Red Stars seen nothing but better days ahead next season
As a season-ending montage played on the Toyota Park videoboard following the Red Stars' final home game of the season Aug. 2, defender Natalie Spilger watched from the field with her teammates and wiped away a couple of tears.
It was an emotional day. The first season of the new Women's Professional Soccer league was wrapping up, and the Red Stars did it with a 3-1 victory over the league's best team in front of the biggest crowd of the season.
But the Red Stars also knew their season was about to end without a trip to the playoffs, a surprise to many of them and coach Emma Hayes, who had such high hopes for the team in March.
"It was emotional and overwhelming to get a win like that against the best player (Marta) and team in the league and our home crowd with about 8,000," Spilger said. "It felt so good. I definitely was feeling emotional."
That game, one of the team's best of the season, could only make fans wonder why the Red Stars (5-10-5, 20 points) couldn't have played like that all season.
How could a team with such skilled players as Cristiane, Lindsay Tarpley (who suffered a torn ACL in the team's last practice, adding injury to insult), Megan Rapinoe, Karen Carney and Carli Lloyd go through a midseason nine-game winless streak, finishing in sixth place in the seven-team league?
"It's a great question, and I don't think it's a simple answer," team president Peter Wilt said. "We all thought we had some very talented pieces and individuals, but it didn't come together as a team. Part of the problem I think was that we didn't have continuity through our lineup through most of the season (because of injuries and national-team commitments)."
Spilger's thoughts were similar.
"I think the PC thing to say was we were unlucky, but I think we have a lot of amazing players but a lot of similar talent," Spilger added. "I think sometimes it worked against us. We have a lot of magical players that want it to their feet and maybe not those players that aren't as pretty to watch but make those runs behind and do the dirty work and do the grunt work.
"I think it was just chemistry. Maybe it was too many tomatoes in the salad. Whatever it was, the chemistry on the field just wasn't there. Off the field we have an amazing time. We're a really, really close team."
Wilt and Hayes have both promised changes during the off-season, but don't expect Hayes to be one of those changes. Wilt is planning for the coach to return.
"We're going to rebuild the team so that we're going to be in a position to compete for the championship next year," Wilt said. "It's a long off-season. We're not going to be sitting idle."
The league as a whole also will be back, Wilt and league commissioner Tonya Antonucci said.
WPS will add teams in Philadelphia and Atlanta, with existing teams likely to lose 2-3 players each in an expansion draft likely to take place next month. Teams can protect 10 players each.
Expansion is a great sign of the league's health, Wilt said.
"We've been able to launch a successful women's soccer league in the toughest economy of our lifetime," he said.
It wasn't always easy. Red Stars front-office personnel suffered through a midseason pay cut as the team struggled to keep expenses from overwhelming revenues. Antonucci confirmed that some teams have lost $1 million-$2 million this season because of the difficult economy overtaking league projections.
But Wilt and Antonucci remain optimistic about the league's future. Attendance at Toyota Park climbed toward the end of the season despite the Red Stars playing their way out of the playoffs, culminating in that record crowd for the final home game. That should only help the team attract valuable sponsorships over the winter.
"We're getting terrific feedback from the corporate community," Wilt said.
"There's a lot of focus on the good things coming out of 2010," Antonucci added.
oschwarz@dailyherald.com