Three weeks after a five-game losing streak led the Washington Freedom to undergo a self-evaluation that included considering whether or not to fire head coach Jim Gabarra, the Freedom (6-8-7, 25 points) now find themselves in the middle of a four-game unbeaten run – with Gabarra still running the show. With three games left in the WPS regular season, the Freedom currently hold the fourth and final playoff position but could still sneak into third if results fall their way. No game will be more important than this weekend’s visit by Sky Blue (7-9-4, 25 points), which is even on points with Washington and has a game in hand.
It’s a far cry from the turmoil at the beginning of the month.
“I never felt like I lost the team, and I never lost confidence that I could turn it around,” said Gabarra. “It was just our time, and we had a group of players who’d never been through that, losing and not knowing what the answers were. It was just a real bad period. Certainly, if you lose five games in a row in a 24-game season, you’ve got to be looked at to say, are you the right person for this job.”
But the Freedom had more going against them than just the results. The losing streak came during a stretch of seven games in 28 days. Five of the last six during that run were on the road, and prior to the losing streak, Washington had only lost once in its previous nine league matches. The Freedom also has dealt with the absences of Abby Wambach, Allie Long and Sarah Huffman for international duty and because St. Louis folded, the reorganized schedule forced them to fly cross-country three times to play FC Gold Pride, more than any other WPS team.
“Throughout this process, I don’t think people realize how bad things went against us, both on the business side but also on the competitive side with the schedule,” said Gabarra. “…It was a bad time and I think everybody’s looking for answers, and it’s a place a lot of players had never been, losing and they can’t figure how to get out of it. The little things that were there all of a sudden became big issues, and I knew they never were.”
Still, Gabarra had to sacrifice his longtime assistant coach, Clyde Watson, who resigned as part of the ordeal while former Chicago head coach Emma Hayes was added as a consultant.
“It’s hard in the way that it happened,” said Gabarra. “He did it because he thought it was what was best for the team, and it gave me the best chance to get my arms around what was going on. It’s hard when someone who is that good of a person and is willing to do that, it’s hard. But just like everybody, you have to look at a way to improve for yourself and how you do your job. It was a chance for me to step back and use Emma as a different perspective, coming in fresh and not being in it on a day-to-day basis and so microfocused and trying to solve all of these problems. It was a really difficult couple of weeks, and you’re stronger for it and you know how to handle it the next time you’re in that situation.”
Gabarra was also helped by the fortunate addition of rookie goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, who came to Washington when St. Louis shut down. Not only did Harris, who was still ineligible at the time, handle coaching duties when Gabarra was ejected during a trip to the Bay Area while his other assistants weren’t along on the road – “I didn’t want [the eligible players] to have to deal with anything so I just walked up to him and was like, give me the player cards, I’ll figure it out,” said Harris – but she’s earned three shutouts in the last four games since Erin McLeod was lost to a season-ending knee injury against Gold Pride on July 24. With Harris in the net, the Freedom have redefined themselves by becoming harder to beat instead of simply aiming to score goals.
“I think it was really tough under the circumstances,” said Harris, “with the situation with Jim and what was going on, all these meeting and conference calls and maybe coaching changes, maybe not. And with what happened with Erin, it was just a hard time to jump in and be able to lead this team to success.”
The former North Carolina goalkeeper said the Freedom players have taken as much blame for the topsy-turvy season as the coaching situation.
“At any point, this league could be over, and we don’t want to end this way,” said Harris. “I think we wanted to change it. We owed to the fans, to the administration, our owners. There’s a lot that rides on us, and we took that responsibility, and we’re like this is the turning point.”
Despite her relative inexperience, she said the team remains united behind Gabarra going forward.
“We have faith in Jim,” said Harris. “Jim’s a great coach and a great guy. It’s easy when things aren’t going our way to just point at the coach. Things have completely changed in terms of practice intensity, meetings off the field, video. It was a good wake-up call. We completely support Jim, and what was in the past is in the past, and we’re moving forward, and we wanted to move forward with him.”
