Smith | isiphotos.net

Sky Blue FC defender Meghan Schnur was the only player to start all 20 regular season matches for the league champs.

 

As Sky Blue FC players gathered in New Jersey, the once-in-a-lifetime experience that was the 2009 season was pushed further into history.  The bonds and memories created during the team’s founding season will last a lifetime, but the current focus is figuring out how to defend one of the most improbable championships in American sports history.

“A couple of us walked into the office and straight away all of the memories and everything from last year started coming forward,” said Meghan Schnur, the only player to start all 20 regular season matches for the league champs.

It took three coaches and a variety of dramatic peaks and valleys to navigate through last season, and last fall the club completed a worldwide search for its 2010 manager when it announced Pauliina Miettinen was coming from Finland to take the job.  One of the few players to be capped internationally as a goalkeeper and as a field player, Miettinen brings with her an expansive knowledge of women’s soccer in America and Europe.

“I like to run a very, very game- and play-oriented camp,” Miettinen said,  “where players get to play a lot, challenge themselves, solve problems together, and pretty much touch the ball a lot.  It will be fun, challenging, intense, and very competitive.”

Miettinen’s philosophy is that, by playing lots of soccer in pre-season, the team will become not only physically fit but mentally fit when the whistle blows April 11 (vs Chicago Red Stars at Yurcak Field and televised on Fox Soccer Channel at 6pm ET.)

“We will be concentrating on combining those problem solving abilities so that they as a group can solve the problems as they arise,” said Miettinen. “That’s the number one theme for the whole year is we need to prepare in training so that we can solve problems on the field and be creative.”

“I’ve always loved the European style,” said midfielder Kacey White, who played in Sweden prior to WPS.  “I loved the culture they have there with soccer and the love they have for the game.  That is something that can always be infused into the American style.  We have a lot to offer, but so do they.”

The situation Miettinen inherits is unique in that not only is she walking into a team boasting a title, but it cannot be overlooked that Sky Blue FC struggled to score goals or that the club has yet to spend a day north of .500 in winning percentage.

“I think we have to look at both,” Miettinen said.  “Watching the game films, I think there is a lot to be improved, but there is also a lot to be kept.  The heart of this team obviously can’t be shown.  There is a talent there definitely and we have to bring that out.”

The biggest areas of concern heading into the new season are rather obvious.  The first is figuring out how to score more goals—the 2009 version of Sky Blue FC connected only 19 times over 20 regular season games.  The second will be figuring out how to close the central defense hole created due to Christie Rampone’s pregnancy and Anita Asante’s torn ACL.  Both could return by June.  Even Jen Buczkowski, who filled in so well when Asante missed the playoffs to play for England, is no longer an option after going to Philadelphia in the Expansion Draft.

“Christie Rampone organized the defense last year, and we need to get the defense all set so that everyone is on the same page,” Miettinen said.

An underrated element of Sky Blue FC’s success last season was how well the back line held together when Rampone missed time with a groin injury and later for ovarian cyst surgery.  Keeley Dowling eventually became entrenched on the right side but spent much of the early part of the season filling in holes.  Miettinen says it is too early to say whether Dowling will be asked to start 2010 as a center back and added that she prefers not to go into camp with too many pre-conceived notions about who is going to play where.

“I think that our team is going to do just fine,” Schnur said.  “I think that our back four is going to hold up solid.  I don’t think we’re without the talent to fill those roles.  It’s about seeing if we can kind of grasp that unity that we had last year as the season wore on.”

The leading candidates to land starting roles on the backline are Dutch National Team captain Daphne Koster and Schnur’s former UConn teammate Brittany Taylor, who Sky Blue FC drafted with the sixth overall pick in the 2010 WPS Draft.

As for the offense, the new coach will focus on upgrading the attack, but that work will not be limited to the attacking third.

“I think that we have to be able to solve the attacking problem,” she said.  “We have to score more goals.  Having said that, we have to come down to attacking in various ways so that we are not predictable.”

In other words, a goal can be created from anywhere on the field at any time.

“There are many, many different kinds of ways to approach the goal.  The players have to recognize that.  It’s not just a 100 miles per hour game.  It’s thinking, and it’s possessing the ball, and it’s getting the other team off balance.  We have to be efficient from the flanks, able to combine through the middle and have combination play, have individual technique mix with a one-two touch game.”

Natasha Kai, the leading scorer a year ago, is looking for more durability after having her shoulders operated on during the off-season.  She will be helped by international reinforcements Jessica Landstrom (Sweden) and Laura Kalmari (Finland).  Kerri Hanks, the MAC Hermann Trophy winner in 2006 and 2008, will be looking to improve on a quiet rookie season.  (Update: Hanks was waived by Sky Blue FC on Wednesday.)

Sky Blue FC’s midfield remains strong.  Heather O’Reilly, Carli Lloyd, and Yael Averbuch were all part of the U.S. National Team roster that won the Algarve Cup and will play in the upcoming friendlies against Mexico.  Kacey White is also in the mix for a National Team spot and Brazil’s Rosana adds depth.  Jenni Branam returns as the league’s most outside the box goalkeeper—literally and figuratively – as she fills the role of sweeper ‘keeper often rushing far up field to clear the ball out of danger.

NOTES:  Besides Rampone and Asante, the only other player not ready to participate in training is speedy midfielder Nikki Washington, a rookie drafted by the Sol and acquired by Sky Blue FC in the dispersal draft.  Washington tore her ACL in September while playing collegiately at the University of North Carolina and is still rehabbing… …Rampone delivered her second daughter, Reece Elizabeth, on Saturday, March 6, beating her due date by two weeks and potentially moving up her schedule for returning to the field… …An interesting non-roster player in camp is defender Jen Grubb, a former Notre Dame standout who was an integral part of Washington Freedom clubs that played in two WUSA Founders Cups, winning in 2003… …Schnur also played at the Algarve Cup and will return to the National Team for the Mexico series… Taylor, who is uncapped, was also called in to the U.S. camp…Internationals Collette McCallum (Australia), Kelly Parker (Canada), and Francielle (Brazil) were not retained.

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Dan Lauletta is a freelance writer and can be reached at thirtymtp@aol.com . The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Women’s Professional Soccer or womensprosoccer.com.