Chicago Red Stars


The Chicago Red Stars is a women's professional soccer club based in Chicago, Illinois, who compete in the National Women's Soccer League and play their home games in SeatGeek Stadium. The team was a founding member of Women's Professional Soccer, and played in the league in 2009 and 2010. After leaving the WPS in December 2010, due to financial issues, the team reorganized and joined the Women's Premier Soccer League for the 2011 season. In 2012, the team co-founded and competed in Women's Premier Soccer League Elite, the single year this league existed. In the fall of 2012 the Red Stars with the Boston Breakers and US Soccer, attracted 6 other teams and founded the National Women's Soccer League. Since 2013 the team has been competing in the National Women's Soccer League. From 2015-2019 the Chicago Red Stars have made the playoffs of the NWSL and are the first and only team to do so for five consecutive years.

History

Women's Professional Soccer (WPS)

Establishment (2006–2009)

In 2006, it was announced that Chicago would have a team in a new league being developed for women's professional soccer. It would eventually join six other teams, Washington Freedom, Boston Breakers, Los Angeles Sol, FC Gold Pride, Sky Blue FC, and Saint Louis Athletica in Women's Professional Soccer for the league's inaugural season in 2009.
Marcia McDermott, a former head coach of the Northwestern University women's soccer team and WUSA team Carolina Courage, was named as the Red Stars' general manager.
On June 3, 2008, the "Red Stars" name was announced in a ceremony at Toyota Park. The name refers to the four six-pointed red stars on the municipal flag of Chicago. Each star represents a landmark event in Chicago history: Fort Dearborn, the Great Chicago Fire, the 1893 World's Fair, and the 1933 World's Fair. Other names considered were Progress, Towers, Union, Blues, 1871 and Wind. "Red Stars" was chosen by popular vote in a two-month fan ballot.

2009 inaugural season

The Chicago Red Stars won their first game of the season, 1–0, at Saint Louis Athletica, and followed with two ties and a 4–0 thrashing of Boston Breakers at Toyota Park. This gave the team the best starting record of any team in the league besides eventual season champions Los Angeles Sol, seeming to live up to preseason expectations based on the strong core of USWNT and international players on the Red Stars roster.
Despite their strong start, the Red Stars then went winless for their next nine games, only getting three away draws in that streak, which included a 451-minute-long scoring drought. Their opponents, the Washington Freedom scored first in the next game and it appeared the streak would continue. However, the Red Stars made WPS history by becoming the first team to successfully come from behind, to win 2–1. They also beat cellar-dwellers FC Gold Pride in their next game 3–1, but then lost four of their last five games, eliminating them from the playoffs as they ended the season in sixth place. The Red Stars finished second in attendance in the league in 2009 behind the LA Sol.
True to his agreement to see the Red Stars organization through its first season, Peter Wilt chose to step down as team CEO at the end of 2009, moving on to become general manager of the Milwaukee Wave, the NISL team in his hometown. General Manager, Marcia McDermott, took on many of his responsibilities at the Red Stars, although he continued to support the team as one of its representatives on the Women's Professional Soccer Board of Governors and as President of the Chicago Red Stars Charitable Foundation.

2010 season

The Red Stars opened up their second season with high hopes and many new faces. In their first game, the Red Stars lost 1–0 at Sky Blue FC despite dominating much of the game. A 1–1 home tie in their second game earned the Stars their first point of the 2010 season.
After a successful 2010, the team left WPS on December 13; unable to meet the league's funding requirements for the 2011 season, and the league subsequently folded in 2011 for financial and legal reasons.

Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL)

2011 season

The Red Stars joined the Women's Premier Soccer League for 2011. They played their home games at Village of Lisle-Benedictine University Sports Complex in west suburban Chicago.
The new roster consisted of players from the WNT U-20 and U-23 pools, as well as collegiate stars. The first players announced included three players with WPS experience, including two from the Red Stars' 2010 squad. It was coached by Rory Dames, a Chicago native. Red Stars also continued their activity in the Chicago soccer community through their soccer camp programs.
Red Stars finished the regular season with a 10–1 record, and hosted the playoff semifinals and championship matches. While they beat Tampa Bay Hellenic 2–1 in their semifinal, they lost in overtime by the same score in the final to the Orange County Waves, another WPSL team that has past WPS connections.

Women's Premier Soccer League Elite (WPSLE)

2012 season

In 2012, the Red Stars joined two other former WPS clubs, Boston Breakers and Western New York Flash, in founding the new WPSL Elite League. Five other former WPSL teams joined the league, including ASA Chesapeake Charge, FC Indiana, New England Mutiny, New York Fury, and Philadelphia Fever.
The Red Stars finished fourth in the league, making the playoffs and advanced to the final, where they lost to Flash in a 2–4 penalty shootout, after a 1–1 draw at the end of extra time. Notably in that game stars Ella Masar and Lori Chalupny were injured on the same play in the 33rd minute. WNY scored the equalizer in regulation with a 40 yard wonder strike in the 97th minute to get to overtime. Impressively, the Red Stars also won the 2012 National Women's Cup with just half the roster, as the Cup final occurred at the same time as their final WPSL Elite regular season match against eventual third-placed New York Fury.

National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)

In November 2012, the Red Stars co-founded and were one of the original eight teams in a new women's professional soccer league, then yet to be named, in concert with United States Soccer Federation, the Canadian Soccer Association and the Mexican Football Federation. The league started competition in Spring of 2013.

2013 season

All teams in the NWSL received an initial allocation of USWNT players and the Red Stars were named for Shannon Boxx, Amy LePeilbet, and Keelin Winters. Only Shannon Boxx saw limited minutes for the Red Stars in 2013. In the inaugural season of NWSL, Red Stars started with 2 draws and 4 losses. The mid-season arrival of 2 Germans, Sonja Fuss and Inka Grings, from Europe revived the team somewhat, but not enough to qualify for the post-season playoffs. Red Stars played 22 matches with 8 wins, 6 draws, and 8 losses to finish the season at sixth place in an eight team league.

2014 season

In 2014, the Red Stars finished one place better than they had previously, fifth place in regular season. This season, the club was waiting for United States international Christen Press to join after completing her commitment to a European club, and the Canadian international Melissa Tancredi to gain full fitness after her education. In addition, the team signed 2 other internationals, Abby Erceg and Emily van Egmond in May. Despite the late arrival of international stars, at the end of May the team had 6 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses; a competitive team performance enabled by rookies Julie Johnston, Vanessa DiBernardo, Hayley Brock, young players Jen Hoy, Rachel Quon, and veteran stalwarts Lori Chalupny, Michelle Wenino, and goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc. With a mid-season slump of 1 win in 11 matches during June and July, the team eventually did not qualify for post-season playoffs; edged out by head to head results with Washington Spirit.

2015 season

The Red Stars started the 2015 season with home games, a 3–2 win over previous season's Supporting Shield winner Seattle Reign FC, followed by a 2–2 draw with Portland Thorns FC, and a 1–0 win over Sky Blue FC. With Christen Press scoring 4 of the first 5 goals for Red Stars, Press was named the Player of the Month of April. With the national teams members out training for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, rookie Sofia Huerta scored multiple goals in 2 matches and was named NWSL Player of the Week for week 5, as well as week 6; and was also named NWSL Player of the Month of May. The team held first place during regular season from week 4 to week 13 and finished second. However, in the playoff the team lost in the semi-final to FC Kansas City.

2016 season

After a banner 2015 season, the team expected to do well again. The club ended the regular season at third place, and played the play-off semi-final at Boyds, Maryland against Washington Spirit on September 30, falling 2–1 and did not reach the championship match. This season the Red Stars returned to Toyota Park for home games, where they last played on a regular basis during their 2010 season in the Women's Professional Soccer league.

2017 season

In 2017, for the third consecutive season, the Red Stars made it to the post-season playoffs and were eliminated in the semi-final; falling 1–0 to North Carolina Courage at Cary, North Carolina on an 89-minute goal.

2018 season

2018 was the team's tenth season and sixth season in the NWSL. For the fourth consecutive year, the team qualified for the post-season playoffs and lost in the semi-final, as they were defeated by the North Carolina Courage 2–0.

2019 season

The 2019 season saw the Red Stars appear in the finals for the first time in NWSL history. The team clinched their 5th consecutive playoff spot on September 21, 2019 after defeating the Washington Spirit 3-1. That game also saw forward Sam Kerr score her 18th goal of the season, breaking the record for most goals scored in a single NWSL season, which she had previously set playing with Sky Blue FC in 2017. The Red Stars went on to defeat the Portland Thorns 1-0 in a semi-final home game, and were defeated in the final by the North Carolina Courage 4-0. They finished the season runners-up with a 14 win, 2 draw, 8 loss record.

Crest and colors

The original primary logo combines two heraldic Chicago images: the shape of the shield is taken from its equivalent inside the city of Chicago's official seal. The colors, stripes, and stars in the logo are all inspired by the symbolism of Chicago's municipal flag, with the blue stripes representing the two branches of the Chicago River. The six points on the large red star in the center of the Chicago Red Stars logo also have their own meaning to the team:
Adrenalin, Inc., and jlmvisual partnered to jointly develop the Red Stars original identity.
The primary and secondary logo were updated at the beginning of the 2018 season by the front office with a collaborative design team headed by Julie Rochelle.

Stadiums

During the team's membership in Women's Professional Soccer, Chicago Red Stars played at Toyota Park, now known as SeatGeek Stadium, a world-class soccer-specific stadium, with 20,000 dedicated seats for soccer. It is best known as having been home to Chicago Fire FC from 2006 to 2019.
From 2011 to 2015, in Women's Premier Soccer League, Women's Premier Soccer League Elite league and National Women's Soccer League, Red Stars played their matches at the Village of Lisle-Benedictine University Sports Complex. The university stadium seats 3,000.
In 2012 season, in the WPSL-Elite league, some matches were played at Concordia University Chicago Athletic Complex in River Forest, Illinois as well as the Lakeside Athletic Field at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois due to renovation construction at Benedictine University.
In December 2015, Chicago Red Stars announced the return to Toyota Park for their home games for 2016 NWSL season.

Owners

WPS (2009–2010)

The Chicago Professional Women's Soccer, LLC investor and partner group was the owner of the Chicago Red Stars from 2009–2010 during the team's membership in Women's Professional Soccer. In April 2010, the team's management group consisted of Gary Weaver, Jim Willett, and Arnim Whisler. The Illinois Women's Soccer League also signed on as a partner. In addition to the IWSL, the team's leadership included shareholders John Cummins, Robert and Susan Morrison, Jim and Kathi Willett, Dale Weaver, Gary Weaver, Pin Ni, Dong Li, Arnim Whisler, Dean Egerter, Stephen Ritchie and Peter Wilt.

WPSL (2011), WPSL E (2012) and NWSL (2013–present)

Arnim Whisler took over the team after the 2010 season, he decided to keep the team going for the 2011 season in the WPSL while working to help reorganize a professional women's soccer league. WPS.
He remains the sole owner of the Chicago Red Stars in 2019.

Broadcasting

On April 17, 2019, it was announced that NBC Sports Chicago would serve as the Red Stars' new regional broadcaster, televising all regular-season matches. 7 matches in the 2019 season will be carried on its overflow channel NBC Sports Chicago Plus.

Team standing and statistics

Key

ChampionsRunners-up

Seasons

Players and coaches

Current squad

Coaching staff

Coaching history

Bold denotes player is active on Chicago Red Stars roster.

Former notable players

See also All-time Chicago Red Stars roster
Former members of the team who have represented a senior national team are:

Honors

Footnotes