Fire find positives in 1-0 loss to Milan

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- Sunday's international friendly between the Chicago Fire and A.C. Milan had a few elements you wouldn't typically see at a Fire match at Toyota Park.

Away from the field of play, you had the crowd, a couple of fans disrupting the action, a flare whizzing by Milan goalkeeper Dida. On the field, with a top-tier opponent such as Milan, the fluidity and trickery with the ball tends to go up a level from both sides.

In the end, Milan pulled off the 1-0 victory over Chicago in front of a sell-out crowd of 20,356. The result was a disappointment from the Fire's perspective, but Chicago took some elements out of this match.

After speaking with Fire midfielder/forward Patrick Nyarko, he took plenty of satisfaction in saying that he schooled Milan's Ronaldinho, a two-time FIFA World Player of the Year, by flicking the ball over Ronaldinho's head and attacking in the other direction in the 16th minute.

"It was great," Nyarko said with a huge grin. "I was laughing it up with my teammates. It's probably the highlight of my career right now. I told him that he's probably going to [beat] me later, but I don't care. It was really fun. I'm glad I pulled it off."

Read the full story at ESPNChicago.com.

Red Stars blank 1st-place Gold Pride

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- Kosovare Asllani netted her first goal and the Chicago Red Stars defeated first-place FC Gold Pride, 1-0, on Saturday in Women's Professional Soccer action in front of 3,845 at Toyota Park.

Next up for the Red Stars is a 5 p.m. match on Sunday, June 6, against the Atlanta Beat at Toyota Park. The Red Stars' first match against Atlanta is televised live on Fox Soccer Channel.

On Saturday, the Red Stars (2-4-1) struck first in the 55th minute when Asllani was on the receiving end of a Marian Dalmy dish from the right side. Asllani had the easy tap-in goal to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. It was the team's first lead at home this season, put an end to a five-half scoreless drought and resulted in Chicago's first home victory.

"We are really excited and I feel like it is our start, in my opinion," Asllani said. "We had a couple of games that we had dominated that we didn't win, and after all, the winning is the most important thing. And I think we got good confidence from this game."

For more, visit ChicagoRedStars.com.

Fire, Milan gear up for Sunday's friendly

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- Italian club A.C. Milan and Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire square off in an international friendly at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Toyota Park.

It caps a jam-packed May for the Fire as they enter their seventh and final match of the month.

The Fire and Milan last played one another in 2005 at Soldier Field, with Milan topping Chicago, 3-1.

Read the full post at ESPNChicago.com.

Red Stars host 1st-place Gold Pride

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- Following a bye week from Women's Professional Soccer play, the Chicago Red Stars take on four-time FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Marta and FC Gold Pride at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 29, at Toyota Park.

The match marks the second meeting between the two clubs in the month of May. In their last contest on May 8, the Red Stars (1-4-1) fell on the road to Gold Pride, 2-0, in Castro Valley, Calif., playing most of the match shorthanded when defender Ifeoma Dieke was red-carded in the 21st minute.

Gold Pride (5-1-0) leads the all-time series between the two sides with a 2-1-1 record. The Red Stars are looking to secure their first home victory of the 2010 season.

As the Red Stars progress with their search for a new head coach, General Manager Marcia McDermott will serve as the temporary team coach in Saturday's match against Gold Pride. McDermott, who was named the 62nd President of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in January, last served in a coaching capacity as an associate head coach for the University of Illinois women's soccer team in 2006 and 2007.

For more, visit ChicagoRedStars.com.

Pace slows, Fire manage draw vs. Dallas

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- The Chicago Fire dug themselves into a bit of a hole, but a Brian McBride goal allowed the Fire to salvage a 1-1 draw against FC Dallas on Thursday night in MLS action in front of a crowd of 12,552 at Toyota Park.

If the Fire's busy May schedule has taken its toll, Thursday showed some indications that there were some heavy legs on the Chicago side. The pace of the second half slowed down quite a bit Thursday.

"The first half was pretty lively. The second half, fatigue set in," Fire midfielder Justin Mapp said. "It's a lot of minutes for a lot of these guys. It's no excuse, but a little fatigue in the last 10 to 15 [minutes]."

For more, visit ESPNChicago.com.

Fire's SuperLiga schedule set for July

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- The 2009 SuperLiga runner-up Chicago Fire will return to the fourth edition of the tournament in July. Major League Soccer and Federacion Mexicana de Futbol announced the 2010 SuperLiga schedule on Thursday.

SuperLiga features the top four MLS teams from the previous year's regular-season record who are not competing in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League. The four Mexican clubs are based on combined points in the Apertura and Clausura 2009 who are not competing in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League.

The Fire, Chivas USA, Houston Dynamo and New England Revolution represent the MLS side. The Mexican clubs include Monarcas Morelia, Pachuca, Puebla FC and Pumas UNAM.

The Fire host Monarcas Morelia at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 14, at Toyota Park.

For the full schedule and more information, visit ESPNChicago.com.

Red Stars' Markgraf returns to form

By Scott Powers, ESPNChicago.com

Chicago Red Stars defender Kate Markgraf will never forget the moment she was told 14 weeks into her pregnancy she would be having twins.

"I cried," said Markgraf while laughing.

As a mother, she was overjoyed. As a soccer player, she was terrified.

Markgraf had decided long before the doctor's late-breaking news of twins that she was going to play at least one more professional soccer season. The thought of twins made her pause, but it wasn't enough to deter her.

On Saturday, Markgraf officially completed her comeback. In the same week as her girl-and-boy twins, Carson and Xavier, turned 11 months old, Markgraf made her first U.S. women's national team appearance since December 2008 when she came off the bench in the 63rd minute Saturday and helped the U.S. hold on for a 4-0 win over Germany before 10,000 fans in Cleveland.

"I wasn't expecting it at all," Markgraf said of being called up for the game. "I was very surprised and honored at the same time."

Read the rest of Scott Powers' story on ESPNChicago.com.

Fire, Dallas clash in 1-sided Brimstone series

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- We are into the tail end of May, with plenty of Major League Soccer action left in the tank. But with a 2-3-3 record and a middle-of-the-pack spot in the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Fire are looking to change the tone of its season.

The Fire hope they can find the win column when they host FC Dallas at 7 p.m. Thursday at Toyota Park (game televised on ESPN2).

"We need to win," Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos said. "We need to win this match and be aggressive."

The Brimstone Cup -- awarded annually to the winner of the Chicago-Dallas season series -- has been a tremendously one-sided honor in Dallas' favor. The Fire have not taken the head-to-head series since 2001 -- the only time they have won the Brimstone outright.

Read more at ESPNChicago.com.