I use to play for the Chicago Stingers from '94-'97 (before the Chicago Fire came to town). We use to draw good crowds and had a lot of fun. We played Cruz Azul from Mexico at Soldiers Field and in '96 we beat the Colorado Rapids to advance to the semi's of the Open Cup, only to lose to the Dallas Burn. Any one out there remember...I'd sure like to chat!
stingers the stingers are now the sockers, correct? I Believe i do remember having read about your run back in 96, but are you sure it was the rapids you beat to reach the semi's? I say that because during that same USOC run the rhinos beat the mutiny, and then the rapids to make the championship game vs DC united [at least i'm pretty sure that's how it went, but i'm pretty sure we beat the rapids in there somewhere]
Stingers and Sockers were two different teams. Chicago Stingers were a seperate professional club in D3, the Sockers were a 'first-team' extention of the Sockers FC Chicago youth club in the PDL. I was at the Colorado USOC match, and the Burn USOC match. I even remember Joe Carver of the Stingers scoring the added-time winner in 98 for the Fire to beat UNAM Pumas. That was a crazy match. And geez, it's SOLDIER Field
You guys beat us (Indiana) in 1998 when we had one of the best teams in the league. Smoked us in the playoffs in 1998. The Hive was an interesting place to play, to say the least. And Peter Richardson was interesting to have around. The Stingers and Sockers were kinda different, but had many of the same players (at least at first) and coach Bret Hall.
Interesting is a good word. But that about where the similarities end (and they didn't really have as many of the same players as you might think, as they went down to PDL amateur) plus the Stingers still technically existed when the Sockers FC first team played in the PDL. Still technically exist now, but whatever.
We poached a couple of those players the next couple of years - Joe Carver (for a while in '99) and Andy McDermott (in '00). A few of the '98 guys did stick around to '99, but not the whole team. I can't remember the name of the goalkeeper who was quite good, and I don't think he stuck around because Adam Throop was their 'keeper in '99. And all the USL literature I have (take that for what it's worth), and my recollection of what was said around the league at that time say they considered the Stingers and the Sockers to be more or less the same franchise. Not that it matters.
Markus Roy. Willy's son. Well, from what I understand via people who probably should know, their interpretation was the Stingers 'earned' promotion via their D3 championship, and were turned down due to inadequate facilities (a matter of some contention, but whatever), they suspended the franchise and instead decided to field a PDL amateur team as an exstension of their youth club (and technically the Magic too, as the CMS partnership was still somewhat alive at that point.
Digging back into my PDL archives (when I did a site for the Willamette Valley Firebirds, and covered the PDL Final in 1999), here are a few match reports from the 1999 Semifinal and Championship http://www.soccercityusa.com/brigade/brigade/game1.htm http://www.soccercityusa.com/brigade/brigade/game4.htm
Yeah, the promotion thing was kind of strange (I would know, too, by the way, I was working in the league then). USL left themselves an out by saying the D3 Champ earned the right to be promoted to the A-League "providing certain other criteria were met". This gave them the right to refuse to promote teams whose organizations weren't exactly up to snuff (relatively, this is the A-League we're talking about) on some basis or another. Chicago's stadium wasn't up to snuff, but at the time, we kept hearing they would try again the next year and try to field an A-League team in 2000 (which, of course, never happened). What happened was Rockford self-relegated (starting a trend) and Cleveland went away. That would have left Indiana and Chicago in that division, with no other D3 team between Indianapolis and Texas. Then the Stingers either dropped and changed their name, or put their D3 franchise in mothballs and started a new PDL franchise, whatever. Doesn't matter. The Stingers and the hope for USL soccer above the D3 level in Chicago pretty much disappeared at that point. And Indiana, which wasn't planning to go A-League for another year, was pretty much forced to. For a fee, we were able to be "promoted" (we did have a good team in 1998 and won Organization of the Year), but, while we missed the playoffs by a point in 1999, it has been much more famine than feast there since that point.
Wow...thanks for the replies everyone! Your Stingers knowledge baffles my mind. As a former player, and roommate of Michael Richardson on the road, I can tell you that a HUGE reason they went PDL was because his dad ("Interesting Pete" as we all like to call him) was losing his shirt with the Stingers. While, as players, we didn't make a lot of money, as an organization we made even less. If I recall it correctly, I think in our first year the organization ended up $250,000 in the red. It's not a surprise because "Interesting Pete's" moto was to just get "Asses in the Seat's". Then the second year his tune changed to a more friendly approach of "Butt's in the Bleachers" and we were a little more successful. Regardless, it was something that he couldn't afford long term. Guys needed money to live and so did Pete. Here's a link I have saved over the years and it talks about our victory over the Rapids, as it turns out it wasn't to go to the final 4, it was to make it to the elite 8 where we lost to Dallas: http://www.virtual-soccer.com/metro/metro087.html I'm David Deck...#5 by the way...and again thanks for all the chat, it's bringing back some great memories.
I remember seeing the win over the Rapids. It was a great game and a huge turn out for the Stingers. From what I remember there was a overflow crowd for the game so probably around 7,000. I also remember the preivous game when you beat the A-League Orlando Sundogs (also a team that's not around). You playd with a friend of mine Jason Acres who's currently playing for Charlotte in the A-League.
I actually played against Jason more then I did with him. He went to Judson College and I went to Trinity International University. He also played for Rockford when I played for Chicago and then finally, he came to play for Bret. Jason is a stud among studs (not just as a soccer player) and I have the utmost respect for him.
Hey dave, I was just reading through this thread and thought I'd say hi. My name is Jeff Doherty, my brother Brian (from Palatine and I played against/ with you growing up. I also played at Wisconsin with your brother Tim. I just saw a familiar name and thought I'd say hello.
Oh yes, the dreaded Doherty Brothers...always whooped up on me when I was at Stevenson. If my memory serves me right, in high school you and your brother tallied 5 against me on a Saturday and it was one of your's birthday...is that right?
Greg is the type of guy that you do whatever you have to do to get on his good side...getting on his good side usually hindered on playing hard, playing fair and playing with heart...if you lacked in one of those areas, you were in trouble. I've seen Greg slide-tackle someone with his cleats up while they were in the training room getting their ankle taped!