Washington Freedom
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| Washington Freedom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Washington Freedom Soccer Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | Freedom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Maryland SoccerPlex (Capacity 3,500) |
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| Chairman |  Jeremy Steindecker |
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| Manager | Jim Gabarra |
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| League | USL W-League | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2008 | in progress | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Washington Freedom is an American women’s soccer team, founded in 2001 as part of the Women's United Soccer Association, and currently a member of the United Soccer Leagues W-League, the premier women’s soccer league in the United States. The Freedom play in the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference.
The Freedom play their home games in the stadium at Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown, Maryland. The club's colors are blue, red and white.
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[edit] 2008 Roster
as at June 1, 2008
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[edit] History
The Washington Freedom was one of the eight professional soccer teams that played in the Women's United Soccer Association from 2001 to 2003. The team won the WUSA Founders Cup III in their final year, shortly before the league announced on September 15, 2003, that it was suspending operations. Unique among the WUSA teams, though, the Freedom maintained a continued existence, playing exhibition seasons in 2004 and 2005, then joining the W-League in 2006 and winning the W-League Championship in 2007. The Freedom will join Women's Professional Soccer when the new league launches in April 2009.
[edit] WUSA Years (2001-2003)
The team played its home games at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., where the team offices were also located. The team's "founding players" (players from the national team allocated three to each WUSA team) were Mia Hamm, Siri Mullinix and Michelle French. The team was expected by some to be one of the best in the league but finished seventh out of the eight teams their first season.
However, this finish allowed the Freedom to select Abby Wambach as their first pick in the 2002 WUSA draft. Additional personnel changes, better performance from retained players, and a Mia Hamm improved by off-season knee surgery led to a far better finish, as Washington went undefeated in their last eight matches and finished in third place (only two points out of first). In the postseason, they won their semifinal match against the Philadelphia Charge, 1-0, and went to the Founders Cup, the WUSA championship match, which they lost, 3-2, to the Carolina Courage.
In 2003, the Freedom were just good enough to make the playoffs, clinching the fourth and final spot with two games to go. However, they would go on to beat the regular season champion Boston Breakers in the semifinals, 0-0 (3-1 penalty kick shootout), and then defeated the Atlanta Beat in the Founders Cup, 2-1, in overtime.
[edit] Exhibition Years (2004-2005)
The Freedom maintained an existence as the Washington Freedom Soccer Club, moving their home stadium to the Maryland Soccerplex and putting together a roster combining half-a-dozen players from the WUSA days with young local players. In 2004, they played assorted exhibition matches agsinst college and W-League teams and participated in the WUSA Festivals.
In 2005, the roster was significantly upgraded by adding former WUSA players like Tiffany Roberts, Kylie Bivens, and Emily Janss, as well as players Ali Krieger and Joanna Lohman from the U-21 National Team. The team also brought in former star soccer players Sun Wen and Brandi Chastain as guest players for one game each. In a season of exhibition matches, almost all against W-League teams, the Freedom compiled a 7-2-2 record.
[edit] W-League Years (2006-2008)
The team became an associate member of the W-League in 2006 and played an exhibition season based on home-and-home series against east coast W-League teams. Then, on December 7, 2006, Washington announced that they had acquired a full W-League franchise.
In 2007, playing games that mattered for the first time since 2003, the Freedom compiled a 12-1-1 record, defeated the regular season champion Ottawa Fury in the Eastern Conference championship game, then went on to beat the Atlanta Silverbacks, 3-1, in the W-League championship match.
[edit] The Future (2009-)
The Washington Freedom will be one of at least seven teams that make up the Women's Professional Soccer league scheduled to start play in 2009.[1]
[edit] Year-by-year regular season record
| Year | League | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | Home | Away |
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| 2001 | WUSA | 6 | 12 | 3 | 21 | 26 | 35 | 3-6-1 | 3-6-2 |
| 2002 | WUSA | 11 | 5 | 5 | 38 | 40 | 29 | 6-2-3 | 5-3-2 |
| 2003 | WUSA | 9 | 8 | 4 | 31 | 40 | 31 | 6-2-2 | 3-6-2 |
| 2007 | W-League | 12 | 1 | 1 | 37 | 48 | 10 | 6-1-0 | 6-0-1 |
[edit] Championships
[edit] Notable Former Players
- Brandi Chastain
- Mia Hamm
- Steffi Jones
- Jennifer Meier
- Sandra Minnert
- Tiffany Roberts
- Abby Wambach
- Sun Wen
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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