Freedom Insider

The Washington Freedom announced its 28-woman preseason roster yesterday along with the preseason schedule, so while the team is getting ready for 2010 down in Dodgertown, I figured it was a good time to look at who is on the roster. If you want a complete list of rosters, WPS web guru Amanda Vandervort has a full list of links on her personal blog.

Also, I want to apologize for the state of the Roster Tracker but the Sol disbanding really screwed things up. I am trying to find a way to display all of the rosters, along with the way each player was acquired by its current team without making it look like a fourth grader took a highlighter to my spreadsheet, highlighting everything but the conjunctions like “and” and “but.”

Ok, here’s the roster (from the Freedom’s site, most of which we already knew):

2010 28-Player Preseason Roster

(Players with numbers listed after their name are in attendance at the Florida Preseason Camp)

1. Marisa Abegg – 27

2. Brittany Bock – 5

3. Sonia Bompastor – 8

4. Mary Casey

5. Kristi Eveland – 23

6. Jill Gilbeau – 3

7. Beverly Goebel – 6

8. Sarah Huffman – 14

9. Christen Karniski

10. Madison Keller – 26

11. Allie Long – 9

12. Nikki Marshall – 17

13. Meagan McCray – 0

14. Erin McLeod – 18

15. Caitlin Miskel – 12

16. Rebeca Moros – 19

17. Mara Osher – 24

18. Lauren Robertson

19. Becky Sauerbrunn – 22

20. Homare Sawa

21. Briana Scurry – 1

22. Alex Singer – 21

23. Brittany Tegeler

24. Lisa De Vanna – 11

25. Abby Wambach – 20

26. Christie Welsh – 13

27. Cat Whitehill – 4

28. Jaimel Johnson – 2

I can’t say I’m terribly surprised by any of the names on the list and it’s good to see that some of our homegrown players such as Christen Karniski, Brittany Tegeler and Madison Keller are getting another chance to stick with the team. Karniski and Keller were both developmental players last year while Tegeler was among the final roster cuts from preseason last year.

Looking at some of the other rosters I can’t helped but feel that the Freedom failed to improve as much as every other team this offseason. The unexpected addition of Bock certainly offsets what was a quiet offseason for the Freedom but with teams FC Gold Pride adding Marta and Camille Abily, Saint Louis adding Aya Miyama, Shannon Boxx and Lindsey Tarpley and the Independence acquiring Karina LeBlanc, Heather Mitts, Lori Lindsey and Amy Rodriguez, I can’t help but think how much tougher the league will be this year and I am already questioning if this roster will be strong enough to hang with these revamped squads.

New faces popping up on the roster this preseason include Marisa Abegg (drafted by FC Gold Pride in 2009) and goalkeepers Mary Casey (former GK for Maryland who was drafted by LA one week before the team disbanded), Meagan McCray (another FC Gold Pride castoff) and Jamiel Johnson (formerly of the Breakers and Red Stars). I have no idea what the team needs so many goalkeepers for in camp but I bet at least one of this group makes the team as the developmental keeper unless 5th round pick Lauren Robertson can outplay them all.

Names that are noticeably absent? Freedom Futures GM Joanna Lohman (in camp with Philly, don’t know what that’s about), goalkeeper KJ Spisak (in camp in her hometown of St. Louis) and midfielder Kristin DeDycker.

One final roster note of interest for former WUSA Washington Freedom fans – midfielder Jen Grubb is in camp with Sky Blue FC.

To keep up with the Freedom while the players are away, make sure you are checking out the team’s official blog. Here is a quick recap of Day 1. And for those of you looking for WPS Fantasy Soccer, apparently that is on the way as well.

Now that you’ve heard what I think about the preseason roster, tell me your thoughts. Is there anyone your surprised to see isn’t back? Do you have any concerns about having six goalkeepers in camp? Let me know in the comments section below.

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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.

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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.

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The last time these two teams played – only a couple of weeks ago – it set me off on a rant about how I think Washington-Chicago is the first league-grown rivalry in WPS.

Given the opportunity to finish a game at full strength, the struggling Red Stars did what every good rival does, rises to the occasion to give the other team all it can handle (and in this case Chicago became the first team in WPS history to erase a deficit and come away with win).

Makes you wonder what would have happened if those other games had been finished at full strength. I’m not going to go into the game itself – if you need info check out the WPS story here – but as you know, I will offer my thoughts on what happens next.

First, it was nice to see Abby Wambach get back on the board. That was much needed and hopefully that gives Abby the confidence she will need this weekend when finishing against Karina LeBlanc of LA, who has made more than one great save against Abby.

Allie Long has had one roller coaster of a season but it seems the team is lost without her. The Freedom have won games without Sonia Bompastor, without Abby and without Erin McLeod (although not many) but the team has struggled since Long broke her toe. Apparently she has more of an effect on the team than we thought.

The Freedom have now lost two straight heading into their final matchup with LA. The Sol have beaten the Freedom twice by a combined score of 5-0 but both of those games had the Freedom making the cross country flight to LA. Will that flight have any affect on the outcome this Sunday? If the Freedom continue to play like they have the last two games, then probably not. I still think Homare Sawa needs to step up on the offensive end for the team to even have a chance but I will get more into that in the next day or two.

And on a slight tangent, according to Steve Goff of the Washington Post, Wednesday’s move to waive Joanna Lohman was to clear a roster spot for Sarah Huffman, who went down the first week of preseason with an ACL injury. There is a hope that Huffman will be back in time for the playoffs and she could be a spark for the team at that point. Of course, the Freedom need to remain in contention in order for that plan to work. The idea is for Huffman to help ease the loss of Sonia Bompastor, who would miss the playoffs and All-Star game for the European Championship.

This is an important stretch for the Freedom (of course what stretch of the season isn’t important) and how they respond Sunday will give us a realistic view of what the team could accomplish if they even make it to the playoffs. Of course maybe getting to the playoffs in the third of fourth position is a safer proposition if you believe in curses.

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Washington (4-4-4, 16 points) at Chicago (2-6-5, 11 points)
Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
Watch online

The third installment of this budding WPS rivalry (I will work on a real name, or if you have one leave it below) takes place tonight and for the first time it will be played in Chicago. In the last two matches the Red Stars have finished a player down but have battled to keep the game a tie.

Washington needs this match to keep things close in the battle for second place in the standings and also needs a win on Sunday against the Sol to prevent LA from sewing up the league during the first week of July. Meanwhile, Chicago has had two stretches of more than 300 minutes between scoring goals and is struggling to stay out of the WPS basement.

The key to this game will once again be the goalkeepers. WPS Player of the Month nominee Erin McLeod has locked down the defense with the addition of Ali Krieger and the move of Sonia Bompastor to the back line but it has come at the cost of the offense.

Rebecca Moros and Lisa De Vanna have been bright spots on the Freedom front line but the midfield has been a mess. Things will continue to be cloudy in the midfield as Allie Long is still out with a broken toe and the team just waived Joanna Lohman.

This game is bound to be a physical contest and I believe that for the Freedom to succeed, Abby Wambach and Homare Sawa need to finally step up. Abby takes on a lot of the pressure for the failures of the Freedom given her name recognition, her status with the Women’s national team and her history in Washington but other than her two-goal game, Wambach has not been the offensive player Jim Gabarra has needed. Until now it hasn’t been detrimental to the team but it could be down the stretch. And now that Sawa is taking on more of an offensive midfield role as opposed to the defensive one she has been playing, it is time for her to show why she is one of the most dangerous offensive players in the world.

Given Chicago’s struggles of late, I think this is a game that Washington can win (of course when the Freedom are on I think they can beat anyone but that is another story) especially if everything finally clicks. No more final score predictions but I am predicting a Freedom win.

And to kill a couple of minutes until then, check out these Father’s Day tributes (yes, a few weeks late) from a couple of Freedom players.

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