The Washington Freedom were again named the #1 Girls Club in North America by the United Soccer Leagues for the second year in a row.  The club achieved a staggering 46-7-5 record in 2009, improving from a 45-7-6 record in 2008.  The Freedom’s Center of Excellence teams compete in the USL Super Y-League & Super-20 League.  The Center of Excellence consists of 5 teams from the U13 to U20 age levels. 

2009 saw the Freedom sent their U13, U14, U16 and U20 teams to their respective North American Finals.  The U20 team travelled to Rockford, Il in August to try to win back the North American Title the team won in 2006, falling just short and finishing in 3rd place.  The U13, U14 and U16 teams travelled to Tampa, Fl in November.  The U16’s played well and despite finishing 3-1 did not advance out of their group.  The U13 and U14 teams both advanced to the playoff rounds with the U13’s barely missing out on a spot in the finals, with 3-2 overtime loss to Rage SC from PA in the semifinals.  The U14’s found some more success reaching the Championship match before losing 2-1 in overtime as well to Seacoast United of NH.

“We’ve got such a talented pool of players in the Washington DC area.  The players have been tremendous again this year.  The staff has worked hard to help these players develop and prepare for the next level,” said the Freedom’s Director of Soccer Club Win Puffer.  Freedom WPS Head Coach and Technical Director Jim Gabarra added “We are very happy with the results of the teams but more importantly the continued development we see the players make each year.  Our goal is to see some of these players playing with our W-League and WPS teams in the future.”

The Freedom continue to produce players that move up the ranks.  2009 saw 13 players on the Washington Freedom WPS team who had played with the Freedom’s W-League team in the past.  Maddie Keller was also on the 2006 U20 team that won the inaugural USL Super-20 North American Championship.  The 2009 W-League team also saw 13 players who had played for various Freedom youth teams in the past.