Freedom Insider

By StarCityFan

Washington Freedom (4-5-5, 17 points, 4th place) at FC Gold Pride (11-3-1, 34 points, 1st place)
Saturday, July 24, 7 p.m. EDT
Maryland SoccerPlex, Boyds, Md.
All-time series: Even at 2-2-1
Last meeting: Gold Pride 3, Freedom 2

FC Gold Pride and the Freedom have been going in opposite directions since I wrote the preview for their last meeting: the league leaders have won three in a row to pad their lead, while the Freedom have lost two, holding at the same number of standings points. The Freedom in fact have not won a match since downing the Philadelphia Independence, 2-1, at the SoccerPlex on May 30.

With only 10 games left in the season, it’s crunch time. Starting today, Washington plays four games in 12 days that could decide its postseason fate. By the end of the evening on Aug. 4, the Freedom could at best have 29 points, likely good enough for second place and close to clinching a playoff spot, or they could still be mired at 17 points and needing to win most or all of their remaining games to reach the postseason.

Having to play the first-place team in that situation does not bode well, and against Team Marta (Sol last year, Gold Pride this year), Washington is 0-4-1. However, the Freedom did put on a battle the last time these teams faced each other, roaring back from a 3-0 deficit with two late goals to make the game competitive. And I may be a bit biased, but I think that if Kari Seitz had been refereeing that match, Gold Pride would have finished the game with 9 or 10 players. Seitz, you might remember, had the guts to red-card Los Angeles Sol defender Allison Falk in last year’s championship for fouling Natasha Kai when she was the last defender able to interfere with Kai’s attack on goal. Unfortunately for the Freedom, this referee was not so bold, despite one brazen foul and several very arguable ones in similar situations.

Again, I’d like to see Nikki Marshall up top. She gave the Gold Pride back line fits even in the few minutes she played in the prior match, scoring one goal and threatening repeatedly. With Abby Wambach back, that should give the Freedom the “lightning-and-thunder” combination they’ve been missing ever since Lisa De Vanna broke her leg. Lene Mykjåland, alas, has not been living up to expectations – I keep wondering if our Scandinavian is having issues with the heat of this miserable summer.

Sarah Huffman and Allie Long are back from national team camp and should bolster the midfield. If Marshall plays forward, Kristi Eveland will be in the back line, as she was in the previous game against Boston. The defense needs to hang tough for the full 90 minutes, though I think the key won’t be shutting Gold Pride down (practically impossible with Marta, Christine Sinclair and Tiffeny Milbrett up front) so much as scoring enough goals to stay ahead of them. So I’m hoping for an old-fashioned Washington Freedom 4-3 barnburner. Let’s see if they can chalk up their first-ever win against Team Marta.

P.S. There was a preview of last weekend’s Boston Breakers match, but it vanished in the ether somewhere between my email and the website.

[Note from Jim: It is lost somewhere in the website - I had it all ready to go, hit publish and it vanished. I was away from my computer all day Sunday so I couldn't fix the problem and have been traveling since then so my apologies to StarCityFan and all the readers.]

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By StarCityFan

I like to think I don’t have high demands as a fan. Having followed the Freedom since 2001, I’ve been with them through two championships (2003 and 2007), a magical season that fell just short of a championship (2002), and many other less momentous but still enjoyable periods. I’d like to see them add a WPS championship to their trophy case someday, but it doesn’t have to be this season, or even next season. All I ask is that they play hard and have some measure of success. Or, to put it more succinctly, don’t suck.

The Freedom sucked Saturday night in West Chester. I could go into the gory details of how they seemed completely overmatched for the last half-hour, how they looked like the team that was playing their third match in eight days, not the Independence, as they lost race after race to the ball, and how the third, losing goal seemed almost inevitable the way they were playing, but I don’t want to write it, and unless you’re a Philly fan, you don’t want to read it.

However, I am going to gird my loins and talk about the implications. Any team can have a bad night, but the Freedom are having them on a regular basis. This marks the third match in a row and the fourth this season that Washington has scored first but has been unable to hold on for the win. The Freedom have done well in that in their nine matches that have had goals, they’ve scored first in all but one of them. But their record in those matches is a lackluster 4-2-2. By comparison, FC Gold Pride is 7-0-0 when they score first. If the Freedom had done likewise, they’d be the team at the top of the standings.

To put things in perspective, comebacks have been very rare. Teams that score first are 25-3-7 in WPS this year and were 52-3-10 last year.* Making matters worse, twice in three games the Freedom have been unable to come away with a win despite a two-goal lead. I was thinking this was unprecedented, but then remembered the match last year where the Freedom were down 3-1 to Saint Louis Athletica but managed to eke out two goals for the tie. Still, it shouldn’t happen.

*Two of this year’s losses are the Freedom’s, of course, while the third is the Breakers yielding to Sky Blue FC two weeks ago. Last year, the Freedom and the Red Stars split comebacks, with the third being the L.A. comeback against Boston that knocked them out of the playoffs.

So why is this happening, and what should the team do about it? On paper, the Freedom look solid defensively. We have one of the best goalkeepers in the league, two all-stars and our top draft pick on the back line, and two solid holding midfielders in front of them in Sarah Huffman and Allie Long. Rebecca Moros’s resume is less impressive, but that’s no reason to make her the scapegoat.

Online discussions have suggested putting in true defenders like Kristi Eveland and Alex Singer rather than converted attacking players like Nikki Marshall and Moros. I can’t say that I have any solid solutions, but Jim Gabarra and the team urgently need to come up with a solution as they approach the midpoint of the season. You’d have thought that before now, though – in fact, what rankles the most about this match is that after the last visit to West Chester, everyone had to be thinking, “Never again!” How does “again” happen despite that attitude?

If this can be fixed, I think the team, with all its offensive weapons, has a shot at the regular season championship. As things stand, the Freedom seem to be mired in the second tier, ahead of struggling teams like the Breakers and Red Stars, but behind the league leaders FCGP and Independence, and yet to have to deal with the defending champions SBFC and the recently revamped “Atlantica” Beat.

P.S. You might wonder how a season can be magical if it doesn’t include a championship. I could write essays on the marvels of the 2002 season (and have), but I’ll just point out here that the Freedom had four comeback wins that year, including one to clinch a playoff spot.

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In case you missed it last week, WPS released the full schedule for 2010. And while there are a couple of times still being sorted out (the last two weeks are flex games for Fox Soccer Channel, allowing them to pick the best matchups those weeks) it is pretty safe to say the last big piece of the 2010 puzzle has finally been placed.

I don’t want to make too much of the actual games themselves because the big games will be determined as the season progresses, but I did want to share a couple of things that stand out on the Freedom’s schedule.

• This had been revealed previously but for the second season in a row, the Freedom will be in the opening match. However, this time around they will only play one day before everyone else as opposed to playing a week before everyone else and then having a bye.
• It looks like another doubleheader with D.C. United is in the works on May 1, the only dates both clubs are in town. Currently the place and time are TBD.
• The Freedom will have five FSC appearances and this year they are a little more spread out. Last year FSC showed most of the team’s early matches (which was bad because the team got off to a pretty bad start)  and after a July 5 match against Los Angeles, didn’t see show the Freedom again until the playoffs.
• The All-Star game has been moved to June 30, an odd time considering most teams will have played 3-4 days before and get back to work 3-4 days after.
• The July 4 game against Sky Blue FC will be a tough sell, even with the defending champs. Hopefully the team gets some fireworks lined up for the families it hopes to attract to that game.
• Once again the team gets a rough schedule towards the end of the season with the Freedom playing three road games in 11 days. Add in that the second game of the trip is out to California and the team could be pretty wiped by the time the third game finishes in St. Louis.
• The Freedom will get plenty of looks at the expansion franchises as they play the Beat and Independence four times each and every other WPS team three times. In most sports that would be a good thing but looking at the way Atlanta and Philly are built, they may not be your typical expansion clubs.

This schedule should make for an entertaining 2010 and hopefully it will end in a longer playoff run than 2009.

Finally, one day after announcing the signing of Christie Welsh, the club announced 2010 first round pick Nikki Marshall has signed. Only a couple of spots remain on the 2010 roster.

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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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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.

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