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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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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Leave it to Abby Wambach.

On a roll since scoring that 100th international goal in Rochester last month, Abby was named the WPS Player of the Week for the third time this season after helping the Freedom secure the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.

Abby has been through a lot lately and it’s nice to see her finally getting back to where she was before last year’s leg injury. Congrats to Abby and here’s to hoping for another POTW-worthy performance again this week.

W-LEAGUE COMBINE PARTICIPANTS

The first set of participants for this year’s W-League combine have been named, which include 3 Freedom W-Leaguers – Brittany Tegeler, Katie Watson and Jesstine Wolfe. While this combine is not run by WPS, it will give WPS coaches a chance to look at potential players for next season. Of course if you are Jim Gabarra, you will get to see how close your own players are to being WPS ready as compared to others.

The most interesting thing about the Freedom participants has to be the fact that Tegeler and Watson were in camp with the WPS Freedom this year.

COMING UP ON THE BLOG

I haven’t been much for previews this year but I plan to change that this week as I will look back and ahead at the year vs. Sky Blue FC. I do plan on doing a full season recap, breaking down player, game and position performances but feel that nothing should be done in that regard until there are no more games left.

If you have any suggestions for what I should talk about, leave a suggestion in the comments or e-mail me at admin(at)freedominsider(dot)com.

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With only three games left in their season, this FFR is going to focus solely on the Freedom’s W-League side.

One point out of second first place in the Northeast Division, the Freedom face their toughest task of the season at the Maryland SoccerPlex on Thursday as they take on the only team to beat them this season – the division leading and currently unbeaten Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues.

Having lost to Hudson Valley 4-2 back on May 31, a win Thursday would be a huge step in locking up the division. The Freedom would still need to win their last two games (which luckily are both at home as well) to keep the slim lead they would get from a win Thursday but that is a lot more direct than hoping someone else beats Hudson Valley if the Freedom lose.

The winner of this matchup almost guarantees themselves the regular season W-League championship (again, provided they win out) and an automatic spot in the championship tournament.

What’s most amazing about this run the Freedom are making this year is the fact that this team was essentially picked clean. While a lot of players from last year’s team returned to college after the season, a lot of them were seniors and found themselves drafted by WPS teams back in January. Freedom W-League stalwarts such as Sarah Huffman, Alex Singer, Lori Lindsey, Emily Janss, Becky Sauerbrunn, etc. are all with the WPS Freedom now and others like Ella Masar and Nikki Krzysik are with other WPS teams.

The one thing Washington did have going for it though is the fact that the WPS franchise decided to maintain its connection to the W-League. Most WPS teams do have some connection with a local W-League team but none of them has the WPS coach directly coaching the W-League players like the Freedom have with Jim Gabarra. Gabarra is instilling the same system with both teams, which should help his W-League players make the jump to WPS. Of course, there is no way to protect those players as of yet so they are fair game to all WPS teams right now, but don’t be surprised if some sort of feeder system is put in place to protect this development for any team that heads down this road (it looks like Philly is doing something similar in the WPSL).

The other thing that seems to have benefited the Freedom is keeping players in the area once they have had a taste of the big club. After being released from the WPS roster in May, Jayme Leigh Cargnoni decided to play for the W-League side and has logged 134 minutes in 3 games played this season. Other players like Brittany Tegeler, Katie Watson, Kimmy Germain and actually participated in Washington’s WPS preseason camp but failed to make the final roster. Their contributions have been vital as Tegeler is second on the team in both goals, assists and points (8, 5 and 21, respectively) while Watson has played in all 11 of the team’s matches and Germain has played in 10.

Obviously, these are only a couple of the ladies making this team successful, but it is an important part.

With the recent struggles the WPS team has gone through (more on that in the preview of tomorrow’s game), it’s nice to see that at least one of the team’s wearing the Freedom badge is trying to build on the club’s championship tradition. And if you are looking for something to do on Thursday at 7 p.m., go cheer help them out by cheering them on as they try to do so.

Who knows, maybe next year a few of these names might be gracing a few WPS rosters.

Congrats to Sandiford, Osher

I know this is a little late but congrats to GK Chante Sandiford, who was named Player of the Week for Week 10 of the 2009 W-League season. Congrats also go to defender Mara Osher, who was also named to the Week 10 W-League Team of the Week.

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