Chicago Soccer: Can this be a Miracle Summer?
This summer, Chicago Red Stars and Chicago Fire will compete in NWSL and MLS tournaments. With a bit of luck, it could be a miracle summer for soccer in Chicago.
On March 11th, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19. Thus, the world of sports screeched to a halt in the United States. Since then, we have all been through months of retrospective content, but something’s missing without the beautiful mystery of live sports. Not knowing how the game will end, not knowing who will come out on top. This all changes in a couple of weeks when American sports return, starting with the NWSL on June 27th and followed by Major League Soccer on July 8th. However you may feel about this, sports will be returning to America and soccer will be the first arrival.
For Chicago sports fans, this means that they’re going to want to get familiar with their representatives for each tournament. And for the Chicago Red Stars and the Chicago Fire, this is a chance to grab those new fans’ attention. Judging by the draw that each team received, they both might just do that. But first, let’s actually look at the format for both tournaments.
The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup was announced on May 27th. The tournament will be played in Sandy, UT at Rio Tinto Stadium, home of the Utah Royals. Utah began relaxing quarantine restrictions in late April, making them an early candidate for hosting this tournament.
As for the rules, the teams went through a random draw held on June 1st that decided their seeding. These seeds gave each team four opponents in the preliminary round. The preliminary round will decide the true seeding for the final knockout round with the last-place team not advancing. This knockout stage will lead to a final on July 26th. The first game and the last game of the tournament will be on CBS, but the rest will be on the CBS All-Access streaming service (or Twitch if you’re outside of the U.S. and Canada).
MLS announced their return on June 1st with the MLS is Back Tournament, set to begin on July 8th at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Disney World. Due to the location and the fairly forgettable given name, the tournament’s been nicknamed ‘The Mickey Mouse Cup’. This cup will not only have a champion to stand on its own, but all group-stage matches will count towards the regular season and the winner will receive a berth to the CONCACAF Champions League.
The tournament’s structure will resemble that of the World Cup, but with a single group of 6 where teams will still only play against three of the five available opponents in the group. Otherwise, each group will have a round-robin group stage with the top two teams advancing to the knockout round, as well as the four best overall third-place teams. There will then be a knockout round which will culminate in a final on August 11th.
So let’s get into why this will be an interesting summer for Chicago soccer.