Philadelphia Independence Roster Ready and Raring To Go!

The calendar says April 1, but for the eight franchises of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), today is no joking matter, as teams must trim their respective rosters to a league mandated 22 players .18 on the active roster with four players in developmental reserve.

The announcement of the Philadelphia Independence side comes on the eve of the team’s third and final preseason game against defending Big Ten champion Penn State. More on that in a moment.

At first glance, the roster looks nothing like that of an expansion team getting ready for its inaugural season.

For starters, General Manager Terry Foley and head coach Paul Riley have put together a club rich in international team play, boasting nine National Team players from six different countries (US, Sweden, Canada, England, Iceland, and Japan). My only question is who made the scouting trip to Iceland to recruit Holmfridur Magnusdottir (pronounced,Magnus-daughter)?

In addition to putting together an attacking style team consisting of players with great intelligence, moxy, speed, and athleticism, Philadelphia also boasts a roster featuring two of the world’s top ten goalkeepers in Karina “KK” LeBlanc (pronounced LeBlon) and Val Henderson.  Henderson and LeBlanc, by the way, were teammates last year with the now defunct Los Angeles Sol.

So as it stands, Philadelphia currently has 18 players under full contract, with four lesser compensated players in developmental reserve.

Basically, if the number of rostered players on the available list falls below 18 due to injury or absence, developmental players can be used during home games or selected for away matches.

A developmental contract is a great opportunity for younger, less experienced players to train at the highest level and earn playing time in WPS. If a developmental player participates in 10 WPS games, they must be moved onto the roster and placed under a regular player contract.

As I mentioned earlier, the Independence will play an exhibition game tonight, 7:30, against the visiting Defending Big Ten Champion, Penn State Nittany Lions.  Philadelphia will probably play without the services of forward Amy Rodriguez and midfielder Lori Lindsey, who are coming off  last nights 1-0 U.S. Women’s National team win over Mexico in Sandy, Utah.

The Penn State game will be the final dress rehearsal for the expansion Independence before their historic season home opener April 11, against the expansion Atlanta Beat. 

In previous exhibition action, Philadelphia posted a 3-0 victory over defending NCAA National Champion North Carolina and 0-0 draw with the Washington Freedom.

     2010 Philadelphia Independence Roster

 

Name	Position	College/Int'l Club
Adams, Danesha	Forward	UCLA
Buczkowski, Jen	Midfielder	Notre Dame
Falk, Allison	Defender	Stanford
Henderson, Val	Goalkeeper	UCLA
Johnson, Estelle	Defender	University of Kansas
Krzysik, Nikki	Defender	University of Virginia
Larsson, Sara	Defender	Linkopings FC
LeBlanc, Karina	Goalkeeper	University of Nebraska
Lindsay, Lori	Midfielder	University of Virginia
Lohman, Joanna	Midfielder	Penn State University
Magnusdottir, Holmfridur	Midfielder	Kristianstads DFF
Maruyama, Karina	Forward	Tepco Mareeze
Mitts, Heather	Defender	University of Florida
Patterson, Lyndsey	Forward	University of Tennessee
Rodriguez, Amy	Forward	USC
Sanderson, Lianne	Forward	Chelsea
Seger, Caroline	Midfielder	Linkopings FC
Senty, Sara	Defender	University of Virginia
Developmental Roster
Jones, Robyn	Goalkeeper	Franklin & Marshall
Patterson, Carrie	Forward	University of Georgia
Reynolds, Katherine	Defender	Santa Clara
DiMartino, Gina	Forward	Boston College