Freedom Insider

From the league office this evening (of which I will have my reaction and possible implications for the Freedom tomorrow):

WPS Discontinues

Operations of Los Angeles Sol

Dispersal Draft Scheduled for Next Week

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (January 28, 2010) – After several weeks of negotiations with a potential new ownership group fell through at the last minute, Women’s Professional Soccer discontinued operations of the Los Angeles Sol on Thursday. The rights to the 19 players currently held by the Sol will be dispersed during a special draft for the league’s eight franchises on Thursday, February 4 and will be announced later in the day.

“While it’s regrettable to lose the Los Angeles market as part of our WPS footprint, we are pleased to have two new teams coming into the league in 2010,” said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. “The league and our ownership committee worked incredibly hard over the past month to complete the transaction. In the end, we ran out of time and came up short of where we needed to be funding-wise for the Sol in 2010.”

The Los Angeles Sol had been under custody of the league since late November when AEG gave back its ownership stake in the team to the league.

“Ownership changes are part of pro sports, particularly in a young league, and we have made solid progress in growing WPS from where we were last season,” said Antonucci. “We believe Los Angeles is a healthy, viable market for women’s pro soccer and a city where our league can again thrive with an LA franchise in the future.”

The league will now feature an even eight-team, single table format for the 2010 WPS Regular Season with more details of the 2010 WPS Season to be unveiled next week.

“All the team owners and members of the Board are confident that this setback will be quickly overcome by the exciting developments that the league has in store for the 2010 WPS Season,” said WPS Board Member and Atlanta Beat Chairman T. Fitz Johnson. “This includes two new franchises, the debut of a brand new stadium built specifically for WPS, a longer regular season and an even better product on the field with incoming talent from the college ranks and the many top internationals that have been signed in the off-season.Without question, this season is poised to build on our successful launch year.”

Several of the Los Angeles players, including WPS All-Stars Shannon Boxx and Marta, are signed to multi-year, guaranteed contracts, and are expected to play in WPS for the remainder of their contracts with other WPS teams following the dispersal draft.

The dispersal draft will be held next Thursday with the eight franchises selecting players from the Sol roster over three rounds in the following order:

Round 1
1.    Atlanta Beat
2.    Philadelphia Independence
3.    FC Gold Pride (Bay Area)
4.    Chicago Red Stars
5.    Boston Breakers
6.    Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY)
7.    Washington Freedom
8.    Saint Louis Athletica

Round 2
9.    Saint Louis Athletica
10.    Washington Freedom
11.    Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY)
12.    Boston Breakers
13.    Chicago Red Stars
14.    FC Gold Pride (Bay Area)
15.    Philadelphia Independence
16.    Atlanta Beat

Round 3
17.    Atlanta Beat
18.    Philadelphia Independence
19.    FC Gold Pride (Bay Area)
20.    Chicago Red Stars
21.    Boston Breakers
22.    Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY)
23.    Washington Freedom
24.    Saint Louis Athletica

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Because of all of the roster spots the Atlanta Beat filled last week and the trade between FC Gold Pride and Los Angeles, I thought it was a good time to once again update the Roster Tracker. Everything should be current and just in time for the WPS Draft on Friday.

If any other roster moves occur before the draft, make sure you check back Friday morning for the latest info.

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While most of the league remains silent, the Philadelphia Independence seem determined to challenge for the WPS title right away.

Just a couple of weeks after trading for last year’s No. 1 overall draft pick, Philly added to its defense by trading for LA Sol defender Allison Falk and backup goalkeeper Val Henderson. And according to The Equalizer, the team expects to announce the signing of Heather Mitts and is in pursuit of Carli Lloyd and Tina DiMartino. The moves leave Philly without any first round picks, but that is another discussion for another blog.

The only thing going on with the Freedom right now is a promise from the GM that the team is in talks with free agents. No one has any idea when/if any announcement will be made but Mark Washo has given Freedom fans something to speculate about now just by making a simple statement on Twitter.

So while we wait to see what will go down with the Freedom at the pro level, check out this article on how the Freedom are impacting the collegiate game (and yes, that was a pretty crappy transition). And once something does happen, we will have a response to it here.

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I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend and I apologize for not having posted anything since last Friday. I was hoping to have the next part in my season recap series up but I will probably wait until Friday. Meanwhile, I saw this item posted on the Women’s Soccer USA blog and wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts.

Before I talk about the content, I wanted to say that while it may drive us crazy that this “anonymous” blogger never really cites her sources, most of what she says often turns out to be true. I have an unconfirmed feeling this person is someone in the WPS league office, especially given the fact the blog posted nothing between March 5 and August 22. That said, onto the claims.

So again, if these claims are true, many teams could be headed for some big shakeups this offseason. Looks like things are a mess in the Bay Area if four internationals and a fifth player all want out. That does not bode well for FC Gold Pride.

Apparently finishing at the bottom of the standings didn’t bode well for Red Stars players either. Moving Carli Lloyd to Sky Blue FC or Philly would be a big get for either club and Lloyd would be the highest profile player traded yet.

One thing that is truly troubling from this article is the number of international players who look like they will not return. Between the four from FCGP, three from Chicago and Han Duan from LA, the talent the league worked so hard to secure is now leaving in droves. I wonder if some of the same things that kept Lene Mykjaland away from the Freedom last year have now driven these players away. I guess it would be possible some of these players want to stay in the U.S., but the wording in the post makes it sound like Frida Ostberg, Caroline Jonsson and Duan are not coming back to WPS.

The last piece of info, according to this blog, is that Philly will make Sweden’s Caroline Seger the No. 1 pick in the International Draft.

I realize there isn’t much (any) Freedom specific news in my post this morning but given the rumors floating around, that is a good thing. That said, don’t be surprised to hear of a Freedom transaction or two this offseason. With Jim Gabarra running things you know there is something up his sleeve he’s just waiting to pull. I thought he would’ve done something last year to land Christie Welsh or something but he hasn’t showed that card yet.

The expansion draft is a little over 6 days away, so sit back and enjoy the ride. Things should really start to heat up once Philly and Atlanta get some players. In the meantime, leave a comment and start a discussion on these rumors or any others you might have heard.

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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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