Not that the results are all that important, but it is the first chance to get a look at some of the players. I've been trying to piece together a schedule for the 8 teams. So far, I have seen complete preseason schedules from Boston, Gold Pride, and Philadelphia, with a few other games for other teams. Here's what I have so far: 3/12 - Chicago Red Stars vs. Washington Freedom (Vero Beach, FL) 3/13 - FC Gold Pride vs. TEPCO Mareeze (Mustang Soccer Complex, Danville, CA) 3/17 - Boston Breakers vs. US U-20 National Team (Univ of Florida?) 3/20 - Boston Breakers vs. Sky Blue FC (Univ. of Florida?) 3/20 - Philadelphia Independence vs. University of North Carolina (United Sports, Downingtown, PA) 3/23 - Boston vs. Atlanta (Univ. of Florida?) 3/24 - Boston vs University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) 3/25 - FC Gold Pride vs. University of San Francisco (Negoesco Stadium, San Francisco, CA) 3/27 - Philadelphia Independence at Washington Freedom 4/1 - FC Gold Pride vs. Santa Clara (Buck Shaw Stadium) 4/1 - Philadelphia Independence vs. Penn State University (Downingtown, PA) 4/3 - Saint Louis Athletica vs. Atlanta Beat (University of Tulsa, OK).
Freedom preseason schedule (also posted here): Code: DATE/TIME LOCATION OPPONENT NOTES 3/12, 7:00 pm Hobart Soccer Complex Chicago Tickets from irsoccer.com Vero Beach, FL 3/20, 7:30 pm Sportsbackers Park UVA Free. Venue information Richmond, VA at sportsbackers.org 3/27, 2:00 pm Soccerplex Phila. Admission $10 4/03, 3:00 pm Soccerplex UNC Donation $10 Kicks Against Breast Cancer First game is on a Friday; the rest are on Saturday.
Thanks StarCityFan! I also just saw a tweet from WPS PR director Robert Penner that the "league will put out full preseason compilation of all games on Monday, March 8."
Thanks! Atlanta released their preseason schedule. In addition to the March 23rd game against the Breakers and the April 3rd game against Athletica, they have the following: 3/10 - Atlanta Beat at Auburn University (scrimmage) 3/19 - Atlanta Beat vs. US U-20 Team (St. Augustine, FL) (scrimmage) 3/21 - Atlanta Beat vs. University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) (scrimmage) 3/25 - Atlanta Beat vs. Florida State (Tallahassee FL) (scrimmage) 3/28 - Atlanta Beat vs. UNC (Kennesaw, GA) That's a darn busy schedule.
I can't say I'm surprised. As an expansion team, I bet they'd want as many games as possible before the season starts to learn how to work well as a team. All the other teams (minus PHI) have cores that they can build from. I'm actually surprised PHI doesn't have more games scheduled....
I'm w/ Cville, though. It seems like they've got too many games. If they don't have their fitness/recovery & player rotations *just* right there's a huge potential for muscle pulls/tears and/or being too tired at the start of the season. I see what you're saying about needing games to "catch up" in terms of team cohesion but there's a fine line that I think they might be getting a tad too close to. But maybe they have the bestest fitness coach and the staff will have the recovery/player rotations down and all will work out well for them.
How much difference is there between playing exhibition matches and practicing? Based on what I've seen of the Freedom, a hefty share of the latter is team scrimmages, anyway.
Which they lost but I don't think any of the various national team level players played. The Freedom beat the U23 WNT today.
Atlanta defeats Auburn 3-2, goals by Latham, Thompson, Zerboni Washington defeats Chi-town 2-1, only goal I know of is De Vanna.
Huffman may have got the first goal for DC. I got a text message but lost it. Oops. No clue on the CRS goal. I can't believe no-one is posting here or on the twitterverse about this....
Scoring: Wash. - Huffman, 12th minute Wash. - De Vanna, 29th minute Chi. - Masar, 61st minute Anyone know who the available players were for each team?
The Chicago lineup : Loyden, Dalmy, Markgraf, Engen, Spilger, Klein, Reiser, Sitch, Weissenhofer, Cristiane, Masar
Wow I didn't even think about the fact that the game was only the second time all season Chicago has trained outdoors. Saw in a picture that Dieke was there for Chicago.. good to see her arrive from Scotland. I really wish I knew the full lineups though. That'd really give some insight as to what both teams got to work with. Looks like De Vanna will get off to a good start this season if she stays healthy.
FYI the FCGP pre-season game on 4/1 at SCU has been cancelled. I don't want anyone to show up to an empty stadium.
Athletica defeats the Univ. of Illinois 4-0 in a closed scrimmage. Goals by Aluko, Larsen, Edlund, and Boxx according to twitter.
Just got some more info: Carney, Rapinoe, Formiga, Asllani, and Chapman did NOT play. So 4 of the 5 Chicago internationals lol Anyone find the Freedom lineup yet?
I've heard nothing of Washington's lineup, outside of the two scorers. But from Twitter, I think Chapman just arrived today. I guess Carney is still rehabbing. From Carney... "Kate chapman is here looks tired bless her.be good to have her with the team.lil kossa to meet and formiga to arrive..not bad huh?" I'm assuming lil kossa refers to Kosovare Asllani.
Yeah, Asllani and Chapman just arrived this weekend and Formiga is not there yet. Carney is rehabbing but just ran the beep test, apparently very well, this morning. Rapinoe is around but no one really talks about her injury status from her time at Algarve. So the assumed core of the midfield hasn't really even started to be shaped yet. Several of the CRS players and staff put out tidbits on their Twitter, sometimes daily, it's really the best way to get an idea of what's going on beyond much more sparse press releases. Hopefully they keep it up and decide that Asllani's nickname should infact be 'Kosaroni'.
Don't have a complete lineup, but I looked through some photos and spotted Sauerbrunn, Marshall (#17), Whitehill, Wambach, McLeod, De Vanna, and Moros. Not sure who the players are in photos 8 and 9, though.
That's what I would have guessed, but I wasn't sure. In any case, it appears that Gabarra used the game to give his expected starters time to get used to each other, rather than as a tryout for new players.