As I see it the Red Stars are the Fire's sister team in town and I thought I'd do a thread here for activity especially dealing with joint ventures between the two teams and fans and to provide occasional info for those who don't venture much outside the Fire threads. Many Fire and Red Stars fan overlap. I am one of them. This Saturday, April 18th at 7:00, the Red Stars have a game against Hope Solo and Seattle Reign at Benedictine University in Lisle. Since there is no Fire game to watch, Fire fans can take a little trip to the suburbs to support a very good Red Stars team that has 4 USWNT World Cup players on it. I live near O'Hare and make it to every Fire and Red Stars game. The parking is FREE at Benedictine and plenty of room for tailgating. Let's "welcome" Hope Solo to Chicago this Saturday! (Next Saturday Alex Morgan comes to town) There is bus leaving Cleo's at 4:30 pm for Benedictine this Saturday. If you already have a game ticket it is $10, if you don't already have a ticket it is $25 for Club seats and $35 for Field side tickets.
The Red Stars have four players heading to Canada this summer to play for the US in the World Cup: Shannon Boxx, Lory Chalupny, Julie Johnston, and Christen Press. Side note: anyone else going? Got my tickets booked for Vancouver.
Press has some speed. The red stars didn't have as much possession as I would have liked to see but they did score some great goals. Nice turn out especially the section 8 group.
A world class stoppage time winner from Chicago's world class striker. Press with a pair of goals and assisted the other Red Stars goal. While much of the play was choppy (turf ya know) the goals were class and the right team won.
That was a great game and a fun event. Kudos to the Red Stars organization for the professionalism and hospitality.
This game was much more exciting than any Fire game of the last two years. The Red Stars' 'bend don't break' strategy against the USWNT, er, I mean, the Reign initially made me nervous but they executed it extremely well, not giving up a goal in the run of play. That said, LeBlanc needs to learn how to defend corner kicks. Press just has another gear for speed that other players cannot match. Watching her run with the ball at her feet on the last goal reminded me of Peter Nowak's best runs. Hauptman needs to go to a Red Stars game to learn how it's done.
It was cool to see the solid Fire fan support at the Red Stars game last Saturday. We "welcomed" Hope Solo to Chicago and she was a good sport about it afterwards. Chicago does have a World Class "star" soccer player and her name is Christen Press.
I watched the match winner to verify if it was as impressive as I thought it was live. It was even more impressive, because I think Press had another gear if she needed it. As is was happening I threw in a cliche from another sport, "She's even and leavin'". I thought for sure the defender would haul Press down, take her red card, and maybe save a point for her team. If you haven't seen it, check out the video at 1:58:35.
Was a Red Stars season ticket holder when they played at Toyota Park for a season a few years ago. Fun stuff with Carly Lloyd and Rapinoe back then. I love Press now! Look forward to the crossover event again after the Fire game like they did last year.
Maybe after the double header. Then again, Press and the other NT players will be gone after that, some people may not want to go when that happens. So maybe after the World Cup, sometime in July or August.
Red Stars vs. 1st place Portland Thorns, tomorrow Sat. April 25th at Benedictine University in Lisle. But first, see you guys tonight at Toyota Park. http://chicagoredstars.com/red-stars-look-to-build-on-momentum-in-portland-clash/
The Red Stars have played two of the toughest teams in the NWSL and have a win and a draw. No red cards needed.
This is cool and I wish I saw this before this morning http://chicagoredstars.com/red-stars-team-up-with-napervilles-nctv17/ The Red Stars home games will be on Naperville Local Community channel.