Freedom!!!

Last night we had the opportunity to witness our very first Washington Freedom match with some great friends. For those who don't know, The Freedom is DC's (albeit the stadium is in Germantown, MD) women's professional soccer team. The reason for going, besides being with friends, was to support our friend Cat Whitehill who plays (really stars) on the team and Brandt Garrison who did her grad school internship (mega starred) with them this summer. She was quickly promoted to head of marketing, a real economical promotion if you ask me. Business tip: Always promote your volunteers. It's good for morale in a down economy. As it turned out the game had playoff implications, win and you're in, tie and maybe, lose and you're out. Doesn't get much more important than that.

I must admit, soccer has never been one of my favorite overall sports. I do get into the world cup and Olympic matches, but other than that I couldn't tell you much more. Going even further, if it wasn't for the USA Women's team (and the most recent run by the Men's team), there wouldn't be much to cheer for. The game itself was a blast, but the

random fan dressed like a waiter from "Chotchkies" or the chicken, I mean eagle named Glory with her pony tail (which at first I thought might have been Brandt), made the over all experience worth while. The most humorous story came when Julie screamed "Catherine! HEY!" hoping she would turn and wave in the middle of a play. But she was working.

The Freedom found themselves in the playoffs with a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Push Pops (Kara's nickname for them---since Kara has been known to win March Madness pools based on such skill, we let her play by her own rules). Julie was even able to snap this great picture of Cat after the game. Now that I have gone to a DC United match and a Freedom match, I admit that soccer fans definitely have the most flare. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm always up for going to the match or watching one on TV.