What has gone wrong for the Freedom?

First, I will do a little fancy recap of the Chicago game, before heading off to making some points that many of you have dutifully already brought up in comments, as well as ideas from previous blogs. Then, I shall travel to the pregame report for the visit of the Los Angeles Sol on Sunday. But before that, I would like to wish everyone an early Happy 4th of July!

So, as you all know, we lost in Chicago 2-1. That makes the Redstars the first team to ever win from a deficit. We still have not been able to beat Chicago. Now don't get me wrong, they are a talented squad, but based on form and such, we really should have gone in there picking up a win. It was the same lineup as the loss to Boston. So, within the first minute, I thought to myself, "Oh lord, this cannot be a good day," as Cat Whitehill cleared a shot off the line. McLeod saved well at the feet of Cristiane and Tarpley. The Redstars seemed to be piling it on initially, but the Freedom worked themselves back in. Lisa De Vanna was a threat with her runs, and she created the first goal, running with the ball and crossing right to the feet of Abby Wambach. Abby actually scored, so some good was taken from this game. The Freedom lead 1-0 going into the halftime break.

The second half started and the Freedom were all at sea. About 2 minutes into the half, Cristiane scored, somehow. I'm not quite sure what she did, but it looked mighty impressive. Backheel? Then things fell apart even further. Erin McLeod, like she did in the first half, was forced to make save after save. However, she could not keep out Lindsay Tarpley in the 61st minute. At the very end of the game, Lisa De Vanna came close to getting the equalizer but could not manage to get a touch on the ball to guide it into the empty net. So that was that. Chicago finally breaks their winless and scoreless streak. They are back into 5th place on 14 points, while the Freedom hang on to fourth with 16 points from 13 games.

The stats give Erin McLeod 8 saves, and they were all crucial. Could she have been at fault for the first goal? Not really, she saved it, and the defense didn't deal with the rebound. But let's move on from McLeod. I don't really have any complaints about her. In fact, she has been earning jer keep, and is one of the few. The defense...I'm not sure. Why change what worked? Krieger is a good acquisition, but if you look at the stats, it isn't working. Sonia should not be playing left back. Singer needs to be back at left back and Sonia bumped up to midfield. It just makes sense. If you look at the lineup during our long stretch that brought us to second place, Sonia was either in the midfield or upfront. Once again, why change? Don't fix it if it ain't broke, I believe the saying goes.

The midfield with Lindsey and Sawa is looking okay, but they cannot compete with some of the stacked, 4 or 5 man midfields in the rest of the league. Once again, the presence of Bompastor would help out a lot. I actually think Sawa has been improving slowly, and Lindsey is crucial. Moros had a spell of excellence but has faded mightly recently. De Vanna, for all her quickness on and off the ball is not really an out and out striker, and her finishing seems to need work. One good thing was that Abby Wambach scored a real poachers effort and will hopefully be reignited. It seems that we are missing Allie Long as well, who will be available in 2 weeks time.

What can we do to address these problems? Losing streaks are bad, obviously. So what do we do? Can we go back to how we were playing before? I'm not sure, but maybe, just maybe, switching back to the winning lineups would help.

In other news, Joanna Lohmann has been waived. This is interesting. They are creating space for Sarah Huffman who is on an accelerated path of recovery from her ACL injury. They are hoping she will be fit and healthy in time to cover for the absence of Sonia Bompastor when she attends the Euros at the end of August. That means that all the European internationals will miss the postseason. Tragic news for most teams, including the Freedom and their upcoming opponents the LA Sol.

The LA Sol are in town this weekend, marking their first visit to DC, after the Freedom lost their two previous trips to Los Angeles. The Sol are far and away the best team in the league, with Marta and Abily leading the scoring charts with 8 goals a piece. Aya Miyama and Shannon Boxx are key players in the middle of the pitch who manage to control everything. Can the Freedom compete with them? I'm not so certain if we play like we have the past few games. Sonia NEEDS to be in midfield for this one. The defense and goalkeeper of the Sol have also been mighty impressive, but not unbeatable. Set pieces will be key and could help unhinge the leagues stingiest defense. Abby Wambach will manage to draw in defenders, and hopefully, Lisa De Vanna will be able to exploit the space with her speed. The real battle will be the midfield though. Also, will Whitehill and Sauerbrunn be able to cope with the speed of Marta? I don't think a high line is the option here, but it is always dangerous to play deep, so we will see.

In sad news for me personally, Aly Wagner isn't travelling with the team due to injury (shocking, okay, not really). But the Sol have so many other weapons capable of stepping in. Zerboni may get the nod.

So, I will see you all out there for the Independance Day Weekend (does that even make sense?) matchup between or Freedom, who seem to be falling flat, and the Sol, who are still riding high. As always, I like to hear your thoughts here, on Fancorner on twitter (@tweedygiggs) and I appreciate the feedback!

GO FREEDOM!

-Robyn

Edit: Here are the highlights (lowlights?) of the Chicago/Freedom match. See for yourself to compensate for the lack of a detailed recap.