Just about everyone headed out of Rochester following the Flash’s disappointing 2014. Now Western NY looks to rebuild with a ton of new faces and a few old friends. Will the lack of experience do the Flash in, or can Aaran Lines somehow make all this work?
Head coach: Aaran Lines, third season
Where we left off: In 2014, Western New York Flash not only didn't make an appearance in the final for the first time ever, the Flash didn't even qualify for the playoffs. Western NY's 8-12-4 record landed them in seventh place at season's end.
New: Coming off a stellar rookie season in 2013, 2014 was supposed to be the year that Adriana Franch cemented her place as one of NWSL's top keepers. Instead Franch suffered a season-ending injury before the season even started, and never played a single minute in 2014. Enter Kelsey Wys and Lydia Williams, who split time in net a season ago in Franch's stead. Neither had particularly great seasons, and neither will be back for a second try this year. Franch now plays in Norway. Instead, Western NY has tapped former Washington backup Chantel Jones and third round draft pick Sabrina D'Angelo. Jones made five appearances in Washington in 2014 -- four losses and a draw -- and allowed 12 goals.
And then there were two: The Flash somehow managed to keep two defenders from a season ago, but they'll be surrounded by a bunch of new faces. Amy Barczuk was traded to Boston for draft picks, Katherine Reynolds went to Washington in exchange for Jordan Angeli, and Kat Williamson was traded back to Portland, leaving only Brittany Taylor and Kristen Edmonds from last year's defense. Western NY did reacquire Whitney Engen through a trade with Houston, and Toni Pressley via a trade with the Spirit. Engen however, is at least sort-of in the USWNT picture, and Pressley didn't have a particularly impressive 2014 in Washington. The Flash also picked up Chelsea Stewart, who made a handful of appearances for Boston last season, and Jaelene Hinkle, a Texas Tech product Western NY grabbed with the seventh pick in the draft.
Roll call: Carli Lloyd, Samatha Kerr, Vicky Losada, Adriana Martin, Abby Wambach, Sonia Bermudez, McCall Zerboni. These are the names of the people who scored all but five of Western NY's 38 goals in 2014. These are also the names of people who are no longer playing for the Western NY Flash. Whoops.
Lloyd is now in Houston, Kerr's in New Jersey, Wambach is just too old focused on the World Cup to futz around with this little league business and also technically playing for the Reign now, and Zerboni was shipped to Portland. Only Taylor and Jasmyne Spencer remain as people who can possibly score a goal while wearing a Flash uniform for a second consecutive season. The Flash did pick up a handful of new players, seemingly mostly because they needed at least 11 people to play games or whatever. Rules are so annoying.
Joining Spencer and the hot dog/race car empire in Rochester are Angeli, Becky Edwards (part of the Lloyd/Engen trade with the Dash), Amanda Frisbie and Sydney Leroux (the other half of the Wambach trade), Cameroon's Ajara Nchout Njoya, Denmark's Camilla Kur, and draft picks Sam Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper and Lynn Williams.
Angeli only made ten uneventful appearances for Washington after finally returning from injury last season, Edwards was at least a stable presence in the midfield in whatever it was Houston was doing, Frisbie missed the entire 2014 season due to injury, Leroux had an underwhelming year at club level on a crowded Seattle roster and will miss time this season due to international commitments, and Njoya also has World Cup duties to attend to as Cameroon makes its debut in the tournament. All of which leaves a lot of the midfield and offensive load on Spencer, Angeli, Edwards, a bunch of rookies and the untested-in-NWSL Kur. The Flash does have one roster spot remaining.
In conclusion: Whatever the reason for the mass exodus from Rochester in the offseason, it happened and Aaran Lines is now left with a strange hodgepodge of players and a very young and inexperienced team. He'll have to do his very best Philadelphia-era Paul Riley impression and somehow make all this work, or the Flash could very well be well on the way to building a missing-the-playoffs streak to rival that four championships in four years in four leagues one.
Source SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1NkWnzQ
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