Bay Area’s allocated players will defend their turfby Graham Hays, Womensprosoccer.com
(Sept. 17, 2008) - The only franchise to emerge from the allocation process without at least one veteran of the WUSA, the as yet unnamed Bay Area team doesn't need to defend its decisions. Familiar faces in their own right in Northern California, franchise cornerstones Nicole Barnhart, Rachel Buehler and Leslie Osborne will provide all the defending necessary.
Itself the most recent addition to the lineup for the inaugural season of Women's Professional Soccer, the Bay Area team stuck close to its roots with Stanford alums Barnhart and Buehler and former Santa Clara star Osborne. That was just fine for players who weren't aware they could, indeed, go home again until the announcement earlier this month that Brian and Nancy NeSmith were bringing women's professional soccer back to the area that produced the WUSA's first champions one year after Barnhart, the elder stateswoman of the three current players, finished her freshman season at Stanford.
"To have the Bay Area get a team at the last minute, and to think I can play for them and for it to happen like this, it's seriously so crazy it worked out like this," Osborne said.
Returning to the Bay Area to play in WPS is a dream come true for Leslie Osborne. Earlier this summer, long before news of the Bay Area entry, Barnhart talked about her desire to stay on the West Coast, where the Pennsylvania native had remained after her collegiate career while she pursued a spot with the National Team and served as an assistant coach at her alma mater. But with only the Los Angeles franchise fitting the bill at the time, she admitted it might be a long shot. So it was for Osborne, the Wisconsin native, who, while excited about the prospect of playing professionally anywhere, hadn't found the perfect fit while mulling her allocation preferences prior to the Bay Area entry.
"None of the cities for me felt like home really," Osborne explained. "Chicago, for me, was the most appealing, just because I have lived there, my family is from the Midwest, I have a lot of ties there. But I didn't feel like that would be home for me. So when (Bay Area) popped in, and to know that they have a chance and for it to happen, I can't tell you how happy I am to be back up there. … I feel at home up there."
And now former rivals (Santa Clara leads the all-time series with an 18-7-5 record) hope the spotlight that shone on their battles for bragging rights has some more wattage.
"Hopefully this means a lot of fans will come out and watch us play," Barnhart said. "There are a lot of kids in the Bay Area involved with soccer, and hopefully we can be role models for them, and the fact that we grew up playing college ball in the area will draw out a lot more people who want to come out and see us play at the next level."
What Barnhart, Buehler and Osborne are capable of doing at that next level is as much a part of why they're back in the Bay Area as trips down memory lane. Familiarity is a nice selling point for a brand new team, but it only goes so far. As with any sport, nothing is going to build a fan base and generate interest quite like winning. And in just three moves, the blueprint is evident for how Bay Area hopes to build a winner with elegant soccer built off the backbone of a reliable defense.
Osborne is still battling back from major knee and ankle surgeries –"Let's just say I stepped up my doctor and my therapist's games," she joked of the procedures that kept her off the Olympic roster. But when she's at 100 percent, which she said she expects to be the case for the start of the season, Bay Area will have the kind of strength up the middle that is no less valuable on the soccer field than on the baseball diamond.
Starting from the back, it radiates outward from a ‘keeper who has patiently waited for her next full-time starting opportunity since leaving the field at Stanford as an All-American. The third ‘keeper on the World Cup squad last fall, she moved up to the No. 2 position behind Hope Solo for this summer’s golden Olympic excursion. And as much as she benefited from training in that environment, she's ready to do some field research.
"It's been a little while since I've been the No. 1 ‘keeper on a team," Barnhart said. "So I'm really excited about the opportunity to take over that role, or earn that role really, and get some games in. That's the big thing that I'm really excited about with this league is playing in an area, training for a couple of months together and getting a lot of games in."
Barnhart flashed some of that potential in matches leading up to the Olympics this year, including the key save in a penalty shootout during the final of CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, leaving even her past, current and future defensive teammates eager for more.
"She's one of the best goalies in the country, and although she hasn't gotten to play in a lot of World Cups and Olympics, she's just right there," Osborne said. "So to have her in goal is amazing. And then to have Rachel Buehler be able to lead our back line … she's tough, she's solid. And then for me to kind of float ahead of them, I'm pretty confident that in the back, we're going to be pretty strong and tough. And so hopefully now going forward we can get some good attacking players."
Even with only three players on the roster, half the field already seems to be in good hands for the Bay Area side. That's the kind of boundless optimism one would hope to find from someone like Osborne, who described herself as "heartbroken" when, as a senior at Santa Clara, she watched the San Jose CyberRays close up shop.
Unexpectedly handed their own shot at rebuilding that, it's no surprise all three Bay Area first-time pros are ready to defend it. That's what they're good at.
"I want to make this work, and I want this to be successful," Osborne said. "I take a lot of heart in anything I can do for this league, for little girls, for this game."
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