Chicago Soccer: Can this be a Miracle Summer?

A Miracle Summer in Chicago?

This situation, of having a men’s and women’s team who could make some noise in their respective tournaments, is rather unique to Chicago. For Portland, the Timbers appear to be in the ‘Group of Death’ with LAFC, the LA Galaxy, and the Houston Dynamo — the Dynamo aren’t alone in that bad luck as their counterpart, the Dash, are up against the North Carolina Courage and Chicago Red Stars in the preliminary rounds.

And while D.C. United got a fairly reasonable draw, the Washington Spirit will have to face the Portland Thorns and OL Reign. They might have an easier time against the Reign, who will likely be without star player Megan Rapinoe, but that weakens Seattle’s chances of the Summer Double. The Utah Royals and Real Salt Lake don’t exactly feel like tournament-winning teams, same with Sky Blue FC and their adopted brother, the New York Red Bulls. Both Orlando teams have little chance of competing and the only NWSL team left would be the North Carolina Courage, whose men’s counterpart is in the USL, not MLS.

Although the Chicago Fire certainly don’t have any better chance of winning than OL Reign does, it’s also about the stories that are leading into this summer. Both the Fire and the Red Stars are in search of massive redemption. On one hand, you have a team that has done everything right but has continually fallen short of glory. On the other, a team that has been kicked around for almost a decade and finally looks stable for the first time in a long while. These are two stories that screenwriters dream of. They don’t come around very often, much less in such an intertwined way.

This summer, then, keep an eye on the Chicago Red Stars and Chicago Fire. Soccer is back, and it might just be a glorious return for the Windy City.