I've seen Gabarra say that a few times. She has been moved back there a couple of times, but it's like turning the scoring spigot off when it happens. I actually think our worst positional lack is at left flank defender, but I don't want to see Sonia filling it because she's too valuable in the midfield. We still have the rights to Louisa Necib, a playmaking midfielder for the French national team, unless they expired with this season. I agree about the uniforms - I always thought the lighter blue with white trim was a much better idea - but the stifling uniforms are a local tradition: DC United's home kit is black!
Ah, memories - I was wondering how yesterday compared to Villanova! Shame for the team to pull out the results they did to finish 3rd, then take a collective plotz on the field yesterday. Freedom were second best from the get-go and Sky Blue deserved the victory. Interesting # of arguments on whether the Freedom glass is half empty or half full. I tend to look at it as half full - but only half. Keep in mind that you had the most exciting team in the league to follow - would you rather be following any other team in WPS and watching 1-0 games week in and week out? That was a pretty bad error RFR pointed out in the Wash Times - yikes...
I was talking to people at Glory Day's after the game yesterday and got the impression that if we wanted to ensure that we keep the rights to Necib we would have to protect her from the expansion draft. Same thing with Krieger - I didn't think we could protect her since technically she is still under contract with Frankfurt, but that won't stop someone from picking her in the expansion draft if she isn't protected. Didn't ask about expiration of rights though. The WPS communications guy said on Twitter that they had finalized expansion draft details and hoping to announce them before the Championship game. I agree that the Freedom was one of the more exciting teams to follow - especially with the number of late goals we scored. The goal average per game would have been much lower if it wasn't for the Freedom. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them and am very excited for next year. That is why I read the Washington Post!
This isn't directly relevant here, but the Krieger deal ended up being a transfer arrangement in the end, since the German federation doesn't permit player loans. Frankfurt still seem to expect her back, though.
the problem there is that after lyon got burned for bompastor and abily, the FFF woke up and authorized what OL has wanted for years: real pro contracts for women players. my guess is that louisa's is well beyond what the freedom could offer her. and don't forget zidanette didn't leave when she had no contract, it's not likely she would now.
Your right it was a transfer, but I know the Freedom had to agree to transfer her back to Frankfurt as soon as the WPS season ended (or at least the Freedom's season). I talked to her last week about this and she said she would be going back almost immediately after the Freedom finished. She was excited about getting back to Germany and hopefully getting a starting spot back since she has fully recovered from the injury. Sorry about taking the thread off-topic.
The point is can Gabarra find players who perform at a level better than W-League. In case you forgot, Gabarra and the Freedom made a big deal about how they kept their W-League "nucleus" to start the season figuring that continuity would lead to more focused and tactically aware play. In fact, the Freedom stunk out the joint at the start of the season. Only after Bompastor was better integrated into the team (from the first pre-season game you could tell she was class), Wambach recovered fully from her injury, DeVanna got match fit (she was a 45 minute player at the start of the season) and McLeod replaced the horror show in net did the Freedom begin their ascent. The addition of Krieger helped what had been, and remains, a very average back line. On Saturday, Bompastor's absence was a killer, because Gabarra didn't have a WPS-level "adequate" replacement for that outside midfield position. His substitution of Huffman, her first game back from an ACL injury was an indictment of the absence of bench strength. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Who cares, it still isn't a full glass.
I think the criticisms of the Freedom are fair. It's important to remember that while this is the first year of WPS, they are not a first year organization.
I do understand people being disappointed. We did come in 3rd for the season. It is unfortunate we lost to the 4th placed team (Sky Blue) in the playoffs. Prior to this game we looked good. We still have a serious defense problem and I hope that Gabarra can address that. I fear that it will be slim pickings due to the expansion. I think Bompastor is quite the impact player and we do not have enough talent on the bench. That being said, we did come in 3rd. I think it is a bit unfair to want Gabarra let go for coming in 3rd. It sounds like we are the EPL. If that were the case, from 3rd on down, the coaching staffs would have to be let go. At that rate, I think it would be hard to find people wanting to coach in the WPS. Scoring wasn't a problem for Washington - keeping the goals out was. Let's hope he can get some better defense players. Let's also hope that the foreign players want to come back. Maybe a little more money could make De Vanna want to come back. It sounds like this expansion draft and protecting current players could be a real big problem. There is no way they will be replacing Gabarra. With the players he had, and the condition they were in at the start of the season, I think he did a decent job. 3rd really isn't that bad. Just ask FC Gold Pride, Chicago and Boston.
I would disagree with that. The Freedom went L-T-L-W-T-T-W in their first seven games (2-2-3). I blame the first loss and the ties on our goalkeeping more than anything else, and the second loss on Abby's inability to make a penalty kick against one of the more inept keepers in the league.
Who are the W-League players on the Freedom roster?? I recall them saying earlier in the year of FSC how the game when Long was missing the midfield was really hurting but after she came back it was much better. Did you guys notice that Long made a significant difference? Unfortunately it didn't really manifest itself against Sky Blue.
You're probably right because it was Scurry and Spisak who shouldered a lot of the blame until Mcleod showed up.
Pardon me for saying this in the Freedom forum... but now you're just trying to get my hopes up again .
Long's a rookie. Our W-League players (in rough order of effectiveness) were: Becky Sauerbrunn - young central defender, played every minute, singlehandedly saved at least three or four balls from going into the net. Ali Krieger - late-arriving midfielder/defender, in national team pool, played for amateur Freedom in 2004-2007 before going over to Germany. Lori Lindsey - holding midfielder, not fast but reliable, been with the Freedom since 2003. Rebecca Moros - smart, hardworking midfielder/forward, had some key goals and assists. Alex Singer - right flank defender, got burned a few times but proved to be a quick learner. Jill Gilbeau - right flank defender/midfielder, good at coming forward and making crosses but sometimes got caught out-of-position. Better on the attack than Alex but not as good on defense. Sarah Senty - left flank defender, didn't join Freedom until finishing school. Looked good in the 8/8 match but horrible in the 8/15 one. Kati Jo Spisak - good college/W-League goalkeeper but not really a WPS-caliber goalkeeper, even as a backup. Joanna Lohman - was a top U-21 midfielder but never seemed to realize her potential, was very conservative when she played. Emily Janss - right flank defender/midfielder, was in the starting lineup to start off the season but proved to be not up to the pace of WPS play. Played in the WUSA all three years and for the Freedom since 2005. Sarah Huffman - our top draft pick got only 20 minutes in the midfield due to an injury suffered right at the start of training camp. Christen Karniski, Madison Keller - developmental players who got no minutes. Keller was cut late to create a roster slot for Huffman. I went back and looked at the 2008 WPS general draft back in September. Gabarra went 100% for his W-Leaguers: Huffman, Sauerbrunn, Lindsey, and Janss. Sauerbrunn's been a gem, Janss a bust, Huffman never got a chance, and Lindsey's been solid if not brilliant. In hindsight, we could certainly have come up with a better foursome, but plenty of other players in that draft proved to be busts (Trotter, Alexander, Hamm, Anderson-Hammond). At least we got known quantities.
In the playoff match in particular- No. Credit to her though, every time Long came on screen you could see her calling for the ball. I think the problem was that the team was almost dead by the time she got out there. She had very few touches and when she did get the ball there was next to no support for her. Due to lack of service she ended up drifting around the field which didn't do much either. I think Long could have provided that spark off the bench if she came in earlier or had more help. Long has a decent skill set, great one v one, and a unique seemingly laid back style of play that is unpredictable and hard to read. I think Long could be a great player, but I don't know if she could be a great player for Washington.
Long is an interesting case. A rookie, she seemed at times to be overwhelmed by the pace of the game. At the start of the season Gabarra had her in the middle as, essentially, the A-mid with Sawa and Lindsey sitting behind her, sort of a 4-2-1-3 with Bompastor moving around the forward line. Problem was the Long couldn't execute quickly and was often dispossessed. Gabarra finally scrapped that experiment and Long also suffered a toe injury later in the season. The question is what position can she play? She has decent ball skills, but not much pace. If played at forward, she slows down an attack that is not blazing fast to begin with, especially if used in the DeVanna position. If played in the middle of the field, she has to speed up her decision making. In some ways, she may be the Rod Dyachenko of Freedom. A player everyone raves about for pure ball skills, but someone who is just a step behind during the run of play.
Beulah was more forgiving of Senty than I would have been and more critical of Long (although she's probably right). A very good and interesting take on the game.
I thought the same thing when I was reading it - also thought she was pretty easy on Gilbeau too - as the season wore on I saw less out of her each game.