Friday, September 5, 2008

TAMPA, FL – With 128 players in action on eight teams at the USL W-League Combine Friday at the Ed Radice Sports Complex in north Tampa, there was plenty to keep the Women’s Professional Soccer and W-League coaches and executives attentive as they scouted the professional prospects over the course of four matches that spanned the afternoon and early evening.

Washington Freedom head coach Jim Gabarra and Pali Blues head coach Charlie Naimo, the last two to raise the W-League Championship trophy, were kind enough to spend some time with us to discuss the event.

The primary theme of the discussion was the unique nature that a combine presents when it comes to scouting potential players.

“Day one is usually the roughest day,” said Gabarra. “They have not played together before and are in a different situation that is out of their comfort zone. But on the second day they will begin to become comfortable with their teammates and you will see them come out of their shell, showing more than their individual skill.”

“It’s good to see where they are,” he added, referencing the layoff between the end of league play and the combine. “You can see a little lack of sharpness, but that will fade as the combine continues. I tried to help our Freedom players prepare with some training sessions and a friendly against VCU.”

Naimo, the reigning W-League championship coach, echoed Gabarra’s thoughts on the first day’s showing, adding that “The first day is usually very slow because they are a nervous, but that it will pick up. They are taking in the environment.”

Naimo was confident in his assessment that the quality of play at the event would increase over the next two days having seen many of the players before in the W-League. “I know there’s more to some of these players than I have seen today. They have another gear they can still reach, especially as the trust between the players increases.”

Even with the relatively slow start, both were still impressed with the talent on the field, conveying that it has been the best the have seen thus far in the scouting process. “The overall quality is better than what we saw in another combine last week. And that’s not including the top players from my team and others who are not here,” commented Naimo as he relayed his projection that a lot of W-League players would move onto WPS.

For Gabarra, the process of putting his future WPS team together, and where the players he saw today fit in, was difficult to project.

“It’s hard to quantify because it’s really three different groups. We have the internationals, then W-League players and then later the collegiate players who are currently in season. It is really a three step process to putting the team together this time. With the WUSA, we had one combine and then selected all of the players.”

One thing Gabarra did confirm was that the players from the WUSA were on the same starting point as every other player at the combine regardless of their experience.

“So many years have gone by. You gotta start from scratch and see where they fit in with everyone else, including the international players.”

Having the Washington Freedom participating in the W-League the past two years, however, has been a significant role in his player assessment process for the new pro league.

“It’s an advantage. I know or have seen most of the top prospects play, and in a league atmosphere versus a combine. You can tell a lot about a player in the environment of a season over a longer length of time against that of a three-day combine where things are not as natural for them.”

Gabarra felt that there was an increase in the level of quality and competition this season in the W-League with WPS officially on the horizon. “There was a little bit of an increase. The players were perhaps more focused with a particular goal in mind.”

Keeping a Freedom squad in the W-League is still an important part of the club’s plan for the future said Gabarra.

“Ideally, we would like it to be a reserve team with the ability to bring players up and down, but we can’t because of the NCAA rules. We want to use it as a development team for college players. Give the kids in our area that go to school the opportunity to come home during the summer and play on the team. Look at what the Connecticut team did this year, and they had a very young team.”