the U-21 National Team. The team also brought in former star soccer players Sun Wen and Brandi Chastain as guest players for one game each. In a season of exhibition matches, almost all against W-League teams, the Freedom compiled a 7–2–2 record. W-League (2006–08) The team became an associate member of the W-League in 2006 and played an exhibition season based on home-and-home series against east coast W-League teams. Then, on December 7, 2006, Washington announced that they had acquired a full W-League franchise. In 2007, playing games that mattered for the first time since 2003, the Freedom compiled a 12–1–1 record, defeated the regular season champion Ottawa Fury in the Eastern Conference championship game, then went on to beat the Atlanta Silverbacks, 3–1, in the W-League championship match. In 2008, the Freedom went 11–1–2 in the regular season, winning the Northeast Division, then defeated the Atlanta Silverbacks, 2–1, to capture the Eastern Conference championship, but then fell to the eventual W-League champion Pali Blues, 2–0, in the W-League semifinals. Women's Professional Soccer: The first season (2009) When the Women's Professional Soccer league formed in 2008, the Freedom became one of the original seven teams that started play in 2009. The initial WPS player allocation, announced on September 16, 2008, assigned US Women's National Team players Abby Wambach, Cat Whitehill and Ali Krieger to the Freedom. Wambach had played for the Freedom in 2002 and 2003, while Krieger played for the Washington Freedom Reserves in 2004 and 2005, and for the W-League team in 2007. In the 2008 WPS International Draft, conducted on September 24, 2008, the Freedom selected Japanese striker Homare Sawa, French players Sonia Bompastor and Louisa Necib and Australian forward Lisa De Vanna. Following the draft, the Freedom named Erin McLeod and Lene Mykjåland as post-draft discovery players. Following that was the 2008 WPS General Draft on October 6, 2008, and all of the players selected by the Freedom were from the Freedom's 2008 W-League roster: Sarah Huffman, Becky Sauerbrunn, Lori Lindsey and Emily Janss. Lindsey had been on the Freedom roster since the final WUSA season in 2003, and Janss had been with the team since 2005. The 2009 WPS Draft took place on January 16, 2009. The Freedom drafted Allie Long, Alex Singer, Jill Gilbeau, Parrissa Eyorokon, Briana Scurry, Rebecca Moros, Sarah Senty, Kati Jo Spisak, Claire Zimmeck, and Christen Karniski. Additionally, the Freedom received