Washington Freedom retains Jim Gabarra for season, Clyde Watson resigns

Washington Freedom President and General Manager Mark Washo has issued the following statement regarding the state of the team\'s coaching staff and situation. 

"Washington Freedom has been through a difficult 10-game winless streak, which was broken last Wednesday with a 2-0 home victory over the Philadelphia Independence. We have gone through a lengthy and thorough evaluation process which involved discussions with players, coaches, sports psychologists and other soccer experts close to the team to determine the best course of direction for the remainder of the season.

"We have decided that retaining Head Coach Jim Gabarra for the remainder of the season gives us the best chance at winning the WPS Championship.  We have addressed several critical areas that have led to our recent losing streak and Jim has developed a detailed strategic coaching plan of action which includes making critical changes to be implemented immediately.  

"As part of this plan Freedom is bringing in Emma Hayes in the short term as a soccer consultant for an interim period of time.  Hayes has over nine years of professional coaching experience, which includes the Long Island Lady Riders, Iona College, Arsenal Ladies and most recently the Chicago Red Stars. She will help craft stronger day-to-day training sessions, and be a resource to assist in player evaluation and overall technical strategy. 

"We have also accepted the resignation of Assistant Coach Clyde Watson, who stepped down yesterday after 10 years with the team.  We were very disappointed to accept Clyde\'s resignation as our current struggles on the field had nothing to do with Clyde acting as our assistant coach.  Clyde has been an incredible asset to Freedom and has helped us build a strong soccer organization top to bottom.  This has led to Freedom having one of the strongest girls\' soccer development programs in the world, which begins with our youth programs and leads all the way up to the professional team. Clyde has been a true professional and he will be greatly missed as a coach for Freedom.   Clyde will remain on as a consultant of Freedom\'s youth soccer programs."