Results tagged “worldcup”

Ah, 1994. I was a sophomore in high school, doing my best to cultivate a bitchin’ head of long hair to as better ‘bang to the new Divine Intervention album from Slayer. Heidi Fleiss was in the news (for the first time). Waterworld was already getting bad press for its high cost. Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold still made the gossip column. Trade rumors for Scottie Pippen were a-flyin’. All was right with the world. Olympically, we were all still high on the ’92 Dream Team and they were still kicking ass in the World Championship of Basketball in Toronto that summer. But one story in the Sun-Times by Steve Tucker from way back then got our attention - featuring a prescient lede:

A few odds and ends from the world of Chicago sports.

Anytime an event is held every few years instead of annually, it takes on some added importance (we're thinking, for example, presidential elections, the Olympics and the World Cup). In the culinary world, this event is the Coupe De Monde De Boulangerie, a bread-baking contest that takes place every three years in Paris. This year, it's part of the Europain exhibition, held March 29–April 2.

Chicago has been selected as the host city for the 2008 Barclays Churchill Cup finals, the biggest international rugby tournament in North America. The Tournament will kick off in Ottawa, Canada on June 7th with several dates across Canada before converging on Chicago for the final day of matches. Teams from the United States, Canada, England, Scotland and Ireland will compete in the event on June 21 at Toyota Park. Last year, Toyota Park played...

This weekend 8,000 rugby fans enjoyed seeing 2006 Heineken Cup Champion Munster defeat the Rugby World Cup bound-USA Eagles 10-6 at Toyota Park. This match was the final match for the USA Eagles before they travel to France for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. This was the first time Chicagoist had seen rugby played at this level and was immediately intimidated and impressed at the size of the players and the ferocity with which they...

Toyota Park will be home to a professional soccer game and an international friendly rugby match this weekend. On Saturday night the Chicago Fire will look to exact revenge when they host Kansas City, to whom they lost 3-2 in a mid-week clash. The Fire and Kansas City have split their previous two matches with the home side winning each game. Both games have been close, determined by just one goal. The Fire are badly...

Chicagoans are in for another soccer treat this year when the United States National Team hosts Brazil at Soldier Field on September 9. Originally the 'Nats were slated to play Mexico in Mexico in what would have been a rematch of the 2007 Gold Cup final that took place earlier this summer in Chicago. Due to financial problems that game has been called off, though Chicagoist thinks it might have something to do with the...

The U.S. Women's National Team for soccer is in town this weekend for a World Cup tune-up match with New Zealand on Sunday at Soldier Field. The United States comes in to Sunday's match on a 45-game unbeaten streak; this will be their second to last friendly before they travel to China for the 2007 World Cup. Chicagoist sat down with former national team representative and two-time World Cup Champion Brandi Chastain to talk soccer...

Chicagoist is a big fan of alternative sports. No we are not talking about underwater hockey but sports that are popular around the world that have just-under-the-mainstream-radar following here in Chicago. We're talking Gaelic Football, Rugby, and Australian Football. Chicagoist was excited to see there are some great alternative sporting events heading to town in the coming month. This weekend, Chicago United Australian Football Club is hosting the Nashville Kangaroos in a Mid-America Australian Football...

Toyota Park will host two international sporting events this summer. The first on Sunday, July 22 when the Chicago Fire host Scottish Premier League side Celtic FC. Celtic FC had a remarkable season last year where they went unbeaten in 31 of 34 games, leading them to a repeat as champions in the Scottish Premier League. The club has won five of the last seven championships and has racked up 41 domestic titles in their...

The United States and Mexico advanced out of the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup Thursday night. The United States started off the night defeating our neighbors to the north, Canada, 2-1. The United States received goals from Frankie Hejduk in the 39th minute and a penalty kick goal by Landon Donovan in the 45th minute that was awarded when DaMarcus Beasley was taken down inside the Canadian box. In the waning minutes of the...

The United States Women's National Soccer Team has scheduled a series of international friendlies this year to help them prepare for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup that will be held in China this fall. At noon on August 12, the U.S. Women's team will take on New Zealand at Soldier Field, a game that will also be broadcast live on ESPN2. Soccer fans can start buying tickets as of today. The U.S. squad is...

The folks over at U.S. Soccer House, in the Prairie Avenue Historical District, have announced their intentions to submit a bid for the 2018 World Cup. The United States hosted a successful World Cup in 1994, which included games at Soldier Field. The World Cup took place last summer in Germany and will next be played in South Africa in 2010. The 2014 World Cup is expected to go to a South American country, though...

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,...

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....

The United States Soccer Federation selected two Chicago watering holes as finalists for the Best Soccer Bar in America as part of the 2006 Best of U.S. Soccer awards. The finalist will be decided by votes cast by soccer fans who visit USSoccer.com. Voting is open until Wednesday. Representing Chicago are Ginger's Ale House and The Globe Pub. Chicago is the only city to have two finalists for Best Soccer Bar. Chicagoist assumes that U.S....

This weekend, soccer legends like Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer will be in Berlin to see the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final featuring France vs. Italy. On Monday, Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer will be on the big screen for the Chicago premiere of Miramax's documentary, "Once in a Lifetime - The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos." FireWorks for Kids Foundation, the Chicago Fire's charitable arm is hosting the event at 6:30pm at AMC River...

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy...

Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only ist south of the Equator. Editor Leandro M. Pinto leads the paulistanos down there. You can protest someone at his office, sure, but when the whistle blows at the end of the day can you follow him home? D.C. has sports fans, apparently, and elephants aren't really cut out for zoos. There's this trick where you can read information from...

Normally Chicagoist isn't big into reporting on every restaurant/bar/whatnot that has its door shuttered for health code violations. But this one we couldn't let pass by. This morning, a Chicagoist operative was on assignment out in North Center (read: drinking many beers at the Globe watching the World Cup) when he stumbled on over to Lincoln Restaurant only to find the doors locked and a big ol' neon-green sticker on the front, which means...

Since the Polish soccer team has played itself out of the World Cup, Chicagoist was looking for a new group of Poles to get behind. Tomorrow at 8pm, boxing fans can see some of Poland's best boxers at the Polish Boxing Explosion event at Odeum Expo Center in Villa Park. The headline fight is between Heavyweight Mariusz "The Gladiator" Wach (10-0, 3 KO's) and Canadian Aurthur Cook (12-1-1, 3 KOs) for the Polish Heavyweight title....

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are...

Chicagoist is issuing a World Cup Challenge. Pick the winners of the games most accurately and earn a Chicagoist T-Shirt (High stakes we know). The World Cup begins tomorrow morning so visit the ESPN Pick ‘Em Challenge page today and select the Chicagoist group(Group number 54837) enter password "chicagoist" to join. You don't need to provide your selection for each game when you register. You can enter your pick for each game up to an...

During a two-year process, approximately 200 nations competed for one of 32 coveted spots in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals. What are the rest of the teams left to do while the best teams prepare for the world's biggest sporting event? Many are scheduled to be opponents in final warm-up matches for teams that have qualified. The United States, for example, is simulating the first round of the World Cup by playing three matches...

The Chicago Fire earned another road point this weekend when they escaped Kansas City with a draw. The Fire were outshot 20-4 but managed to tie 1-1 thanks to some stellar goal keeping by Zach Thorton that included stopping an Eddie Johnson penalty kick. Kansas City remains Major League Soccer's top team (4-1-1) while the Fire are fifth in the East Division. The Fire are managing to stay within reach of the top half of...

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the...

United States National Soccer Team Manager Bruce Arena plans to announce the 23 player roster for the 2006 FIFA World Cup tonight at 5pm on ESPN's Sportscenter. Arena is announcing the squad 13 days before the official roster submission date, when the rosters for all 32 teams will be finalized. We feel there are 13 players who can rest easy today as their place on the roster is a sure thing (denoted in italics below)....

The United States National Soccer Team cracked into the top five in the FIFA World Rankings when the March rankings were released earlier this week. This is a first for the United States, who are in their final stages of preparation for the 2006 World Cup which begins in June. During the World Cup draw, the 32 finalists are divided into eight groups of four teams. Those teams play each of the teams in the...

The Chicago Fire are less than three weeks away from their 2006 season opener at FC Dallas. The Fire have had a productive pre-season thus far winning five games, losing only two and earning four draws. In those eleven games they have outscored their opponents 16 to 11. The Fire will start the season with a grueling nine game road trip before they can christen their new soccer-specific stadium. If the Fire can win a...

The Chicago Fire's preseason got off to a great start Tuesday by defeating the United States Men's Under 17s 4-0 in Bradenton, Florida. Although it's tough to predict the success of a team by pre-season performance, it is a great time to evaluate their talent. The Fire surely were elated to see many of their 2006 Major League Soccer Super Draft selections perform well. Chicagoist was most excited by midfielder Brian Plotkin's performance. Plotkin cracked...