The Washington Freedom and DC United are announcing that the Washington Freedom will take over the DC United's girls Super-Y team for the 2008 season.
"In partnership with the Washington Freedom and in advance of the launch of the new Women's Professional Soccer league, D.C. United will be handing over the girls side of our youth development program to the Freedom," said John Maessner, United Director of Youth Development. "Although we have very much enjoyed having girls teams in the past, we believe it makes more sense for the Washington Freedom to take the lead role in working with the top young female soccer players in the area and firmly establishing a professional avenue for those players to aspire to."
Win Puffer, the Freedom's Youth Coordinator said "we are pleased to partner with DC United and be able for us to support each other's youth initiatives. With the launch of the Women's Professional Soccer league in 2009, we hope to be able to work with the top players in the area with the hope that they will one day wear the Freedom jersey in the WPS."
The Washington Freedom's U20 Tiffany Brown was named to the USL Super-20 All-League Team and U15 Player Taylor Bryant was named to the Super-Y All-League Team.
Both the U20's and U15's represented the club at the USL North American Finals. The U20's finished with a record of 2-1 at the Finals just missing out on a chance to defend their 2006 North American Title in August. The U20's posted an 8-0-0 regular season record. The U15's finished 1-1-1 at the Finals in the team's first season in the Super-Y League where they finished 11-2-0 and earned their first trip to the North American Finals in November.
Final SYL First 11 Announced Club rankings shuffle following the SYL North American FinalsFriday, December 14
TAMPA,
FL – United Soccer Leagues announced today the final Super Y-League
First and Second 11 Club rankings for the 2007 season, recognizing the
league’s top competitive and administrative clubs. The release follows
the SYL North American Finals, where 21 of the clubs in the rankings
competed for ten championships held late last month in Tampa, Florida.
Coming
into the 2007 North American Finals, Seacoast United, who finished
sixth in the First 11 rankings last season, stood in second place
behind the Washington Crossfire. Seacoast continued to excel in the
postseason, finalizing their 68-25-20 season record by adding five wins
and three draws at the highly-competitive North American Finals.
Seacoast United’s performance at the North American Finals boosted them
past the Crossfire granting them the right to call themselves the top
Super Y-League club of the 2007 season with a SYL First 11 final score
of 80.5.
“The criteria used to rank these clubs is basic yet
essential to the Super Y-League’s philosophy of providing a
professionalized atmosphere for the top youth players in North
America,” said USL Super Y-League and Super -20 League Director of
Operations Melanie Fitzgerald. “United Soccer Leagues wanted a way to
salute those clubs who consistently succeed not only on the field but
off the field as well.”
The Cleveland Internationals finished atop the girls table in the
2007 Preliminary SYL First 11 Rankings with a score of 96.8. Their
three representatives in the finals (U13, U14 & U15 girls) combined
to forge a 14-0-1 record in the event, each claiming their respective
SYL Championship. The Internationals success pushed their score past
the century mark for the first time in league history. The club
finished the season with a score of 105.8 in the girls club rankings.
Their overall club ranking also rose from a 70.1 preliminary ranking
(eighth overall), to a 79.1 (third overall) final ranking.
Another
addition to the post-season SYL Final 11 rankings is the insertion of
the Southern California clubs. This season, the team who made the
biggest strides at the North American Finals was Arsenal FC. The
Southern California side won championships at the Super Y-League U14
and U15 boys’ level. The pair of cups advanced the club to second in
the SYL First 11 Rankings with a score of 79.8. They finished fourth
among SYL boys clubs with a score of 81.8.
Also making a name
for themselves was first-year club, Player Development Academy out of
Zarephath, New Jersey. This summer they joined Kendall SC as the only
two champions of United Soccer Leagues’ Super-20 League by winning a
showdown with the Toronto Lynx in the Super-20 Semifinals that will go
down as one of most thrilling matches of the year. The following
afternoon they downed the Chicago Fire Premier 3-1 for the title. The
club continued their run by qualifying their only two teams competing
in the Super Y-League, their U14 and U16 boys to these North American
Finals. PDA finished first among boys clubs in both the preliminary and
final SYL Rankings with a score of 86.8.
About the SYL First 11 Club Rankings The
Super Y-League launched a new club ranking system in 2005 with the top
clubs ranked from 1-22 and separated into the First and Second 11. With
the extensive growth of the second-year USL Super-20 League, the 2007
rankings also include a club’s performance in the new league. This
system publicizes the top 22 clubs in both the boys and girls
categories as well as overall. The rankings are based primarily upon
the on-field results - winning percentage accounting for 70 percent of
the score. Minimum standards and operations complete the other 30
percent.
Culminating nearly a year of training; league, state cup, and tournament matches, our McLean Freedom attained the ultimate goal in youth soccer – A National Championship Title!Winning the Region 1 Championship earlier this month qualified the Freedom along with 3 other regional winners; the Michigan Hawks form Region 2, the Dallas Texans from Region 3, and the Pleasanton Rage from Region 4.The championship format included 3 preliminary games with the top 2 teams advancing to the finals.This format requires teams who advance to play one another twice.
The week's activities began with a team luncheon on Tuesday at the Frisco Convention Center followed by early morning games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a final scheduled for Saturday.The Freedom's first opponent was the Michigan Hawks who they had played and lost to once before.The Hawks and Freedom play a very similar style of soccer and in terms of possession, the game was fairly even.But the Freedom made their chances count tallying 3 goals to nil.The next preliminary game was against the Dallas Texans, a team they had never played who were certainly the local, and in many eyes, tournament favorite.The Texans came out with a lot of energy and the first 5 minutes of play was end to end soccer.However, according to coach Clyde Watson, the Freedom played a technically flawless half of their style of soccer.During that half, they scored twice while giving up no goals.The Texans appeared to be stunned.The second half was characterized with erratic play and lots of fouls.The Texans managed to score near the end of the half but the Freedom won 2-1.
With 2 wins, a Friday victory or tie would guarantee the Freedom the number 1 seed.But with a loss and a Texans win, three teams would have 2 wins and 1 loss and one would not advance.And a good soccer team from Northern California was not going to make it easy – The Pleasanton Rage.Going into this third match, Pleasanton had 1 loss and 1 win and were a candidate for the 3 way tie.Another possession team, the Rage played toe to toe with the Freedom for 60 minutes with no goals scored.But midway through the second half, the Freedom finished a cross making the score 1-0.Within a minute, Pleasanton scored the equalizer.They went on to add 2 more scores so the final score was 3-1.There was a 3 way tie but losing by only 2 goals put the Freedom into the finals because they had a +2 goal differential and Pleasanton's was only +1.The Freedom advanced to play the Texans once again.
Finals morning began with a team breakfast and what had become the usual trip to Pizza Hut Park, a wonderful soccer facility.It was partly cloudy with possible showers in the forecast.During warm-up, a rainbow formed over the Freedom, a good omen.As they had become accustomed, both teams marched out at 7:20.This was followed by the playing of our National Anthem.The game started at 7:30 sharp.As he did in the previous game, Watson used a 4-4-2 formation to counter the Texans who came out like a caged lion.The Freedom withstood their initial onslaught but after a questionable call in the Texans penalty area against a Freedom player, the Texans countered with a score – They were up 1-0 and for some, the Freedom's chances for the title may have diminished.But not to the players or coach.As this team has done many times in the past, they kept fighting and did not give up but the halftime score remained 1-0, Texans.The second half started with light rain that began midway in the first half.Within 5 minutes, their desire paid off with the Freedom tallying the equalizer.Shortly thereafter, the Freedom had 3 excellent chances to go ahead but could not find the back of the net.The game was destined for two 15- minute overtime periods which was the same scenario the Freedom faced in the Regional Semi Final match.
The overtime began with clearing skies.Due to many months of conditioning and proper training by Watson and the team's former assistant Dave Tenney, the Freedom was the stronger team which they proved by scoring the go ahead goal after three minutes of play.They added another a few minutes later making the score 3-1 after the first period.As during much of the game, there were many fouls and yellow cards.With only a minute to play, the Texans scored but it was too little too late, THE FREEDOM WON!
Winning a National Championship is a tremendous accomplishment and Freedom players and coaches are extremely proud.In addition to the title, the Freedom won the Fair Play Award given to the team believed to best exemplify sportsmanship throughout the tournament.But the team's accomplishment is much greater than the win.For years, Coach Clyde Watson has taught a style of possession soccer that many call "Clyde Watson Soccer."To play his game requires skill, knowledge, and teamwork that many coaches don't want to promote due to considerable time and dedication required.Watson has said that it's much easier to find big, fast, and strong players than taking the time to teach the game. But this very dedicated coach has stayed true to his beliefs and won it all.Congratulations to the Freedom Players and most of all, Clyde Watson.He won it his way!
Friday, December 14 
Culminating nearly a year of training; league, state cup, and tournament matches, our McLean Freedom attained the ultimate goal in youth soccer – A National Championship Title!