2007 Washington Freedom W-League Thread [R]

Christie went to Penn State, so she's at least vaguely local. I'm not sure about Rebecca, either, but everyone else has either lived or played in the area.

 

Watch the Freedom live this weekend:

 

I don't know. I asked the Freedom's PR rep that, and he hasn't gotten back to me with an answer yet. But the same claim is made in the media guide, so it should be true.

 

Freedom cruise past Rhinos

In order to make it to the W-League championship, one team had to get past the New Jersey Wildcats, Jersey Sky Blue, and the Toronto Lynx, then defeat the regular-season champions in their own stadium. The other team just had to agree to host the championship. (You might be able to tell that I’m a little peeved at the decision to make the Rochester Raging Rhinos hosts of the championship weekend. Usually, the hosts have some legitimate claim to be there, as with Vancouver last year or New Jersey the year before. However, Rochester isn’t even an above-average team. On the other hand, this made for an easy win for the Freedom.)

Washington came out in a slightly different starting formation: Rebecca Moros was the other forward alongside Christie Welsh, though the big change was moving Sarah Huffman to the right flank midfielder position where Tara Kidwell normally plays. This led to a domino effect of other changes: for the first time I’ve seen, Casey Zimny played as a defensive midfielder instead of a central defender, while Alex Singer took her place there.

This change paid huge dividends as Emily Janss and Sarah Huffman both had huge performances on the day, Emily in particular both contributing to the attack and making some key plays on defense.

The Rhinos, though, had the first attack, but three Freedom players quickly converged on the lone forward and quickly snuffed things out without a shot. Seven minutes in, Sarah got the ball on the flank with the Rhinos out of position after their attack was disrupted. She had space for a while, but then beat the two defenders who converged on her to send a centering pass to Christie Welsh. Unfortunately, it was in a poor position, and Christie could only muster a weak shot right to the goalkeeper.

Three minutes later, though, Rebecca Moros brought the ball in and served it off to Christie, who bounced a shot off the left post. She and two defenders fought over the rebound. One of the defenders poked the ball clear, but it came right to Sarah Huffman just outside the box. Sarah hammered the ball right down the middle of the net for the score.

The Rhinos had one of their best offensive efforts in the 12th minute with a ball sent down the right sideline just barely inbounds for about forty yards, edging past the Freedom midfield. They centered the ball but Kati Jo Spisak made an easy save on the resulting shot.

Three minutes later, yet another centering pass came in from Sarah. Christie toepoked it to the top left corner of the goal, but Rhinos goalkeeper Joy McKenzie, who had a great game, made a leaping save to knock it over the bar. Six minutes later, it was Emily’s turn for a centering pass to Christie, but it was a little too high. Christie managed to get her head on it but not bring it down enough to be dangerous.

There was a scary moment in the 25th minute as the Freedom turned the ball over well into their end, but Emily came rushing into the center of the field form her flank position in order to stifle any attack.

A minute later, Ali Krieger had a great header off a Lori Lindsey corner kick, but once again Joy made a goal-saving deflection.

The Freedom got their second goal three minutes later. Ali Krieger won’t make the scoresheet, but she started it with a very long ball from her defensive position into a vast space in front of Sarah Huffman on the right. Sarah brought the ball forward, then centered to Rebecca Moros, who got into a scrum with the goalkeeper and two defenders but won the battle just in front of the endline to knock the ball in.

There was a strange moment in the 39th minute as Kele Golebiowski earned a free kick after a defender collided with her on the left side about ten yards from the end line. The kick was very low and actually rolled over the goalkeeper and across the goalmouth, but no Freedom player was in position to put it away.

Rochester got a free kick from 40 yards out a minute later, and a poor clearance went to a Rhino forward but the resulting shot went wide.

The second half saw Ali Andrzejewski come in for Rebecca, and another chance for the Rhinos as they got an open shot from fifteen yards out that went wide.

Joy made another great save in the 52nd minute as Kele Golebiowski was rushing down to meet a great-looking through ball in the box, but Joy got there just barely ahead of her.

As the announcers noted, PAETEC Park has a huge field (120 by 80 yards), which worked well for the Freedom’s style of attacking soccer, which involves a lot of passing and ball movement. This was proven in their final goal in the 53rd minute, which started with the ball under Emily’s control on the right flank. She passed it to Lori Lindsey in the middle of the field, who sent it over to the left side of the field to the other flank defender, Sarah Senty. Sarah, with lots of space as Rochester struggled to deal with the quick change in the direction of attack, brought the ball forward, then passed it ahead to Ali A. just inside the box, who knocked it back for Lori, who nailed the ball from twenty yards out into the upper right corner.

The Freedom seemed content with their lead at that point, substituting liberally to rest their starters, eventually replacing every player forward of their back line. Their last really good chance was off a free kick from about twenty yards out. Lori managed to bend the ball around the wall and toward the right corner, but the Rhinos goalkeeper, now Taz Robertson, managed to leap and deflect the ball.

All in all, it was a solid win for the Freedom with excellent performances from Rebecca Moros, Sarah Huffman, and Emily Janss. Only a sensational performance from Rhinos goalkeeper Joy McKenzie kept the match remotely within reach. Meanwhile, Christie Welsh had a bit of a frustrating day with a lot of near misses, but perhaps that will just make her more determined on Sunday, which would be fine with me.

Washington Freedom match coverage

USL coverage with official stats and such

Rochester Raging Rhinos match coverage

USL video of match (for only $3.99!)

 

Freedom claim W-League title

With solid teamwork, a swarming defense, and a patient, possession-oriented attack, the Washington Freedom outplayed the Atlanta Silverbacks for most of the ninety minutes and deservedly came away with a 3-1 win. It took almost no time for the Freedom to make their mark, as yet again Ali Krieger made a key play that won’t be in the scorebook, stealing an Atlanta pass in midfield and bringing it forward while weaving among Atlanta defenders. She fed Lori Lindsey forward and to her right, then Lori sent the ball on to Rebecca Moros to the right of a bunched-in Atlanta defense. Rebecca made a determined run into the box, shrugging off a hard shoulder-to-shoulder bump by a defender and knocking a shot high and off the underside of the crossbar to make it in over a leaping Courtney Cripps. That was inside of the first forty-five seconds.

Gabarra mucked with the lineup again, which was rather a surprise after Friday’s success. Anyhow, Lori Lindsey was moved up top, which I wasn’t enchanted with since she’s been the playmaker all season long. Rebecca Moros went from forward to right flank midfielder, while Sarah Huffman, who did such a good job on the flank the other day, took Lori’s place in the central midfield. But you can’t argue with success.

The Freedom tried to double their lead in the 7th minute uncharacteristically, as Lori sent a long ball behind the defense that Christie Welsh ran onto and shot hard to the top left corner, but Courtney knocked it up and over the goal. Casey Zimny tried a similar feed in the 11th minute, but Caroline Ford of Atlanta managed to catch up with Christie at the top of the box to keep her from getting off a shot.

Atlanta had a few chances in the first half, but none of them were particularly scary. In the 14th minute, Sharolta Nonen took a free kick from forty yards out that was quickly cleared. The Freedom had a bad giveaway in their own end a minute later, but by the time the ball approached the box, the defense had swarmed, and Atlanta was unable to maintain possession. The best buildup fo the first half might have been in the 36th minute, as they had a good parallel line of forward runners with the Freedom overweighted to the left side as they passed along to an open Tara Minnax on the right, but Tara took a poor first touch, and Ali Krieger took over the ball and got it out of danger.

Christie continued her frustration in the 38th minute, as she took another long feed from Casey about even with two defenders. She looked to come out ahead but had a slightly off-kilter touch. Sharolta Nonen caught up to her, got in the way, and Christie held up waiting for some support. When it finally arrived, Christie lobbed the ball to the far post, but Lori didn’t follow up, so the keeper had an easy pickup.

She wasn’t to be denied for much longer, though, as in the 40th minute Emily Janss intercepted an Atlanta clearance just past midfield. She drifted forward, looking for an opportunity, then fed Sarah Huffman right in front of goal about 35 yards out. Sarah turned as Christie made a perfectly timed diagonal run from the right on the inside of her defender. Sarah sent a perfectly paced and placed ball between two defenders right to her feet as Courtney rushed out to try to make a play. But all Christie had to do was softly poke the ball into the far left bottom corner of the net for the second Freedom goal.

Atlanta tried to free the speedy Krista Davey on the left with a long ball, but the ubiquitous Ali Krieger caught up and stayed with her, leading to a consecutive pair of corner kicks that didn’t amount to much.

Kele Golebiowski made a good play on defense in the 45th minute to squelch a building Atlanta attack, as she came down on Tara Minnax from behind right as she got the ball from Krista Davey and took it away.

The Freedom came out strong in the second half and controlled possession, but the Silverbacks defense held strong and kept anything very exciting from happening. Come the 57th minute, and Atlanta increases the pressure by taking out Tara Minnax, putting in Kyri-Ann Harbrueger, and going to a 4-3-3 formation. The Freedom responded by bringing Lori Lindsey back into the midfield, effectively going to a 4-5-1 formation with Christie Welsh as the lone forward.

However, the Freedom still had the best of the attacking play, with Sarah Huffman earning a free kick just millimeters outside of the penalty area. Lori took the kick and tried to drive it into the upper right corner but missed high. In the 62nd minute, Emily Janss sent a driven ball across and in to Lori about ten yards out from the near post, but her header was way high.

Atlanta started to put some genuine pressure on after that, and it paid off quickly. The Freedom defenders lost a battle for the ball on their left, leaving Sarah Steinmann free to send in a centering pass to Krista Davey, who had a step on her mark. The ball came to her about eight yard out, goalkeeper Kati Jo Spisak tried to come out and meet it but failed. Krista went with the ball to the right and had an easy putaway into an open net, though she just barely got it in the bottom right corner as her momentum took her wide.

Washington substituted Jill Porto for Kele Golebiowski before the restart, and Jill almost always makes something happen, so I was looking for that. However, a revitalized Atlanta had more of the play, though most of them resulted in long shots directly to the goalkeeper. Meanwhile, the Freedom had a few chances, first Christie centering to Lori eight yards in front of goal, but Lori tripped on the ball rather than settling it and couldn’t get a shot off. The more frustrating moment, though, came in the 79th minute when, following a corner kick and subsequent clearance, Tara Kidwell (now in for Rebecca Moros) sent a beautiful centering pass right to Christie Welsh’s feet. Christie was totally unmarked about eight yards out but tried to one-touch the ball despite having plenty of time to settle it and sent it high.

Jill Porto first made her presence felt in the 83rd minute, as she brought the ball down the left side, made a great cutback to get into the box, made another great cutback to lose her defender, but then shot just wide left. In the 85th minute, Christie both received a yellow card (after she kicked a dead ball following an offsides call) and was replaced by Tiffany McCarty, another player who, like Jill, just seems to make things happen.

And so it was: in the 88th minute Jill made a run down the left side with the ball, then cut back against her double-team and got free of both of them. Her shot went straight to the goalkeeper but right between the goalkeeper’s legs. Tiffany darted in and got to the ball almost through a defender to touch it in for the clinching goal.

Just one final note: Washington’s final substitution was to take Casey Zimny out in stoppage time and replace her with Ali Andrzejewski. It says something about your depth when you can leave the league’s second-leading scorer on the bench for 90 minutes.

While many seemed to think that the Freedom were the team to beat in 2007, it was scarcely inevitable and took a great deal of work from the players, the coaches, and the support staff. Congratulations to all of them.

 

W-League statistics on match

W-League article on match

Atlanta Silverbacks article on match

Washington Freedom article on match

My 2007 Washington Freedom photos page (just put up last night even though the photos are from earlier this season)

 

I'd say give us Abby Wambach back along with a couple of WNT defenders, and we could play with anybody. Imagine a starting lineup like this:

Welsh - Wambach
Golebiowski - Lindsey - Huffman - Moros
Dalmy - Zimny - Whitehill - Janss
Spisak

And we'd still have Andrzejewski, Hammond, and Krieger on the bench. (I think all the players I've listed have finished college, but I didn't check very thoroughly.)