Results tagged “majorleaguesoccer”

The Chicago Fire kick off their 2008 campaign tomorrow when they play Real Salt Lake on the road.

Last week the English Premier League announced its intention to play some regular season matches abroad. In previous years, international club teams have found financial success by coming to the United States to play some pre- and post-season friendlies with other international powerhouse clubs or local Major League Soccer clubs.

The Chicago Fire have confirmed that Head Coach Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned and is headed to the New York Red Bulls for the 2008 season. Osorio, who joined the Fire mid-season last year, was just the third head coach in the franchise history. Osorio cited "personal, family reasons" that led to his decision to depart the Fire before his contract ended. It had been rumored that his wife was unhappy in Chicago and prefers...

The Chicago Fire's Chris Armas officially announced his retirement today, concluding a 12-year career in Major League Soccer. Armas, who had said at the beginning of the season that he intended to retire, played his final match in the play-off loss to the New England Revolution last Thursday. Armas played with the Los Angeles Galaxy in the league's inaugural season and in 1997 before coming to the Chicago Fire when the league expanded in 1998....

Two of Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Player finalists will meet on the pitch tonight in a winner-plays-on playoff game. The Chicago Fire hold a single goal advantage in the two-game series that is based on aggregate scoring. The two league MVP candidates are sure to play important roles in the game. The Fire will look to the leadership of team MVP Cuauhtémoc Blanco to help them knock off DC United, who finished the 2007...

Neither the Los Angeles Galaxy nor the Chicago Fire have lost in their last seven games. Their recent successes have helped make up for poor starts and given them both a chance to earn the final playoff spot this afternoon in the Major League Soccer regular-season finale. The Fire advance to the post-season with a win or a tie, but the Galaxy need a victory to advance. The game will feature two of Major League...

Only four of the thirteen Major League Soccer teams took advantage of Major League Soccer's new Designated Player Rule, made most famous by the signing of David Beckham by the Los Angeles Galaxy, signing a total of five players. This weekend, arguably the two most impactful designated players, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Juan Pablo Angel, will match up at Toyota Park. Blanco has played just seven games but has helped the Fire to earn 13 points...

Chicago Fire Forward Cuauhtémoc Blanco proved that David Beckham is not the only recent Major League Soccer acquisition that can be deadly accurate on free kicks. Kansas City came into Toyota Park after their midweek 3-2 victory over the Fire and dominated the first half of play, heavily out shooting the Fire. Just before the halftime break Fire midfielder Ivan Guerrero was tripped up just outside the Kansas City penalty area resulting in a...

The Chicago Fire used their recent acquisitions to propel themselves to a 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake. The Fire knew going into Saturday's game that it was important for them to earn 3 points for a victory against the league worst Real Salt Lake (2-10-6 12 pts.). After a less than impressive first 40, minutes Cuauhtémoc Blanco was in the right place at the right time to hit a cracker of a volley that...

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,...

The Chicago Fire may have found a spark in Cuauhtemoc Blanco that Chicagoist hopes helps the club ignite a run to the playoffs. The Mexican star made his debut with the Fire on Sunday when the team played an international friendly with Celtic FC of the Scottish Premier League. Blanco marked his debut with a beautiful goal in the 30th minute and continued to entertain the crowd with cheeky back heel passes and deft touches...

The Chicago Fire have named Juan Carlos Osorio as the third head coach in their history. Osorio leaves Colombian club Millonarios to join the Fire mid-season. Prior to Millonarios, Osorio was an assistant manager for Manchester City in the English Premier League. He also was an assistant coach and conditioning coach for the New York Metrostars of Major League Soccer for several seasons at the same time Fire President/CEO John Guppy was serving as V.P....

It was a great atmosphere in Chicago this weekend for soccer fans. The Chicago Fire won an international friendly over MKS Cracovia on Friday night at Toyota Park. Saturday night, Chicagoist visited the Globe Pub where we found United States National Team supporters who had traveled from both coasts for the Gold Cup final. They joined together singing soccer songs while taking in Major League Soccer action via satellite feed. The U.S. fans found themselves...

The Fire will be looking for a win tonight when they return home after dropping the last two of a three game road run. The Fire helped make history in their last match, but not the good kind, when they became the first franchise to be scored upon by expansion franchise Toronto FC and then went on to be the first team to lose to the Canadian club. The Fire host FC Dallas in tonight's...

The Chicago Fire came into the week tied for first place as a result of the Fire's best Major League start in club history, 3-0-1. After Sunday night’s loss to the New England Revolution the Fire (3-1-1, 10 pts) fall below the fold in the tough Eastern Conference standings to fourth behind Kansas City (4-1-0, 12 pts), New York Red Bulls (3-0-2, 11 pts) and New England Revs (3-1-2, 11 pts). The Fire were able...

The Chicago Fire put together a strong team performance to earn three points on the road against the defending MLS champions Houston Dynamo. Chris Rolfe tallied the lone goal in the 60th minute to propel the Fire to their best start in franchise history. After four games the Fire are 3-0-1, earning them 10 points, tying them with the New York Red Bulls (3-0-1) at the top of the seven-team Eastern conference. The Fire's previous...

The Chicago Fire kick off their tenth season in Major League Soccer this Saturday at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill. The Fire will start off against New England Revolution, who knocked the Fire out of the 2006 playoff hunt. The rivalry with the Revs is quickly becoming one of the better rivalries in Major League Soccer. The teams are an even 17-17-6 against each other in the regular season. Further stoking the rivalry fire is...

Last month we shared with you the rumors that the Chicago Fire were in talks with Mexican Soccer Star Cuauhtémoc Blanco. The Fire announced on Sunday that Blanco would be coming to Chicago on Monday to sign a Designated Player (DP) contract with the Fire. The Fire will become only the third team to take advantage of Major League Soccer's Designated Player rule. The rule allows MLS teams to sign a player and have only...

Both Red Card and Ridge Mahoney of SoccerAmerica are reporting that Fire GM John Guppy has met with Mexican League Star Cuauhtemoc Blanco about joining the Fire in 2007. SoccerAmerica reported that salary terms of $1.5-2 million per season for either one or three years are being discussed. Blanco, although aging at 34 and having suffered several injuries during his career, continues to find the back of the net, including four times this season for...

The Women's United Soccer Association was the first full-time women's soccer league in the world when it was founded in 2000. Franchises existed in Atlanta, Boston, Chapel Hill & Cary, NC, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Jose, and Washington D.C. After three full seasons, the WUSA suspended operations in the fall of 2003. The WUSA failed for a variety of reasons including a lack of attendance and significant television ratings, and blowing through $100...

Major League Soccer and its many broadcast partners released the 2007 schedule today. In a first for MLS, every single game will be televised either nationally or locally. The league has partnered with many national networks, including ABC, ESPN, Univision, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Espanol and HDNet to ensure 113 of the 195 games will be shown nationally. Unfortunately, many of these stations are not widely available without upgraded cable service. The most...

The BBC is reporting that Fire GM John Guppy admitted to trying to sign retired Real Madrid star and 2006 World Cup Best Player, Zinedine Zidane out of retirement to play with the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer. According to Guppy, "We reached out to Zidane ... the feedback we've all gotten is that he's retired." The Fire has also unsuccessfully tried to sign Swedish striker Henrik Larsson but lost out to Manchester United....

Today Major League Soccer hosted its 2007 SuperDraft. The draft was overshadowed by yesterday's announcement that David Beckham has signed with the LA Galaxy. Today's newest members of Major League Soccer will get paid significantly less than Beckham's nearly $1 million per week in salary and endorsements. Toronto FC, an MLS expansion team, had the first selection and picked University of Maryland product midfielder Maurice Edu. The Columbus Crew was scheduled to have the second...

This weekend many MLS fans were expecting to hear about new acquisitions to their teams via the Major League Soccer SuperDraft, which takes place tomorrow in Indianapolis. Los Angeles has upstaged the entire MLS SuperDraft hullabaloo by finally, after months of rumors, inking a deal to bring soccer star David Beckham to play with the L.A. Galaxy. Beckham agreed to a five-year, $250 million deal with the Galaxy and will leave Real Madrid at the...

The Chicago Fire can start thinking about 2007, now that their first match is scheduled. The Fire will host the New England Revolution on April 7 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview to kick off the 2007 campaign. The Revolution and the Fire have developed a solid, bitter rivalry over the years highlighted by the Revs ending the Fire's 2006 season in New England in penalty kicks. Four of the five times the Fire have met...

The Chicago Fire will host their final home game of the 2006 campaign at noon on Sunday, October 22, when they take on division rival the New England Revolution. The Fire will be looking for revenge as it was the Revs who knocked the Fire out of the postseason last year. This year, the Fire have the advantage in their series play with a 2-1-1 record. When this series is over, the two teams will...

Major League Soccer selected Chicago Fire goalkeeper Matt Pickens as the Player of the Month for September. Pickens is the first Chicago Fire player to earn that honor during the 2006 season. When starting goalkeeper Zach Thornton injured his quadricep, Matt Pickens answered the call, getting his first MLS start of 2006 on September 3 in a game that had the Fire defeating the N.Y. Red Bulls 2-1. Matt Pickens was rewarded by Major League...

The Chicago Fire won their fourth U.S. Open Championship and hoisted the Dewar Cup after defeating the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 on Wednesday night. In winning this game, the Fire continue a perfect 12-0 home record in U.S. Open competition. The Fire are also the most successful MLS team in U.S. Open Cup history, winning four titles and owning a 24-5-2 record. The Fire continued to play a dominating style of soccer in which...

Tomorrow night, the Chicago Fire play host to the Los Angeles Galaxy for the first of two matches with them in just four days. On Saturday night, the Fire will try to clinch a playoff spot by defeating the Galaxy with just three more regular season games to go after this one. Then just four days later, they will rematch with Los Angeles in the U.S. Open Cup Championship match. The Fire clearly have the...

Prior to Sunday's match, the Chicago Fire honored the 25th anniversary for the Chicago Sting's first Soccer Bowl Championship. The Fire then went out and showed the Sting and the fans at Toyota Park their own winning ways. The Fire came out and played a very aggressive style of soccer. From the first whistle this game was a hotly contested match that saw a lot of tough tackles, many of which were late and dangerous....