The first home playoff match in professional Freedom history will be a rematch of last weekend. I have mixed feelings about this: on the one hand, we handled Sky Blue easily last Saturday. On the other hand, at this level it's hard to beat a team twice in a row. They're going to be motivated, and we're liable to be overconfident. Sonia Bompastor won't be in the lineup. I can see two possible alternatives: 1. Start Allie Long (or maybe even Sarah Huffman) in her place. 2. Return Alex Singer to the lineup as the right flank defender and move Ali Krieger to the midfield. Not sure who would end up on the left flank since both Ali and Rebecca favor the right, but that would give us four midfielders.
We have enough weapons on the offensive end, Bomp will be missed more on defense. Sky Blue loses Asante, you know which end she'll be missed on. Prediction - Get ready for Goalapalooza. I'm predicting a 4-3 Freedom win only because I don't have the guts to predict 5-4.
The last time we played without Sonia this was the starting lineup against FCGP (we won 4-3): GK: Spisak Defenders: Singer, Sauerbrunn, Whitehill, Gilbeau Mid: Sawa, Lindsey, DeDycker Forwards: Wambach, Long, Moros I am pretty sure this was back when we were still playing the 4-3-3. The biggest differences between then and now are of course McLeod in goal and De Vanna is now a 90 minute player. De Vanna only came in for the last 28 minutes in the game against Old Pride. I would say DeDycker would be a good replacement for Sonia again, but she is out because of her shoulder. I agree with DCUPALF that defense will be the issue because I feel that we have become less dependent on Sonia for the offensive spark like we did in the beginning of the season. Singer needs to be in the starting line up, but I would think that it would be better if she played on the left to deal with the speed of HAO. Senty was getting beat by O'Reilly the whole first half and Sonia had to come back and cover for her multiple times. Mid-field I am not sure who should replace Sonia - I think Allie Long would be the first choice, but she seemed to be limping pretty badly after the last game and I don't know if her right foot is completely healed from the broken toe (she might not be able to go a significant amount of time) - although she has learned to use her left foot much better because of the injury.
A good point. You probably couldn't tell from the webcast, but after the Freedom scored, they basically played a five-back for the rest of the game, with Sonia coming all the way back to help defensively on a regular basis.
The problem here is in central midfield. Lindsey's lack of pace caused her to play too deep against Sky Orange. Freedom must disrupt attacks before they get too deep into the offensive end. I thought the defense looked better once Krieger moved inside to replace Lindsey. I actually think Lohman can play the Bompastor role in that she has speed and tenacity, but obviously not the skill level of Bompastor. Replacing Bompastor will be a problem, but the larger problem is the very mediocre defensive group Freedom have. I agree this likely will be goalapalooza and the winner will have to score at least 4 to avoid extra time and penalties.
I don't know what problem you have with Lindsey because you always single her out for your criticism, but IMO you couldn't be more wrong. I think if you were to ask any of the players (and I have spoken with a number of them) you would find they think Lindsey is the glue that holds it together in the back. Have you ever considered that she's doing exactly what the coaches tell her to do!? (And therein, IMO, lies the problem, the coaching. I've never been a fan of Gabarra, he's been lucky his entire career.) Replacing Lindsey with Gilbeau weakened the defense. And Krieger was not only NOT playing defense, but got it all wrong when she kept running forward; her fellow players kept yelling at her to get back! As for Lohman playing the Bompastor role - OMG, you are hallucinating. The good thing about this team is that they are a true team and very disciplined. I'm counting on a win.
Solid team.They play as a team and play a nice style of soccer. I have to believe that a large part of this is because of the coaching. I fully expect them to be in the championship game.
I'll second the support for Lindsey, I think she may be the most underrated player on the team. I remember the goal she scored out west in April where she sprinted half the length of the field to get on the end of a Wambach cross - definitely no lack of pace there. I think the Freedom can well win it all - they have several bits of karma going their way: * They are unbeaten against first two teams they have to go through * LA will have had a LOT of time off by the final (not just the preceding two weeks, but only playing 3 games over the final month of the season) - they have to be a little rusty * The first MLS and WUSA titles were won by the losing team in those league's inaugural matches (all by the road team) * DC United beat LA in the first MLS final OK, so the last two have nothing to do with current day realities but we'll take whatever good vibes we can get, right? First things first - win Saturday
I think Freedom will win the first playoff game...It has the home field advantage. I don't think Sky Blue will overcome it...
I do think the Freedom is a better team, but you can't discount that Sky Blue is due a win against us. Statistically speaking. It still remains to be scene what Bompastor's absence will be. She has been a very steady regular and vocal on the field. Most importantly, she can drop into defense where we seem to have the most trouble. Not sure who to play in her spot, or how to change the line-up. I really don't think Huffman is the answer. She has had NO competitive playing time. She will be rusty at best. I think she would be a greater liability. I just think you can't put a player that has so little time in right into a playoff game unless we are up a ton. I agree with an earlier post. This should be a wild game with lots of scoring. Abby sure is having a hot streak. Has she scored in all the games since she got her 100th?
She's scored in all the games we've won. Sawa got the two goals against Gold Pride, the one game we've lost since Abby came back.
I don't have anything against Lindsey, she works hard and I appreciate her effort. However, she lacks pace and that forces her to retreat to avoid being turned by faster players. This problem is amplified by Sawa who sometimes defends tenaciously and other times plays matador. The problem for Lindsey is that she doesn't know when that will happen and she has to protect against her lack of speed in recovery. The goal Sky Orange got was well struck, but the opening around the top of the 18 was there all day. Gabarra had Wambach pulled back into the middle to help defend there just to clog things up. Is Lohman equal to Bompastor? Of course not. However, she has some pace and is chippy enough to cause problems out on the wing. Who else on the Freedom has the pace and attitude to play defense on the outside midfield?
3 games in 7 days with travel to St. Louis and LA included is a very tall order. I also don't see any team beating LA even if its missing Abily. They are just too good.
I agree - as much as I want to see Huffman back on the field I don't think you can put her in unless we are up 3-4 goals with only a small percentage of time left in the game. I don't really see this situation happening though. Playoffs are not the right time to bring someone back who is recovering from a surgery as major as ACL. She will not be game fit or sharp - I would rather her recover through the off-season and maybe go over to Europe to play in preparation for 2010 season. She played in Norway before this season, so she has done it before. Ali Krieger looked notably rusty when she started playing for us because they were her first games since December of 2008 (maybe earlier) - she was recovering from a foot injury. She wasn't 90 minutes fit and made some fairly bad plays in the first few games(she has improved greatly though since then ). I am willing to risk these types of mistakes in the middle of the season, but not the playoffs. Save Huffy for next year. Edit - looks like Scurry is finally listed as having a season ending injury on the transaction page. KJ got promoted to a senior roster spot and the new keeper Forbis takes the development spot.
We'll see - Gabarra deliberately moved Joanna Lohman to the developmental roster so he'd be able to play Sarah if he wanted to. But I agree, having her first competitive minutes in a year in a playoff match doesn't seem like the best of ideas. But that hasn't stopped Jim from doing silly things before.
That might be tops on the sillyometer though. Look how long it took Wambach to really regain form this year after the broken leg. How could you play someone for any serious minutes in a playoff game when returning from an ACL injury? I still think this will be goalapalooza, neither team defends well and both have players who can find the back of the net. Of course that means a 1-nil game.
Were you around in 2003 when he started the rookie goalkeeper against the defending champions? He said afterwards that even his wife yelled at him about that one. (Of course, his wife knows a few things about soccer....)
The bummer for me is, I will not be able to see the game live. All the feeds in my area are delayed. That means I will not be able to broadcast it on Justin.tv. I hope some other kind soul will do so. I just can't stand to watch matchtracker for this game - so I will wait and watch the Delayed feed. Good Luck Freedom!!!
I'd like to see those Sawa goals. Are they up on the WPS site? Would you happen to have a link handy? Best wishes to you guys for your very first home playoff game in WPS.
How can you not see the game live?? Are you in a foreign country or you don't have cable? FSN is available on practically every cable system's basic package.
As mentioned in previous threads FSN is not really available in the DC Metro area - I live right outside DC and don't get it - or it is on a cable package that people need to pay extra for. I am assuming that VABch757 lives in the Newport News area and therefore is even further away which makes it hard to travel to see the game 3+ hours. I would not make blanket statements about tv coverage if you are not familiar with cable companies in the area. At least Comcast is showing a delayed versions of the game.