Washington Freedom

Frankfurt, we have a problem…

Billy — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:56:26 +0000

So, this hasn’t been confirmed by the team, but there has been plenty of buzz on the blogosphere that we really screwed the pooch in getting Ali Krieger in our allocation. It looks like not only was she still under contract with Frankfurt through June, she just signed an extension with the German club through the 2009-2010 season. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?

If this is true, what the hell were they thinking picking her? Like I said initially, Krieger does have a ton of upside and if she were starting with us on day one I’d be pleased with the pick. But I do NOT think she’s worth taking if she’s going to miss the beginning of the first season, when marketing is so important, and she definitely wasn’t worth taking when she might re-sign with Frankfurt. If this wasn’t a surprise to Gabarra then it was a very questionable move and if he was surprised then he shouldn’t have been.

The idea of starting with only two national team allocations, when there are others who would have been just as good (Kacey White, as an obvious example), is maddening. If they had picked Kacey to begin with it would have been hard to find fault with the decision. Argh, I’m frustrated.

The only way this decision could be redeemed is if the league takes it into account and either gives us another allocation pick (which I doubt) or bumps us up the international draft board. With Krieger coming I’d say we would get either the third or fourth pick, but without Krieger I’d say we should get the first or second. Ideally if that happened we could pick Marta and sign her, but the whole international draft is sketchy at best because the teams aren’t drafting the players, they’re drafting the rights to talk to the players. I’m not sure how long those rights last, but if they only lasted for a year or so then it’s a total crapshoot. Well, cross your fingers Freedom Fans.

How bout them building blocks?

Billy — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:55:38 +0000

Well, we finally know the three players who will form the foundation of our 2009 Washington Freedom! The WPS announced today that Abby Wambach, Cat Whitehill and Ali Krieger will be the (first and hopefully not last) three national team pool players suiting up for the Freedom.

I think we did really well with this allocation. Obviously, Abby is a big-time player who will be a great anchor for the team. She is one of the most well known players on the WNT and she’ll put butts in the seats, plus I’m sure she’ll score goals in buckets. Cat is very solid on defense and has a cannon for a leg that will be a fantastic weapon. She’s great on set pieces, both with her booming and accurate free kicks and her dangerous head on corners. Did you know: Cat has more goals, with 11, than any other defender in the WNT pool? (Christie Rampone is second with 4). Her international experience (she has 129 caps at age 26!) will be a huge asset.

Ali Krieger is a little bit more of an unknown in the US as she only has two caps with the WNT, but don’t confuse this with a lack of talent or experience. I think Krieger might just be one of the hidden gems from this allocation. Consider this: Krieger spent the 2007-2008 season with FFC Frankfurt of Germany’s women’s Bundesliga, playing alongside German superstars Birgit Prinz and Renate Lingor and winning the league championship, the German Cup and the UEFA Women’s Cup. She also played for the Freedom W-League team in 2006 and 2007, winning the W-League championship in 2007. What I take from this is obviously she knows success (and, like Wambach and her 2003 WUSA Championship, knows what it’s like to win in DC). Also, while she hasn’t played a lot for the national team, she has a lot of experience playing with and against the best players in the world.

Also: It seems like the powers that be actually did their best to allocate the players based on their previous ties, as Abby played for the Freedom in the WUSA, Ali played for the Freedom in the W-League and is from Virginia, and DC is the closest team to Chapel Hill, which works well for Cat because of course Chapel Hill is magnificent (and her husband is in med school there, too…)

Allocation Eve

Billy — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:27:20 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I feel a little bit like an 8 year old on Christmas Eve. I just can’t wait to see what Tonya Clause and her elves/the coaches are gonna bring to DC. Ok, that was a little corny, but allocation is finally almost here! The allocation results will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th, at 12:30 p.m. You can follow the allocation on the WPS website.

For those of you who don’t know, the allocation process proceeded like this: the players in the national team pool submitted their top three choices and the teams each submitted their top three player wishes. A committee will look at the lists and take into account the marketing concerns before submitting a proposed list of three players to each team. The team can then reject one player, who will go back onto the allocation board for another team to select. After that another board will meet to finalize the picks and Tonya Antonucchi will give her approval. After the allocation the Board of Governors will weigh the teams and decide the order for the international draft, which will take place next week.

I really wish I could be a fly on the wall in those meetings; it is going to be interesting to see how the different coaches’ styles and philosophies affect their selections. Fortunately for us, Jim Gabarra has been through this before, as he was the coach of the Freedom during the WUSA’s infant stages. He’s been waiting for this for years, I have no doubt that he’ll be more than adequately prepared for the allocation. Of course, I’m also glad we have an actual coach. Teams like Bay Area are going to have to hope that when they do find a coach he or she will mesh well with the players he or she did not have a hand in picking.

Also, I haven’t heard a lot about players putting DC on their wishlist, but Carli Lloyd has us as her second choice behind Chicago.

So cross your fingers that we’ll do well and tune in for more info

Closing in on Allocation

Billy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:46:19 +0000

We’re less than a week away from finding out where the core players of the new WPS are headed and who will be the backbone of the team we’re all going to go crazy go nuts bonkers for when it starts in April (right? right?). I’ve had a lot of time to think about this whole allocation business (what with the news about the league trickling out so slowly and my Atlanta Braves having such a dismal season), so here is how I see it:

Philosophy
If this was a draft and I was solely responsible for making the first pick, my criteria would be several fold. Other than the obvious aspect of how talented the player is, I would start with a younger player. Lilly, Rampone, Markgraf and the like are great and are going to be valuable additions to whichever team they’re placed on, but I want a player that I can build a franchise around and someone who’ll be around awhile. I also would look for versatility. I think that the standard “offense sells tickets, defense wins championships” motto is probably closer to true than not, but I think that starting out I’d rather have a team that was pretty good and scored a lot of goals/played pretty soccer than a team that went undefeated with all 1-0 wins, simply because I feel like this first season will be crucial for getting butts in the seats. That being said, if a player can improve the defense while adding a significant offensive threat, all the better. I also think that geographical history might be nice, but the really strong hometown stories are probably going to be the biggest benefit in terms of drawing crowds.

Wish List
Can you guess who my number one pick would be? If you guess the Ginger Princess, the talented Lori Chalupny you’d be right. She has emerged as one of the most solid players on the WNT, if not the world, and I think she’ll provide a great backbone for whichever team she’s allocated to. She can defend like a pitbull and then still score with deadly accuracy and play make like an attacking midfielder. I was lucky enough to see her play for three years at UNC and have seen her pick the team up on her back and lead it to victory more times than I can count. She’ll be WPS MVP one day, I’m sure of it.

Other than Lori, I think Hope Solo will be in very high demand. Goalkeeping is so important and she’ll be measurably better than most of the other keepers in the WPS, especially after all the teams are added. After keeper I would look for a combo forward/midfielder like Heather O’Reilly or Lindsay Tarpley. They’re both very fast and very skilled and have shown that they can hold their own up top or can move back to the midfield depending on the situation.

Expectations
As for who I think has the greatest chance of being allocated, there are only a few that seem likely. Unlike Heather to Sky Blue or Lori to St. Louis (alas, there’s been much made of her St. Louis roots over the years and Lori loves her some St. Louis), there aren’t really any hometown heroes coming from D.C. However, Abby Wambach played her WUSA soccer in the District and, being as there’s no team in Rochester or Gainesville, it seems like she might be a logical choice to headline the Freedom’s roster. Angela Hucles also has some quasi-D.C. ties, having grown up in Virginia Beach and played her college soccer at UVA (two hours or so is close enough, right?). I’m hoping that they try to give each team a first tier, a second tier and a third tier player to even them out and I think Hucles would be a coup for a third tier player (despite her questionable defensive presence and especially considering her recent goal onslaught). So we’ll see. I think fellow UVA grad Becky Sauerbrunn and Virginian Ali Krieger might be good selections in the draft, but I doubt either will be allocated. I also think it’ll be interesting to see if Christie Welsh makes it onto the Freedom, considering her commitment to the team through the exhibition and W-League years.

In any case, I can’t wait for the allocation so we can start analyzing and planning for April (and deciding which will be the first jersey I get). Of course, to be perfectly honest, I’m really hoping that some of the Tar Heels I know make it to the District so I can get them to play on my kickball team and get them to recruit other Freedom (s? ers? ites? ettes?) to join, because we definitely need some ringers…

Get excited about the Freedom and the WPS

Billy — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:11:24 +0000

Howdy y’all. I’ll be your friendly neighborhood Freedom blogger for the foreseeable future and wanted to get this blog kick started. These are some exciting times for women’s soccer fans, with the national team allocation less than three weeks away, the international draft and domestic draft following shortly after, plus the NCAA season and all the great soccer that comes with it.

But first the W-League combine will take place September 4-7 in Tampa and will include our own Kele Gobeliowski (a member of the 2003 WUSA Championship team). For those of you who don’t know, the W-League combine will feature 128 of the W-League’s best, who will be putting their skills on display for WPS coaches in hopes of improving their prospects for the October 6 general draft.

In the coming days I’ll share my thoughts on allocation and the Freedom’s rich history, among other things. I just wanted to introduce myself and get y’all thinking about how awesome it’s going to be to have the Freedom back at the full pro level. For more information, hit up the following links:

www.womensprosoccer.com
www.wleague.uslsoccer.com
www.washingtonfreedom.com