Freedom Insider

I discussed this topic a little in my recap of Sunday’s loss, but it’s something that I’ve heard being discussed a lot lately so I thought I would delve into the topic a little more. Can anyone out there tell me what’s going on with Alex Singer?

The No. 8 overall pick in the 2009 WPS Draft, Singer was a key piece on last year’s Freedom backline, starting 13 of 16 games for a total of 1,143 minutes. Granted, her playing time tapered off as the season went on but a lot of that seemed to be due to a concussion she suffered midseason. She had played every minute of every game to that point and seemed adept at holding her own against the top-level talent in this league.

At the conclusion of the season, Singer seemed to be in good enough shape that she went with F Lisa De Vanna to play in Australia’s W-League and from all accounts it seems she played well there. And she seemed to be doing well enough that she earned a spot on the Freedom’s protected list. In fact, it seemed more people were concerned about why we were keeping Allie Long over Lori Lindsey.

So, if Singer was considered one of the 10 best players on the team at the time of expansion, what happened since then? She has logged only 60 minutes in 4 games played, and was one of only two players not to play last week when the team was extremely short-handed.

I don’t know how much sense it makes to shake up a defense that has produced 4 shutouts already but given the fact that the Freedom have struggled to score since learning De Vanna broke her leg while on Australian National Team duty, it seems like it might make sense to move Rebecca Moros or Nikki Marshall up top so Lene Mykjaland and Christie Welsh can revert back to their roles coming off the bench since they seem to be more productive in that sense.

Moving Moros or Marshall would then open a spot on the backline and given Singer’s experience starting with Cat Whitehill and Becky Sauerbrunn last year, doesn’t that seem like it would be a natural evolution of the lineup? The one wrinkle to all this is it seems Kristi Eveland has earned the role as the first defender off the bench but maybe it makes more sense to keep the rookie in that role and see if Singer still has what it takes to contribute to this squad. If she can’t, then maybe she needs to be the next one to go.

I hate sitting here at my computer and second-guessing Jim Gabarra’s decision not to play Singer because truthfully I have no idea what is going on behind-the-scenes. It could very well be that Singer suffered an injury in practice at some point and isn’t fit to play or it could be that she really has fallen that low on the depth chart. But since I can’t find any mention of either of things, I can only sit her and postulate on what I know. And what I know is Alex Singer used to be considered a top defender on this team and now she isn’t.

Hopefully as Gabarra continues to tinker with his lineup in an effort to jump start his club, he will keep Singer in mind. And hopefully if I’m missing something really obvious in this situation, someone will be kind enough to let me know.

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By StarCityFan

Washington Freedom (4-2-3, 15 points, 3rd place) at Philadelphia Independence (5-3-3, 18 points, 2nd place)
Saturday, June 26, 6 p.m. EDT
John A. Farrell Stadium, West Chester University, West Chester, PA
All-time series: Tied at 1-1. Freedom won last meeting 2-1 on May 30

Philadelphia’s head coach Paul Riley has to be the front-runner for WPS Coach of the Year at this point. He’s taken other team’s cast-offs, interspersed them with some outstanding but previously unclaimed internationals, and produced a collection of players who don’t realize they’re supposed to be sitting at the bottom of the league like a proper expansion team.

The Independence, in fact, are in second place in the league, four points behind FC Gold Pride and three ahead of the Freedom, though it must be pointed out that they’ve played one more match than the former and two more than the latter.

Two key players in this surge are Lori Lindsey and Amy Rodriguez, neither of whom had great success with their original teams last year. Lindsey was a decent but not outstanding midfielder for the Freedom in 2009, finishing with two goals and an assist. There are many fans who objected to her being left unprotected in the draft, but I think few would argue that she would have prospered in Jim Gabarra’s system to the extent she has in Riley’s. For Philly she already has two goals and five assists, behind only Abby Wambach in the latter category, and was named the WPS Player of the Month for April.

Rodriguez’s turnaround has been even more impressive. Highly touted as WPS’s very first pick in the general draft, she accomplished very little in 2009, scoring a mere one goal under Tony DiCicco’s tutelage. For Philly, she has three goals and two assists just in her last four matches. She’s in a tie for second-place in the league in goal-scoring with four and is in fifth place in assists with three. She was named the WPS Player of the Week in Week 8 for her goal and assist against Sky Blue FC.

Another player to watch is the statuesque Allison Falk, perhaps the only player in the league who can compete with Wambach for headers, and who has two goals and an assist despite being a central defender. Internationals of note include forward Lianne Sanderson of England, midfielder Caroline Seger of Sweden, and Canadian goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc.

And when those players are unavailable, you have someone like Danesha Adams coming out of the woodwork. With many of the European internationals away for qualifying, Adams got her first extensive playing time of 2010 against SBFC last weekend and came through with a goal and an assist.

In fact, one factor that might make the Freedom’s job easier is that the Indies will be playing their third match in eight days, while the Freedom are coming off a bye week. If endurance becomes any sort of factor, the Freedom should come out ahead. A win would put the Freedom into a tie for second with two games in hand and keep them from getting too far behind FCGP.

Freedom Roster Changes

Rather than review the Freedom players and what they need to do yet again, I’ll share yesterday’s exciting news on the roster front. I’ll get the depressing stuff out of the way first, as Lisa De Vanna and Briana Scurry have been diagnosed with season-ending injuries (leg and head, respectively) and will not be back this year. On the positive side, rookie M Beverly Goebel has been rewarded with an upgrade to a full roster slot for her very capable performances this season. And to fill the developmental slot left open by that move, the Freedom have signed 2009 WPS All-Star and fan favorite Brittany Klein.

Klein is one of those players who’s very easy to root for. At only 5’3″, she lacks the size and strength to get her way through brute force, but she works hard and gives her all on the field every game. A Red Stars fan on Big Soccer commented, “If the rest of this team played with half the intensity of Brittany Klein, we’d be talking of a repeat title.” Touted as an extremely accurate passer as well, she had the most minutes of any Chicago player last year, scoring one goal and three assists from her midfielder position. I would not be at all surprised to see her contribute similarly to the Freedom during the remainder of the season.

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By StarCityFan

I have just a bit of nostalgia for the pre-WPS days at the SoccerPlex: the hamburgers were delicious, freshly grilled right in front of you and then delivered straight to your bun, the crowds were small and quiet enough that you could hear everything the players said on the field, and best of all, you pretty much knew Washington was going to win. Sunday night was a repeat of this experience (minus the burgers, alas), as the Washington Freedom Futures easily downed the Hampton Roads Piranhas, 5-0.

The Piranhas are a storied team, one of the founding members of the W-League and the 2003 champions. They’ve featured players like Angela Hucles, Christie Welsh, Amy Taylor, Lori Lindsey and Kele Golebiowski. So far this year though, they’re 1-4-2 and in fourth place in the five-team Atlantic Division.

They didn’t even have to face the Futures’ best. After playing Friday night, Washington rested most of its starters and put in the B-team, captained by the team’s youngest player, 18-year-old Molly Menchel, who doesn’t even start college until this fall. Even then it took only four minutes for the team to score, as Hayley Siegel received the ball off a short corner and crossed it to Meghan Lenczyk, who headed it in. Twelve minutes later, Shannon Foley fell when in contact with a defender on the left side of the box. It looked marginal to me, but the referee awarded a penalty kick. Foley took it herself and slid it into the left corner for a 2-0 lead.

In the 29th minute, Menchel made a run down the right side and centered a ball to Foley right outside the goalmouth. Foley was able to turn and touch the ball in for the third goal.

The rest of the game was somewhat more even, as the Piranhas stepped up for most of the rest of the first half, and the Futures dialed it back, particularly in the second half. As time wore on, most of the play took place within the width of the penalty box, and there was no more scoring until the 79th minute when Menchel intercepted the Piranhas’ goalkeeper’s punt, drove in to the corner of the box, and unleashed a hard low shot that the goalkeeper managed to dive and get in the way of, but the ball spun over her and went on into the net.

Head coach Win Puffer had put much of the A-team back in by that point, but they seemed to have little effect on the run of play, though the Futures did get a final tally from Lenczyk, who sent it in from the opposite corner of the box after receiving a feed from Kika Toulouse.

The final result was 5-0, though in the Piranhas’ defense it should be said that they likewise had had to play earlier in the weekend, and with a shorter roster, did not have the luxury of being able to start a lineup of mostly rested players.

Lenczyck finished with two goals, Foley had two as well (one off the PK), and Menchel scored a goal and an assist.

The Futures have yet to give up a goal at home and, with a 4-0-1 record, are now in sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division. They’re tied with the Atlanta Silverbacks as the teams with the best record in the W-League among those that have played at least four matches (Ottawa and Laval have won all of their games so far, but they’ve only played 3 and 2, respectively).

However, Washington will face their toughest match of the regular season next weekend, as they take on their division rivals, the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues, on the road in Newburgh, NY.

The Futures have two more regular-season matches at the Soccerplex, on Saturday, July 10, at 1 pm against the New Jersey Wildcats, and the following day at 6 pm against the North Jersey Valkyries. The former promises to be the most competitive home match of the season, as the Wildcats and Futures played to a hardfought 3-3 draw on the Wildcats’ home turf. So if you only make one W-League match this year, that would be the one.

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By StarCityFan

The Freedom have now completed eight games of their 24-game season. Let’s take a minute to see where things stand.

Washington has a 4-2-2 record for 14 standings points, tied with Philadelphia for second place in the league. As usual, they’ve scored the most goals as well as given up the most. They’ve played five home matches with a 3-1-1 record and three road matches with a 1-1-1 record, and they have a five-game unbeaten streak going. During those five matches, they’ve given up only three goals after giving up six during the prior three games.

However, their schedule has been fairly easy up to this point, with five home matches and all but one road match against expansion teams. So, really, they ought to be in second place or better. Most of the results so far haven’t been a particular surprise. The exceptions would be losing to the Breakers in the opener and tying FC Gold Pride in the most recent game. Boston’s win is the only one the Breakers have managed this season, while the latest match is the first home game FCGP hasn’t won outright this year. (The loss in Philadelphia was a surprise at the time, but considering how well the Independence have been doing overall, it’s not much of a shock in retrospect.)

Looking ahead, I’m figuring that it’s going to take around 32 standings points to make the playoffs, and, lo and behold, the Freedom are almost halfway there only a third of the way into the season. However, the going gets tougher the rest of the way. So how hard will it be for DC to make the postseason again?

After looking at their remaining schedule, I want to split it into two eight-game chunks. However, the chunks aren’t contiguous, so let me explain.

The toughest part of the Freedom schedule is the 8-game stretch from July 11 through August 14. Only two of these games are at home, with six on the road, and the two home matches are both against teams at the top of the standings: FCGP and the Independence. The road matches include two more in the Bay Area, two against Boston, and one each against Atlanta and Sky Blue FC. I’m figuring, somewhat pessimistically, that the Freedom will go a mere 1-5-2 in this stretch, picking up only five standings points during this “hump” third of the season.

On the other hand, look at the two four-game “shoulder” sequences before and after this difficult patch. Of the next four games, two are at home against the Chicago Red Stars, arguably the most inept of the non-expansion teams this season. The two road matches are against Philadelphia and SBFC. The Independence have been surprisingly formidable, while the defending champions have been surprisingly vulnerable, saved at times only by the brilliant play of their backup goalkeeper, Karen Bardsley. So I’m figuring the Freedom can go 2-1-1 here, winning both home games and tying one of the road games, for seven standings points.

Finally, at the end of the season, three out of four matches are at the Soccerplex (Red Stars, SBFC, Beat), and the only away game is against Chicago. So let’s be optimistic and believe that the Freedom will finish strong, as they did last year, with three wins and a four-game unbeaten streak. That’s a record of 3-0-1 for another 10 standings points.

If you add all that up, you get 36 points, which should be enough not just for a playoff spot but for a home playoff match.

Of course, it’s not going to happen this cleanly. The Freedom will get upset at home but (one hopes) steal some points on the road. This outline might be better used as a guideline for what’s needed and for expectations. Don’t panic if the Freedom go into a midseason slump during the toughest part of their schedule – if they get any more than five points out of that stretch they’re doing well. On the other hand, if they don’t go into that stretch with at least 20 standings points, then they’re going to need more than five out of it.

To conclude, here’s a glance at each of the other teams, in standings order:

FC Gold Pride – Few people are surprised that the team that collected Marta and Camille Abily from last year’s first-place Los Angeles Sol is doing well. Christine Sinclair having a career year doesn’t hurt, either. The WPS’s only West Coast team lost their opener, then won five in a row before being upset by the Red Stars and then tying the Freedom. Their schedule has been balanced (four at home, four away, opponents neither easy nor difficult), so their record seems to have been come by fairly. They’re clearly the team to beat this year.

Philadelphia Independence – By contrast, many people are surprised that an expansion team is in second place at this point. Philly has one of the best playmaking midfielders in the league in Lori Lindsey (am I going to start sounding like a stuck record if I use the phrase “career year” one more time?), top defenders in Heather Mitts and Allison Falk, and not just one but two of the best goalkeepers in Val Henderson and Karina LeBlanc. They got off to a slow start with two draws (one scoreless), but then won four of their next six games. They’ve likewise had a balanced schedule so far, and face a big test this weekend as FCGP comes to play them at West Chester, their first matchup against the league leaders.

Sky Blue FC – The defending champions haven’t been living up to their title, but they’ve been plagued by absences for medical reasons (I’d say injuries, but I think Christie Rampone would take offense). Key players injured have included Natasha Kai, Carli Lloyd and Jenni Branam, with Rampone having just returned from maternity leave. As mentioned before, goalkeeper Bardsley has kept them in the hunt with some sensational performances (“career season”, yadda yadda). They’ve also had a comparatively tough schedule, with five away games to only three home games, and two matches against FCGP already. If they can get healthy, one has to figure they’ll be doing better. At this point, you have to think that these three teams, plus the Freedom, are the ones to expect to see in the 2010 playoffs.

Chicago Red Stars – After firing their coach, the Red Stars rebounded by upsetting FCGP but then played the Atlanta Beat to a scoreless tie. Scoring is a problem (only four goals this season), while the defense and the unsung Jillian Loyden in goal have kept opponents to a league-leading minimum six goals. Their schedule has been easy in some ways but difficult in others: five home games to three away, but they’ve have had to play FCGP twice and St. Louis and Philly once each. The team has more than enough firepower in Kosovare Asllani, Karen Carney, Cristiane and Casey Nogueira to singe the nets if Omid Namazi, their new coach, can light a fire under them. But that remains to be seen.

Boston Breakers – The Breakers have only played seven games to most other teams’ eight, but that doesn’t fully explain their next-to-last position. They haven’t won since their opener against the Freedom. The schedule has been a little on the difficult side: three home, four away, matches against Athletica, FCGP and their nemesis SBFC, whom they’ve never beaten. With four All-Stars on the roster and a future Hall of Fame coach, they should be in contention. Hard to say why they’re not.

Atlanta Beat - So which team has the most players on the All-Star starting roster? Believe it or not, it’s Atlanta, with six. Of course, five of those are recently signed Athletica refugees. (Athletica would be leading with six if they still existed.) Atlanta has been the classic inept expansion team so far this season, with no wins and only two ties in seven matches. It didn’t help that their first four matches were on the road while waiting for their home stadium to be finished, but even at home they’ve struggled, having yet to score a goal in their new stadium. Their schedule has been very unbalanced against them, with only two home games out of seven, and five matches against the top three teams in the league. As a result, they’ll have an easier run the rest of the way. If they can get a shot in the arm from an injection of most of the best Athletica players, then they might climb into the playoff competition. But it’ll be an uphill battle.

The bottom line is that there’s more than enough talent to go around, and with only seven teams each one has a decent share. Before Athletica’s demise, you could have argued that Atlanta didn’t have the talent to compete, but now that they’re “Atlantica,” that’s not going to wash. So, barring a rash of injuries, it becomes a question of who wants it the most, who is the most confident and who can work together as a team the best, rather than the accumulated sheer ability on the roster. The Freedom don’t have a whole lot of marquee names, but they do seem to be pulling together behind Abby Wambach, who’s having a season for the ages. Let’s see who can match them.

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Last year one of the biggest benefactors of the exposure she received in WPS was the Freedom’s Sonia Bompastor. Even to the most die hard fans she was a relative unknown, in part because the French National Team hasn’t had much International success.

When I talked to fans about Sonia before she arrived the most anyone could tell me was that she was a defender from France. But just a few weeks after the start of the 2009 season that all changed and Sonia was one of the most talked about player in the league, mainly because people were literally in awe of how good she was and how much she meant to the Freedom.

And Sonia wasn’t the only player. Former Freedom M Lori Lindsey had only 1 cap with the USWNT before WPS began, and that cap was back in 2004. But with one solid season of helping orchestrate the best attack in the league (at least in terms of goals scored) and Lindsey found herself back in USWNT camp.

With that in mind I would like to present the latest player deserving of a moment in the spotlight – D Becky Sauerbrunn.

Becky is THE ironwoman of WPS – she has played every minute of every game for the Freedom. USWNT legend Kristine Lilly has been another ironwoman in WPS but her streak ended when she was subbed out in last Saturday’s 0-0 tie at the SoccerPlex, leaving Becky as the last woman standing.

And while minutes played may not be the most descriptive stat, I would imagine that if Becky hadn’t been pulling her weight at any point in time she would’ve been subbed out. We all know Jim Gabarra is not afraid to try something new if it will put a W on the board.

Like Lori, Becky had a brief stint with the USWNT, representing the team at the 2008 Algarve Cup in Portugal. Becky earned 2 caps during the tournament but has not appeared with the team since. It’s true the USWNT is loaded with many fine defenders, but Becky should get a chance to prove herself again.

Hopefully as the season wears on Becky’s consistency will stand out as a reason for the Freedom defense improving. She’s certainly put in the time to be recognized for such.

Other News Items

I have been trying to refrain from just posting links posts so in a continuation of that effort, here are a couple of links you should check out:

• Talent aplenty in Washington Freedom midfield (Potomac Soccer Wire) – Great primer piece on each of the Freedom’s midfielders and what skills they bring to the table.
• Freedom’s FIRST Shutout and My FIRST Blog Entry (soccer365.com) – Cat Whitehill now has a soccer-related blog. So for those of you who are more interested in her soccer thoughts as opposed to her college football thoughts, be sure to regularly check in with this blog.
• Washington Freedom Goal Keeper Erin McLeod to Choose Home Team or Homeland (Washington Freedom homepage) – No Pele-style split squad action for GK Erin McLeod when the Freedom face the Canadian National Team on May 23. Erin gets the unenviable task of choosing to play for her team or her country. Which one would you choose? Stay tuned.
• Finally, it looks like Ali Krieger’s time in Germany is finally paying off as she was named to the 22 player roster for the friendly with Germany in Cleveland. Krieger has played for both FFC Frankfurt and the Freedom in between injuries and it now seems like she is healthy enough to try and continue her USWNT career. Hopefully at some point she will stop renewing her German contract to once again play for the Freedom.

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