Player Blogs
Posted 8/8/2007 2:48:01 PM
Many, if not all, of you know the final outcome of our trip up to Rochester, NY for the W-League Championships, but if you’re one of the ones who is living in a dark hole somewhere and haven’t heard….. WE WON!! It was a great weekend all around and as a team we came out on top! Wooo hooooooo! Just to give you a little recap….
Thursday morning we all plopped our bags on a sleeper bus driven by the one and only, Glen (our bus driver for the season), and started our trip up to Rochester. Having spent at least 40 hours total on a bus in the previous two weeks, we were all excited to only have a 6 hour drive ahead of us. It seemed like a very quick trip as we pulled into our hotel in West Henrietta (only about 5 miles from where I went to high school) and hauled off to our rooms for a quick nap or relaxation time before we had a light training session at 8pm. Practice went well and it seemed like all of us were pumped up for the games ahead. After practice, we grabbed some dinner at a local steakhouse and then it was back to the R.I.T. Inn for a good night’s sleep.
The next morning we went out for a walk and stretch, then drove over to Olive Garden for a pre-game pasta meal. Mmmm! Gotta love those breadsticks and salad!! After lunch we went back to the hotel to grab our game gear and do any last minute preparations before getting back on the bus. As we approached the stadium, we were updated on the score of the previous game (Atlanta vs. Seattle), which ended up 1-1 at half-time. Trying not to be too concerned with the outcome of that game before we even played ours, we piled into the locker room and started our individual pre-game “rituals”. Music is always a key as KJ usually takes everyone’s mind off the butterflies with her dancing skills!!
Eventually, after Jim and Clyde came in to talk to us about the game ahead, we jogged out to the field for warm-up. Since we were playing on turf in 90 degree weather, it was a fairly sweaty warm-up!! But one thing that helped take our minds off all that were our awesome fans who came out to see us! Especially the fans who flew and/or drove 6+ hours to show their support!! (A special thanks to those folks!)
As we kicked off the first half, it was time to be rid of the butterflies and focus on the task ahead. We needed to win… and win big! From the get-go we possessed the ball fairly well especially with the help of Sarah Huffman on the outside in midfield. She did an excellent job of getting around her defender and playing balls in consistently. At the end of the half we were up 2-0 and feeling pretty good about our play. We regrouped in the air-conditioned locker rooms then headed back out for the second half. The run of the game pretty much remained the same and to make a long story short, the game ended up 3-0 in our favor after Lori Lindsey put away a goal off an assist by Ali Andrzejewski.
We were excited at the outcome but also tired and ready for some much needed rest before our big championship game on Sunday! But for the time being, the team headed back to the hotel after getting some food and it was time for bed.
Saturday morning, we went out for a jog to loosen our legs up again and got a good stretch to help release some of the lactic acid build up! Then it was time to shower up and head to the W-League banquet which was held in our hotel. Luckily, it was a pretty quick luncheon, so we could head back to the rooms and get a quick nap before heading over to my dad’s house for a team bbq.
Lots of good food, drinks and company was enjoyed at the Zimny residence, but it all ended around 8:30 when it was time to get some rest and focus up on the championship game against Atlanta. This was a big game for us, especially since we were playing the Silverbacks. In 2003, when the Washington Freedom won the Founders Cup, our opponent in that game was the Atlanta Beat. In an odd way, we felt that maybe the Silverbacks would be out for blood this time trying to get revenge on that match from 4 years ago!
So, finally, Sunday evening rolls around and once again we gathered in the locker room to mentally prepare ourselves and take in the last minute coaching tips from Jim. The nerves and anticipation were high, but controlled, as many of us had been in a similar situation before. After warm-ups, Jim gave us a great pre-game speech about remembering what “this moment feels like” and how you might not remember the score or the little things but, you’ll always remember the teammates you had out on the field with you that day. I felt inspired! Walking onto the field was a huge rush of emotions, especially for me with my closest friends and family in the stands. Realizing this was our final game together, we all gathered in a huddle to say some last minute words before taking to the field. 1-2-3…Freedom!
The anticipation was killing me… “How was this game going to go? Could we handle the pressure? Could we continue to play our game and rise to the occasion???” Of course we could… And we did! Within the first two minutes of the game, we flew at the Atlanta defense and a nice ball played out to Becca Moros proved to work for us as she blasted a shot into the back of the net! Goaaaal! Phew… That took some pressure off! Now, all we needed to do was to continue to play our game, provide strong defense and not let the Silverback’s forwards get the ball. Five minutes before the half was over, Christie Welsh put away another goal for us off a pass from Sarah Huffman. Going into half time we had a two goal lead!
Only 45 minutes stood between us and the Championship trophy at this point and Jim gave us some more coaching to help us iron out the minor kinks we had on our end. Minutes later, we took the field for the second half. We came out hard and had some more opportunities to score, but the lead remained at two. Around the 67th minute, we had a minor lapse on defense and let them get a soft goal cutting our lead in half. As long as we regained our composure and kept at their defense, we would be successful in winning the game. Luckily, that’s exactly what happened. The life came back into our game that we momentarily lost as a result of the heat and lack of focus. For the next 20 minutes we fought the Silverbacks hard and finally in the 88th minute, our super-sub Tiffany McCarty was on the back end of an Atlanta keeper mistake and punished them by putting the ball in the back of the net! Wooo Hooooo! Our lead was secured! Less than five minutes later, the final whistle blew and we were crowned 2007 W-League Champions!! At the same time, Jim was getting a cooler full of ice water dumped on his head! Our fans went crazy and there was nothing but excitement in the air! We did it… we proved to everyone that we weren’t just a former WUSA name… We were and are a team that surpassed all obstacles and limitations put in front of us. It was a great feeling for all!
Soon after the game we stepped onto the stage to accept our medals and trophy, with nothing but ear to ear grins on our faces! We couldn’t have done this without each other, our fans and especially our coaches! So here we are… National Champions! Does it get any better than that?!?
Posted 7/12/2007 3:55:40 PM
Phew! So we pulled out a great win against Jersey Sky Blue this past Saturday after losing to them earlier in the season. The final score was 3-2 and the game was just as action packed as the score indicates!
After four hours of travel up to New Jersey, we all peeled ourselves from the seats of the 15 passenger vans to take a couple walking laps around the field we were to play on in 2 hours. The first thing out of everyone’s mouth was… “This field is SO narrow!” And it was! A whopping 68 yards wide; that’s tiny! Luckily, Jim had been preparing us for this the entire week by placing cones down each side of our practice field to mimic the playing conditions we were to have on Saturday.
Due to the heat (especially coming off the turf) we kept the warm-up short and sweet, making sure we got in the essential touches on the ball and the blood flowing. Once the team introductions and national anthem were over, we stepped on to the field with our game faces on!! We were ready to get at this team in the worst way…
As time ticked off the clock in the first half, it was obvious to everyone in the stadium that we had control of the game. We were in their half the entire time and getting shots off left and right. Unfortunately, Jersey Sky Blue put the first one in the net; Freedom down 1-0. Not long after the ref blew the whistle to start play again we tied it up at one from a goal by Ali Andrzejewski. YES! We were back in it. We never let down and that proved to work because again, just minutes later, we jammed another goal in the net, this time by Christie Welsh to put us in the lead 2-1 over our division rivals! We knew this team was crafty and could possibly produce a goal from nowhere so we were cautious in our approach to the remainder of the time left.
About 5 minutes left in the first half, Sky Blue’s right defender got the ball and launched it over our (defense) heads to a Sky Blue forward who was running on to it. The ball bounced free from her after a short tussle with KJ and Ali Krieger, but she was able to get a toe on it to slip it in to the far post. The score was tied at two going into half time.
Jim took us to the corner for a quick chat to get us reorganized and mentally back into the game. As we broke from the half-time talk, we noticed it was starting to get darker (as it was a 7:30pm start time), yet no lights were on. Five more minutes passed and we started to get worried when we saw the refs standing around on the sideline with baffled looks on their faces. Jim went over to talk to them and found out that the stadium was having problems with the lights. ARGH!! We were pumped and ready to get back on the field, but how could we play with no lights?!? There was no way we wanted to leave that stadium without a win! Literally, about 30 more minutes passed and we tried to remain active as to not let our muscles get cold, but patient at the same time. Finally, the crowd roared when the lights popped on. We quickly scrambled to get a drastically abbreviated warm-up in as the lights peaked at their full brightness.
Both teams jumped back on the field to fight out the last 45 minutes. Again, we had control of the game and were getting good crosses and shots on goal. About 15 or 20 minutes into the second half, Christie Welsh took a strike on goal and slotted it right past their keeper. YES!! We were winning 3 to 2! This time we weren’t willing to let anything by us. Jersey Sky Blue kept launching balls down our throats hoping to catch us off guard, but we kept putting it right back into their half. Emotions were flaring and tempers were getting heated on both sides, but for the most part we remained level headed and knew that all we had to do was keep the ball out of our goal! Even though there were only about 20 or 25 minutes left in the half, it seemed like eternity before the final whistle blew. We fought hard and it all paid off when we walked off the field with a win against a team who had beaten us 3-0 just weeks earlier. Yesss! One step closer to the W-League Championship!
As long as we win the rest of our regular season games, we are off to the playoffs which will most likely be held in Ottawa. So, if you’re one of the few who haven’t yet come to see us play, this weekend is your last chance to watch your Washington Freedom play at home! Visit www.WashingtonFreedom.com for more details!! Hope to see you there!
Posted 6/21/2007 11:40:12 AM
So here we are almost halfway through our season and things are looking pretty good for us! We’ve had six games so far and we are still undefeated, which is very exciting. I’m very hopeful that the remainder of the games will have similar outcomes as our first six. Unfortunately we couldn’t pull out a win last night against the New Jersey Wildcats, but a 1-1 draw on the road isn’t terrible.
These next couple of games will be a bit tougher for us, but with the team we have, I am positive that we can fight our way through and come out on top. Our practices have been going really well and the camaraderie between the individual players and coaches has been spectacular. During our “spring training” I wasn’t quite sure how everything would pan out with girls from so many different colleges, states, playing styles, etc., but I think having a common goal can tie a team together better than anything. We are all so competitive and here to better ourselves as soccer players, but ultimately our shorter term goal is to win the W-League National Championship! The Freedom has done it before in the WUSA in 2003 and I have every intention of bringing another trophy back to DC this year!
Don’t forget to come out and watch us play against the Long Island Lady Riders on Sunday, June 24th and Jersey Sky Blue on Wednesday, June 27th! Jersey Sky Blue should be a tougher game for us, so it would be a great opportunity to come out and watch a good battle against two great teams!
Posted 5/21/2007 9:20:51 AM
Our first game of the 2007 W-League season proved to be successful as we walked away with a 3-1 win against the Long Island Lady Rough Riders. As it was an away game, we all met at the Washington Freedom office in Columbia, MD and left from there on Friday morning and journeyed up to St. Johns University on Long Island.
About four hours later, after making a couple of quick stops to pick up players and some snacks, we arrived at the stadium. The weather conditions for a tourist or spectator were less than satisfactory, but perfect for a soccer game in May. It was cloudy, mildly chilly, and slightly drizzly. Okay, maybe the weather wasn't perfect, per se, but I would much rather play in the cooler, ugly weather than in the stifling humidity that comes towards the middle of our season! Ugh.
So, we all piled in to a locker room and started to mentally prepare for the game along with finishing up introductions as we gained a couple new players in the day or two before the game. Nicknames were tossed around and a healthy dose of chit-chat went on until it was time to be checked by the referees. Soon after we headed out on to the field for our first official warm-up as a team. Thirty minutes later, after getting the necessary stretching and touches on the ball, we headed back into the locker room for our final chat with Jim before the game. Going into it, we knew they were going to be a physically tough team (as some of us still have bruising from last years bout with them!), but he gave us a last minute pep talk that reminded us of everything that we've gone through individually and collectively to get to this point in our soccer careers. Meaning, we needed to play like a team with a mission and make every point count, as we wanted to be the last team standing at the end of the league playoffs. Then it was time to take the field and represent!
The first whistle of the game blew and we took control of the game from the get-go. We played in a 4-4-2 formation with Kati Jo (KJ) in the goal, Philbin, Senti, Singer and myself on defense. Golebiowski, Hammond, Kidwell and Lindsey were in midfield with Andrzejewski and Welsh up top. As our team chemistry on the field has not yet been fully established, there were some glitches with passing such as not playing the ball with enough urgency, being too nonchalant or risky, and trying to force passes in small spaces instead of spreading the other team out and exploiting the open spaces down the flanks (where the wide midfielders are) and getting crosses in. Although 95% of the play was in their half of the field, we still only squeaked out a 1-0 lead at half time on a goal by Ali Andrzejewski.
When we came back out to the field, after discussing some of the above issues, we were ready to address our weak points. But as most teams would in this situation, the Lady Riders changed around their formation. Instead of playing the 4-5-1 that they were trying to make successful in the first half, they came out with a 4-4-2, eventually pushing another one forward (later in the game) leaving them with a 4-3-3. The majority of the play was still held up in their half, but we had to work a bit harder to string successful passes together. All in all, I feel like we did play with more urgency in the second half and we were better at getting crosses into the box, but it was far from our potential.
After an unfortunate penalty kick call in their favor, the game was tied 1-1. This lit a little bit of a fire under our butts as shots on goal were increasing and we ended up taking corner kick after corner kick. Not long after, Christie Welsh put away a goal to put us up 2-1. The Lady Riders continued to pressure us which kept us fighting for another goal and as it came down to the last minutes in the game, they decided to push all of their players forward and lock us into the middle third of the field. A through ball to Welsh sent her off to the races, which tallied up another goal for us leaving the score at 3-1. The whistle to end the game finally blew and the first win of our season was now under our belts! Thirteen or more to go!
We look forward to seeing you in the stands on June 9th and meeting us for some snacks after the game (win!) at Hard Times Café and Cue in Germantown! See you there!
Posted 4/10/2007 8:26:12 PM
Wow! It’s been a while since I last wrote, but more importantly there have been a lot of VERY exciting developments since I last wrote! Let’s see… At the end of February, the WSII (Women’s Soccer Initiative, Inc.) announced the relaunch of the WUSA in 2008. Even after waiting 4 years for this, it still seems like the relaunch is years away!! I want to start playing tomorrow! Well, good things come to those who wait, so I guess we’ll just sit back and wait to hear what happens in the coming months.
What else, what else?? Oh.. . We (the Freedom) signed a couple new players who are going to make excellent additions to the team. First of all, we have Christie Welsh who is a Penn State graduate. I’m not going to go into too much detail with her accolades because this blog would end up being twice as long as needed, but to make a long story short, Christie is an amazing soccer player. She had a great career at Penn State where she won both the Herman Trophy and M.A.C. Player of the Year award in 2001 and she’s been a huge asset to the Women’s National Team since her debut in 2000. I played against her when I was at the University of Connecticut, in the WUSA and in the W-League and this time around I’m just happy that we’ll be wearing the same uniform!
The Freedom signed another new player by the name of Kati Jo Spisak. Unfortunately, I’ve never played with or against Kati, but I’m pretty excited to meet and train with her as I’ve heard nothing but great things about her. She’s a goalkeeper who hails from Manchester, MO and a four year starter at Texas A&M.
And then we have the returnees… We have a great group of girls coming back to represent the Freedom on the field for at least one more summer!! The forwards include Sarah Huffman, Anabel Jimenez, Tara Kidwell and Lisa Zanti. In midfield we have, Kelly Hammond, Ali Krieger and Lori Lindsay. And on defense, we have Melissa Whitley and myself. As it is still early, we will have more girls joining or returning to the team in the weeks ahead.
Right now, the girls who are in town from the women’s Freedom team have been training with one of the Freedom youth teams as we don’t have the numbers, yet to have a productive practice on our own. The younger girls definitely keep us on our toes and help provide us with the fitness training that we need in order to be prepared for the season. Fortunately, we share basically the same coaching staff as the younger team so we have very similar technical and tactical training in the mean time. Thanks Jim and Clyde!
As for the season, I can’t tell you how excited I am to get back on the field in Germantown and play competitively again! After working an 8 to 5 job for the past 10 months, I think I started to grow cobwebs. Anyway, I think we have a great schedule to tackle and with the team that the coaches have put together for us so far, I think we have an excellent chance at winning the W-League Championship!!!
We’re all excited to see both old and new fans at our games this summer, so make sure you sign up for your membership and tell friends, family and coworkers about your favorite women’s soccer team…. Go Freedom! See you soon!
Posted 7/25/2006 9:36:41 PM
Put another Victory in the win column for the Freedom. In spite of the season winding down for us, we were still able to win our second to last game against a tough Hampton Roads team. The Hampton Roads Piranhas traveled to DC to play the second game of our home, away series. If you remember, we beat the Piranhas 3-0 down at their place, so they were certainly looking for revenge.
This is how it all went down. We were all in the locker room, ready for our pre-game talk, when Jim announced that the Piranhas had still not arrived at the Soccerplex. This was not the first time we had this same announcement. Our team was commenting that it seemed like almost every home game had not started on time for one reason or another. The fact that our game was not starting on time was not a surprise. So we did what girls do best - - we had gossip time. We picked a topic and everyone shared their personal experiences to keep the time passing. Needless to say before we knew it, it was time to warmup. As it turned out, the Piranhas were struggling to field a team to make the trip. We found out that they were literally calling players up until 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to depart from Hampton Roads. They finally had their team present and accounted for, an hour after their original departure time.
In spite of their tardiness, the Piranhas orgaization obviously knows how to pick players because some of our Freedom players have experience playing with them, Kele Golebiowski and Casey Zimny. They play for the good guys now! They also have a couple of Nigerian National players, one of which is Merci Akide. Merci is a tough forward to defend - she played in the WUSA for the San Diego Spirit. She is very physical and when she gets the ball to face up, she is off to the races and hard to keep up with. The piranhas game plan was simple: get the ball to Merci and let her score. Our game plan, same as usual: spread the ball out, ping it around quickly, one-two touch, get and finish lots of chances.
I think one of our biggest problems this season has been our starts, meaning in the first half we have a tough time getting into the game, but rebound in the second half really well. Merci and the Piranhas ended up scoring first, but thank goodness it was their only goal for the game. We had a good run of the play in the second half when Kelly Hammond, one of our central midfielders rocked a shot from inside the 18 yard box. The ball that she struck, ping ponged off the cross bar and ground before finally going in the goal, 1-1 tie game. Kelly's goal gave us the boost that we needed to make a run at taking the lead. We made some substitutions to get some fresh legs on and that seemed to help. Both Lisa Zanti and LB Puglisi came in up top and seemed to give the Piranhas' defense a tough time. We moved the ball quickly and were able to set Lisa up to take on a couple of players at the top of the box and rip a shot past the goalkeeper into the left corner. There were maybe 10 minutes to play and the only thing to do at that point was to play smart and possess the ball without giving them any chances to even the score. I coach a bunch of club teams in the area and I like to call it "Seal the Deal." Which we did - the Game ends 2-1, The Good Guys on top! By the way, thanks to all those Freedom Fans who stuck around to cheer us on!
Over and Out!
Other Freedom news...Don't forget we have our final game of the season against FFV Neubrandenburg, a German club team July 30th at 6pm at the Germantown Soccerplex! Hope to see all of you there!
Posted 7/11/2006 10:21:18 AM
Hi Freedom Fans! Emily Janss here, filling in for Casey Zimny. Yesterday started out in very exciting fashion, tons of our fans joined us for the World Cup viewing party at Glory Days. The World Cup Final was a very well played game between Italy and France. There were lots of ups and downs; a head butting incident, some yellow cards, spectacular goals and penalty kicks. Judging from allegiances of the crowd at Glory Days the fan support was split down the middle. When France scored the first goal, half of Glory Days went crazy and then the other half went crazy when Italy scored their equalizer. We were all glued to our seats as the regulation time came to an end. Usually for our Freedom games we have to report to the locker room by 4:30, but nobody was going anywhere. The game went through overtime tied 1-1, and then onto the round of penalty kicks. The sports reporters had stated that this would be the second time a World Cup final had been decided by penalty kicks, - the last time that happened was in 1984. First round, both players finished their chances, second round, the French player
missed and the Italian made his: 2-1, The Italian's ended up winning by one goal.
We had the soccer fever going into our game against the NJ Wildcats, having just witnessed the World Cup Final. The unfortunate thing is we didn't end up with the result we would have liked last night. There were some good things that came out of it though. The last time we played the Wildcats we started the game like "deers in headlights," we were down in the first half by two and then struggled to come back the rest of the game. Having played the Wildcats up in NJ we knew strategy-wise what we were in for this go around. We knew it would be a tight game and goals would be earned and few and far between. We knew that they had two very good, technical forwards who were their biggest scoring threats. Well, this game we started out better, taking the pace of the game to them and ended up scoring in the first 10-15 minutes of the first half. We had a couple of other chances to go up 2-0, but couldn't capitalize. So we walked into the locker room up by one, but not feeling like we were really possessing the ball as much as we would have liked. Our coaches Jim and Clyde gave us some tactical
adjustments and spacing ideas and we felt good about what would come in the second half.
Early in the second half we were scored on, off of a cross that all of our defenders said went out of bounds by about two feet. Neither the linesman nor the referee were up with the play so they must have missed the part where the ball went out of bounds. Tied ball game! I must say that we all have been playing long enough to know that you should never let a referee get the best of you, but I think we probably let it affect us last night. All in all, we were pushing numbers forward to get the win and we weren't able to keep the Wildcats from counter-attacking and scoring to take the lead 2-1. Its a shame that we couldn't "even the score" by winning last night, because we only have two games left and the Wildcats are typically one of more competitive games that we play. Come and check us out when we take on The Hampton Road Pirhana's next Wednesday night at the Soccerplex.
Other Freedom News... The past couple of weeks have been very busy for the Freedom players and staff. We were up at Cedar Lane Park putting on a camp and the day seemed to fly by because the kids were having such a great time. This week we'll be putting on camp out at Valley View. The camp I'm looking forward to the most is the Women's Camp that we put on, on Thursday nights. I think there is a general appreciation for where we have come from and what those women are still trying to do, just enjoying playing soccer after many of them have kids and careers!
Posted 6/15/2006 10:56:19 AM
We've got one more win under our belt after playing the South Jersey Banshees this past Sunday at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown. It was such a high scoring game (8-0, no offense to the Banshees) that I hope no one is offended if I don't mention who all scored! All in all, it was a well-fought game. Yes, we came out on top as far as scoring, but it wasn't for lack of trying on the Banshees' part.
To begin the game, South Jersey only had 11 people to field a team; meaning they had no subs! Thank goodness that the DC humidity hasn't come in to full effect yet or else they would've been struggling for fresh legs… even more than they already were! The Banshees' had a game the night before (Saturday) where a couple injuries occurred so it was a tough weekend for them. It was actually pretty amazing that they were able to get 11 players on the field since there were only about 9 of them who were considered healthy! As the game progressed and I'm sure frustration was setting in more than ever, their players started dropping like flies. Yeah, we go in for hard tackles and all, but it seemed like every 10 minutes we were stopping to haul another one of their players off the field. It's hard to see a team in that situation because the last thing you want to do is add insult to injury and keep scoring goals while they are quickly deteriorating. In a situation like this, I think we become our greatest enemy, as we take too much time to think about our next move or pass, just because we have the time. All week long, Jim and Clyde remind us that they can set up the drills all they want, but ultimately we are the ones who will have to challenge ourselves to become better, faster and more efficient on the soccer field. If we walk or jog through practice, that's the same kind of performance we will unfortunately put on the field come game time. So when the Banshees started playing a man down, that was a time for us to demand a bit more from ourselves by thinking faster and playing quicker. It wasn't until the second half that we actually achieved that goal.
As we stepped back on the field for the second half, the scoreboard read 6-0, Freedom, but there was an interesting development at half time. Two of our U-20 Freedom players were "traded" to the Banshees to help alleviate some of the stress of not being able to produce a full team. Katie Watson and Jill Porto were able to produce much more for South Jersey in 5 to 10 minutes than their entire team could do in the first half. Try as they might, though, we were still able to put goals in the back of their net to finish the game 8-0. I have a lot of respect for the way that the remaining players continued to give their best effort on the field and didn't just throw in the towel after several of their teammates went down with injuries. As you can see, the second half for us wasn't nearly as successful as the first and I give a lot of credit to the "survivors"!!
Needless to say, Sunday's game wasn't the most physically demanding nor was it a pretty sight to see, but in the end, we tallied another win!
In other news…. The Washington Freedom is now on MySpace! Yep, that's right, folks, the Freedom has taken on the trendy profile and blogging site that all of America has been talking about! Check in and say hello sometime. You can comment on your favorite player, coach, game or soccer moment so far this season or you can ask questions you've always wanted to know about your favorite player! The options are endless! Go to www.myspace.com/washingtonfreedom to get the inside scoop on what's happening with your Washington Freedom!
Posted 5/30/2006 9:38:58 PM
Even though we had a minor hiccup last week, the Freedom is back on
track. Despite missing several freedom regulars including Lori Lindsey,
Mallory Mahar and Johanna Lohmann, we still put on a solid performance
in our second game against the Long Island Lady Riders this season. The
conditions of the field and weather were much different this time
around, but the final result remained the same. When we played the Lady
Riders in NY the turf field was about the size of a postage stamp and
there were what seemed like 50 mile an hour winds!! On Sunday, though,
the setting couldn’t have been more perfect for a nice evening of
soccer…
Starting the game in a 4-4-2 formation we were looking to spread the
field as wide as possible and get quick changes in the point of attack
in order to catch their defense off guard and exploit the gaps. Right
from the first whistle we were able to take control of the game and
dictate the speed of play. It wasn’t long till we had several chances
on goal from crosses, shots and corner kicks. After a couple near
misses, Emily Janss put one in the back of the net with the outside of
her right foot off of a cross as she ran across the mouth of the goal.
Then just as Clyde (Watson, our assistant coach) had predicted, the
Lady Riders completely dropped off and bunkered in, so playing quick
and swinging the ball from one side of the field to the other was key
in our strategy. To say the least, there wasn’t much action for us
defensively unless we created the situation ourselves due to a mistake.
At the start of the second half, it was evident that the Lady Riders
had some plan up their sleeve because all of a sudden, our defensive
line went from marking essentially one person to marking about 3 or 4
players at any given time. But that was fine for us because that left
our midfielders a little more wide open to move the ball around and
find the forwards. On our offensive corner kicks Long Island left at
least 3 players sitting at midfield to keep our defenders from getting
into the attack, which wasn’t a bad idea, but we were obviously able to
handle the situation fairly well as we didn’t have any goals scored on
us! But I must say that they had more opportunities in the second half
than they did in the first. Maybe what they were trying was somewhat
effective or maybe fatigue just set in for us.. Who knows… Finally,
even with their “bunkering” we scored again to make it 2-0. Eventually
I think their forwards just got frustrated, stopped working together
and that was all she wrote...
Thanks to Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak for playing with us the last two
weekends! And thank you to all the fans that showed up to support us
this weekend and last. It’s so nice to hear people cheering and
supporting you when you’re on the field and then seeing your friendly
faces while doing autographs! Please continue to come and watch us do
what we love to do!!
Posted 5/24/2006 10:26:02 PM
This past Saturday, we, the Washington Freedom, had our season home opener at the Germantown SoccerPlex against the Ottawa Fury. Now, if you were at the game, you may have commented that the outcome was a "bummer" or "unfortunate", but even though we lost 1-0 by a goal scored in the last 5 minutes of the game, I think the game was successful on many levels...
Okay, okay, you may think I'm crazy for saying that, but I honestly feel that in the end, when I/we look back on the weekend and even the weeks leading up to the game, we should be proud of ourselves. First of all, we have been training our butts off obviously with help from our coaches, but my point is that we came into the season with two wins, but we never just sat back and rode on the coattails of those wins. We've had a revolving door of players coming and going because of school and other scheduling conflicts, but we make the minor changes here and there and ultimately we grow from the experience.
Coming into the game this past Saturday, we trained the same way we would any other week. On the day of the game we all met in the locker room, as usual, chatted and joked about day to day stuff and welcomed players we haven't seen in a while, like Tiffany Roberts. Around 5:20 or so we walked out to the field to warm-up for the game ahead. About 25-30 minutes later we headed back inside to have our pre-game chat with Jim and he explained to us that we were going to be playing a slightly different formation than we were used to, but like I said before we are used to change, although this was a little more last minute than usual! Needless to say we were up for the challenge.
As the whistle blew to start the first half, you could sense a little nervousness on the field. Personally, I was excited for the new formation because as a central defender, I don't really get to do much offensively, but since I was starting at left back I felt like I had a little more freedom, if you will, to go forward. Soon after I realized that defending with only three in the back might be a little harder than I had thought. We had some difficulty getting he ball up to our forwards and even then it was hard for our forwards to keep possession due to some congestion in the midfield. I feel like it was also difficult for our wide midfielders to transition from essentially acting as an outside back on defense to being the far post run on offense in the matter of seconds! For that, I would like to give a special shout out to Kele and Janssy! forgive me if I am getting too technical, but the point I am trying to get to is that we seemed very disoriented at times during the first half, potentially becoming our own worse opponent. But there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
At half-time Jim and Clyde spoke with us about our positional responsibilities and how they differed from what we were actually doing on the field. They answered several questions that we were trying to answer in the run pf play, but couldn't quite put our finger on. Afterwards we headed back out to the field and this time we seemed much more confident.
The second half began with us knocking the ball around and getting chances in front of the goal, but we just couldn't put it in the back of the net. Most of the second half was played on their end and we felt much more organized than the 45 minutes previous. We made some player changes as usual, but we continues to dominate the second half. Although we know the final outcome of the game wasn't favorable for us, the reason I say that it was successful is because it added another notch in our belt. What I mean is that this was another challenge that we were able to work out in a matter of 15 minutes. Granted, we do need to work on putting the ball in the goal and some numbers on the scoreboard because ultimately that's what really matters, if you want to win. But as cheesy as it sounds, I consider that game a learning and growing experience.
For those of you who weren't there, I'll tell you what happened in the final minutes... So, there we were dominating the second half and some random fluke occurred where they actually got the ball into our half (*wink*). It gets a little blurry, but anyway, the ref called a foul about 25 yards out on the left side of the field. From this free kick, I believe they got a corner kick. The ball was crossed in from the left and everyone was marked up. A Freedom player, possibly Jo Lohman tried to clear the ball and caught a bad bounce making the ball go straight up in the air. It was then headed out to the right side of the goal and Fury player got a foot on the ball, crossing it back in front of the goal. The ball ricocheted off of about three people before bouncing out perfectly to a Fury players feet around the top of the six yard box. All she had to do is make an easy pass into the goal as we were all still trying to figure out where the ball was... But that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
And the other reason the game was a success was because we had approximately 1,500 people in attendance on Saturday! The weekend before the Fury game our excellent Freedom staff headed by Jeremy Steindecker set up a free Mothers' Day Clinic at the Germantown complex. I would estimate about 55 mothers and daughters showed up for the clinic and we all had a great time. We showed the moms some skills and drills that they see their daughters do at practice and I think they were starting to really appreciate what their kids are able to do with the ball! To end the clinic, they scrimmaged moms against daughters and then had a short autograph session as we said goodbye. But what impressed me the most was almost all of the moms and daughters that came to the clinic, also came to our game on Saturday. That said a lot to me about how much they enjoyed the clinic and how much they cared about seeing us play a real game. I think our staff has done a tremendous job getting the word out there to people that the Freedom is still alive and playing games, but seeing firsthand that we had positively affected the moms and daughters was exciting. Hopefully they and everyone else that came to the game had an amazing time and will tell their friends and family not to miss another game for the world!
