to worry about:

Hope Solo – Despite her well-deserved reputation, the Freedom always seem to have Solo’s number. Their all-time record against Team Solo is 2-0-1, with the draw being the first match between the two teams, in which the Freedom managed to claw back from a 3-1 deficit with a header from Sonia Bompastor in stoppage time to eke out a draw. However, this trend is not something we can count on. If Hope is on her usual form, it could be a frustrating night.

Johanna Rasmussen – With Eniola Aluko away on national team duty and Ramona Bachmann not having much impact so far, the Danish forward is the Beat’s primary scoring threat, though with only two goals on the season that’s not saying much. Still, the Freedom’s defense, backed by a rookie goalkeeper, may be vulnerable.

Kia McNeill – If I were to compose a drinking game for this match, one of the entries would be “Kia McNeill fouls Abby Wambach (Double if she gets carded).” And against the Freedom, McNeill has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time: Bompastor scored her aforementioned header goal after the ball bounced off McNeill’s head first, then in last year’s match at RFK Homare Sawa’s shot bounced off McNeill’s leg and into the net for the game-winning goal. We’ll have to see if the Hope/Kia curse holds or gets broken.

Players to root for:

Ashlyn Harris – Well, duh! Goalkeeper staffing has been an adventure for the Freedom through much of the WPS era, first with Erin McLeod’s green card issues, then with coach Nicci Wright having to don the gloves when Kati Jo Spisak got injured while McLeod was on national team duty. On the other hand, there seems to be a WPS tradition of unsung goalkeepers rising to the task, with Jillian Loyden last year earning Player of the Week honors when she stepped in for Hope Solo, and Karen Bardsley this year proving to be All-World after Jenni Branam was injured. Let’s hope Harris is another name to add to this list.

Abby Wambach – My impression is that the key difference between the Freedom and FC Gold Pride last Sunday was that their world-class striker was better than our world-class striker. Abby had as many chances at Marta, but they all seemed to go off-target or right to the goalkeeper. She seemed to start off the year strongly but has faded in the stretch. Washington needs a Player of the Week performance out of her again, and soon.

Sarah Huffman – Huffy would be my Woman of the Match from Sunday. Full of energy and all over the field, she worked hard to make things happen. Her finest moment might have been one occasion when she was triple-teamed when deep on the right flank but nevertheless cut and weaved into enough room to get off a promising-looking cross. We need more of that.

The bottom line is that, barring a possible Sky Blue FC collapse, there are no easy points any more. Atlanta has bolstered its lineup, FCGP is unstoppable, Philadelphia is formidable and Chicago and Boston are getting their acts together. Washington needs to do the same if they’re to remain in the playoff hunt.

Bookmark to:

By StarCityFan

By the numbers:
Position in standings: 4th (final playoff position)
Standings points: 17
Record: 4-3-5
Goals scored: 17 (3rd in league)
Goals allowed: 14 (5th in league)
Home record: 3-1-3 (2nd in league)
Away record: 1-2-2 (6th in league)

We’re halfway through the season, and the Freedom are in playoff position, though just barely and only after a fairly favorable schedule, with seven home games out of 12. And the Freedom are the most home-biased team in the league, with one of the best records at home but one of the worst on the road (The only worse road team is the expansion Atlanta Beat, who have had a hard time winning anywhere).

In fact, I think the Freedom should be in a better position than they are. If you look at the schedule and assume they should generally beat the teams below them and lose to the teams ahead of them, they’ve been upset more often than they’ve upset the opposition. They’ve faced the fifth place Chicago Red Stars twice and the sixth place Boston Breakers twice each, all at the SoccerPlex, but only have three points to show for it out of a possible 12 (one loss and three draws). On the other side, they beat Philadelphia at home and tied FC Gold Pride and Sky Blue FC on the road, and of those the only one that feels like a genuine upset is the Gold Pride match. But let’s be generous and say the Freedom picked up five upset points but while letting 12 upset points go for a net of minus-7.

Basically, that means that if Washington had kept to form they’d be in second place, one point behind the league leaders, instead of fourth and eight points behind.

But that’s all water under the bridge. Instead, let’s look ahead. As I’ve noted before, the Freedom start out the second half of the season with six out of eight games on the road, and the only two home games are against the top two teams in the league. But there are some glimmers of hope. Two of the road matches are against the Boston Breakers in Boston, where the Breakers have yet to win this year – heck, they’re worse at home than any other team is on the road. On the other hand, the Washington Freedom have never, ever beaten a Boston team in Boston, going back to the WUSA days (You can even extend this to the W-League days on a technicality, because the W-League Boston Renegades played in Framingham). Perhaps it’s high time.

With regard to play on the field, the Freedom have combined old problems with new ones. Washington has always had an issue of consistency throughout the WPS era: if the offense is successful, the defense is inept. If the defense holds on for a shutout, the offense doesn’t score. Freedom matches seem to be either 0-0 or 4-3, without a whole lot in between. The new issue is holding onto a lead, something I’ve discussed before and so won’t go into again.

I think we have the talent to compete at the highest levels in this league. Gold Pride may have Marta, but we have Abby Wambach. Philadelphia has Karina LeBlanc and Allison Falk, but we have Erin McLeod and Cat Whitehill. Sky Blue has Heather O’Reilly and Rosana, but we have Sonia Bompastor and Homare Sawa. I think it comes down to desire, teamwork and focus. We’ll find out in the remaining 12 matches if the Freedom have enough of all of those to remain in contention.

Bookmark to:

I received an e-mail from a loyal Freedom Insider reader last week that brought up an interesting trade thought and I wanted to invite other readers to weigh in on the discussion.

The proposal was simple – the e-mailer wants to send Cat Whitehill to Atlanta for Lori Chalupny. Now before you get all bent out of shape at the thought of trading one of the most recognizable names on the Freedom, let’s look at the reasoning.

“Cat gets to return to the South near family and her future as a SEC broadcaster and the Freedom gets another left-sided defender/midfielder to put on the field w/ Sonia [Bompastor]. I loved the addition of [Ashlyn] Harris (really needed cover there), but was bummed that we apparently didn’t try to get Chalupny.”

It does seem the left side has been the one chink in the armor this season and so a taking a proactive approach to solve that problem is not a bad idea. Against the Red Stars, Cat was the one called upon to play on that side behind Sonia but I am still kind of on the fence as to how effective that move really was. So, in the interest of objectivity, let’s look at the positives and negatives of what Cat brings to the table.

Positives

• Cat serves the best long ball in WPS, hands down. She possesses a deadly combo of both distance and accuracy and she has bailed this team out with this asset on more than one occasion, including the first goal against Chicago two weeks ago.
• Cat is the vocal leader and role model for this team that the captain should be. As much as the fans want Abby to be that person, it is just not her personality. Abby Wambach is a leader but she doesn’t want to be captain. Cat has been through many of the same experiences Abby has and has every right to named captain. There are others that could wear the captain’s band, but Cat is the most suited for the role on the squad.
• Something I feel that is important for a league still trying to establish itself, is Cat’s off-the-field presence. I have said this before, but Cat is a great individual and has done a lot to promote the Freedom and WPS. Her presence on ESPN calling women’s college soccer matches can’t be overlooked. It may not contribute to on-the-field success but right now it is just as important to continue to build the fan base of this league as it is to win championships. Just ask the 2003 version of the Freedom.

Negatives

• Cat is a smart defender but her average speed puts her in tough situations at times. She takes smart routes to the ball but she seems susceptible to creative play. I think replacing her with Nikki Marshall in the center was a good idea from a speed standpoint but Nikki still has a lot to learn. If we could combine Nikki and Cat, we could create one stellar defender.
• I am probably really biased because Cat bailed me out multiple times while I was with the Freedom so I don’t really have any other knocks on her. So, we’ll just leave it as is for now.

So taking these things into consideration, lets look at the ramifications of trading Cat for Lori (regardless of if this deal would actually take place).

• First off, Lori would slide into the midfield and would allow Sonia to slide back to her “natural” position of left side defender. Is a back line of Sonia, Nikki, Becky Sauerbrunn and Becca Moros a huge improvement over a back line of Cat, Nikki, Becky and Becca? I really can’t answer that.
• So how about the midfield? Would a midfield of Lori, Allie Long, Homare Sawa and Sarah Huffman be better than Sonia, Allie, Sawa and Sarah? Again, I don’t know if there is an obvious answer to that.
• With the loss of Cat, who would step up and be the vocal leader? In this scenario, I imagine it would be Lori given her experience with the USWNT. She seems like the natural fit, although she will also be the new kid in town so who knows how that would play out. Jim Gabarra has been very obvious in his emphasis on unity and this type of deal would disrupt it in more ways than just on-the-field.

While I like the idea, I think from the Freedom’s perspective this deal doesn’t clearly upgrade the team. I don’t think any obvious improvement is gained. Now, if at the end of the year the defense once again finishes last in the league in goals allowed, then something needs to be changed. And a dramatic trade like Cat for Lori just might be the answer.

Agree? Disagree? Have a different idea for a trade? Share it in the comments section.

Bookmark to:

By StarCityFan

Washington Freedom (4-2-1, 13 points, 2nd place) at FC Gold Pride (5-2-0, 15 points, 1st place)
Saturday, June 4, 10 p.m. EDT
Castro Valley High School Athletic Stadium, Castro Valley, Calif.
All-time series: Freedom hold 2-1-0 advantage, this is first meeting in 2010

By the numbers, the Freedom look great. Abby Wambach is having a career season with two goals and seven assists (that’s the WPS season assist record already with less than a third of the season played). Eight players have scored for the Freedom, who as usual have the most goals of any team in the league and more than the bottom three teams combined. If you ignore for the moment a late, meaningless goal on a goalkeeper fumble, the much-maligned Freedom defense has kept the nets clear for 315 minutes straight (that’s 3.5 matches).

On the other hand, the Freedom have had a cushy schedule so far. Out of seven matches, five have been at home and the two on the road have been against expansion teams. Four of the seven have been against the two teams currently at the bottom of the standings, Boston and Atlanta. So it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re in second place in the standings.

On Saturday night though, they take on the No. 1 team on the road. FC Gold Pride looked to be running away with the league as the Sol did last year until last weekend’s shocking upset by Chicago. Unfortunately for the Freedom, that means they’ll be highly motivated to right themselves this weekend.

Gold Pride this year is stacked from front to back. I haven’t worked the numbers myself, but a Gold Pride fan on BigSoccer claimed that his team could field a lineup that averaged 78 caps per player. That’s certainly believable.

At forward they have Marta, Christine Sinclair, Tiffeny Milbrett, and Kelley O’Hara. Marta needs no introduction. Sinclair is having a career year of her own, with three goals in six matches. Milbrett, with two goals, is proving to be almost as ageless as Kristine Lilly. And O’Hara the rookie has already scored once.

In the midfield, they’ll be missing Camille Abily, who’s out with an ankle injury, but they’ve compensated by  signing USWNT stalwart Shannon Boxx off the defunct St. Louis Athletica roster so there’s going to be little lost there. Alongside Boxx they have Norwegian national teamer Solveig Gulbrandsen, if she can play with her quad injury, and U-21 national teamer Kristen Graczyk. They’re actually a little thin with natural midfielders, but have compensated by using defenders Carrie Dew (U-23 national team) and Becky Edwards (U-23 and a former Freedom W-Leaguer) when necessary.

They can do that because at the back they have USWNT vet Rachel Buehler, Canadian national teamer Candace Chapman, and New Zealand national teamer Ali Riley. To top it all off, in goal is Nicole Barnhart, who could probably
start for any national team in the world that didn’t already have Hope Solo.

So it’s going to be a tough match. Erin McLeod, of course, needs to maintain her league-leading goals-against average  and not give up cheap goals like the aforementioned late one against Philadelphia. The Freedom back line needs to continue to hold strong, though I think the real key to shutting down opposing teams this year has been the play of holding midfielders Sarah Huffman and Allie Long. They’ve repeatedly prevented attacks with challenges in the midfield and aborted seemingly dangerous ones by swooping in deep in the defensive third to clear the ball away. And the Freedom will need yet another big match from Abby Wambach, with the players around her like Lene Mykjaland, Sonia Bompastor, and Homare Sawa (who’ll be back from World Cup qualifying) making plays off her feeds, and vice versa.

There’s no video broadcast, though Karyn Lush of WPS has said that she’ll be calling the game via audio. If you’re interested, I’d suggest visiting the WPS website shortly before 10 pm EDT to see how to hook up to that.

Bookmark to:

I must apologize for getting off of my publishing schedule the past few days – I’ve had company in town and haven’t had much time to put my thoughts down about the latest match.

Hopefully you have seen the score (2-0 Washington), read multiple recaps (1 and 2) and the highlights.

With that in mind, here is my list of thoughts from the match.

• Anyone who doubted Abby’s toughness before the match needs to reassess their thinking. No mask, no tape and no fear. It is obvious (and should have been before the match) that Abby is the one that drives this team. After last week’s shutout it’s good to see Abby get back in the scoring column and that the result of that was a win.
• The defense is finally in sync and now that it is, the Freedom should be a favorite the rest of the way. There are a couple of teams that can still compete with the Freedom but this team truly can beat anyone at any time.
• Erin McLeod is in one of the most underrated keepers in the league. The accolades and recognition often go to Hope Solo and Karina LeBlanc but Erin should be in any conversation about the league’s best GKs.
• The Freedom should only get better from here. Once Homare Sawa and Lisa De Vanna get back, the Freedom will have even more weapons to unleash on opponents. This will be one dangerous team.

As always, let me know what you thought of Sunday’s game.

Bookmark to: