MagicJack (WPS)
| Founded | 2001 (as Washington Freedom), relocated 2011 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 2012 |
| Stadium | FAU Soccer Field |
| Capacity | 1,200 |
| Owner | Dan Borislow |
| Manager | Abby Wambach |
| League | Women's Professional Soccer |
| 2011 | WPS, 3rd |
MagicJack was an American professional soccer club based in Boca Raton, Florida. The team competed in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) for one season until legal challenges caused the team's owner to become banned from the WPS, which folded in 2012.
MagicJack was founded in 2001 as the Washington Freedom of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA). The Freedom were the only team to continue as an organization once WUSA folded, first playing exhibition games before joining the W-League. The Freedom were a founding member of WUSA's successor, Women's Professional Soccer. In 2011, the team was purchased by Dan Borislow, owner of the phone tech company magicJack, and relocated to Boca Raton, Florida.
MagicJack opened its 2011 season with three wins, and was the only team with a perfect record for the first month of the season. Despite this, coach Mike Lyons was let go after these first three victories, beginning a long period of coaching controversy, while both Borislow and Christie Rampone functioned as team coach at various points. During the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, magicJack lost in a WPS-record 6-0 defeat, falling to the Philadelphia Independence.
On July 22, 2011, Abby Wambach was named as magicJack's player-coach for the rest of the season. The team was the visiting side when the Western New York Flash of Rochester (Wambach's hometown) set the new WPS league record attendance of 15,404. MagicJack ultimately finished third in both the regular season and the playoffs.
In the waning months of the season, Borislow sent an e-mail to his players telling them that WPS was threatening to terminate the team before the season was over, and he filed a suit in Florida courts. The league denied this accusation, and agreements were made for the suit to be dropped.
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