On Friday, the Chicago Red Stars signed Oswego native and DePaul standout Julianne Sitch. She
played this past season for the Women's Professional Soccer champion Sky Blue FC out in New
Jersey.
CLICK HERE for the team's release.
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Chicago Red Stars forward and University of Illinois All-American Ella Masar is headed to Augsburg,
Germany, as she joins the U.S. Women's National Team for the squad's Oct. 29 match against
defending FIFA World Cup champion Germany. However, the U.S. WNT loses another Red Star with
midfielder Megan Rapinoe undergoing knee surgery Friday.
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McHenry, Ill., native Peter Wilt officially was introduced by the Milwaukee Wave as the team's new
president and CEO on Wednesday in Milwaukee. Wilt still will maintain several roles with the
Chicago Red Stars, where he had been the team's president and CEO.
Here are some useful links:
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New boss wants Wave to reach out
• OnMilwaukee.
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• Chicago Red Stars president and CEO Peter Wilt is joining the Milwaukee Wave of the National
Indoor Soccer League in a similar capacity. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first posted the news
Tuesday morning. The McHenry, Ill., native and former Chicago Fire general manager will be
introduced at a press conference Wednesday, and official information will be available at
ChicagoRedStars.
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Red Stars midfielder to face Germany on Oct. 29
Chicago Red Stars midfielder Megan Rapinoe was one of 18 players named to the U.S. Women's National
Team on Monday for the team's Oct. 29 match against Germany.
This year she has played in all seven of the U.S.'s international matches, posting two goals, an
assist and a team-high five points.
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It was a bad day to be Brazilian in WPS yesterday as teams around the league handed seven of their
"Girls from Ipanema" their free-agency walking papers. The name on that list that perhaps raised
the most eyebrows was Cristiane from the Red Stars, that team's leading goal scorer and the first
and only player in WPS history to register a hat-trick.
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Red Stars hoping to bring back team's scoring leader for 2010
The first day of Women's Professional Soccer's free agency had some pretty big names on the list,
including Brazilian forward Cristiane (pictured right) and U.S. Women's National Team midfielder
Carli Lloyd (pictured left) from the Chicago Red Stars' 2009 roster.
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On Monday the Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer exercised the 2010 contract options
for nine players: Marian Dalmy, Ifeoma Dieke, Chioma Igwe, Carolina Jonsson, Brittany Klein, Ella
Masar, Jill Oakes, Megan Rapinoe and Natalie Spilger.
With Karen Carney, Kate Markgraf and Lindsay Tarpley also under contract, the team currently
returns 12 players from this past season's squad.
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What an amazing experience being part of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season has
been! I'm a part of history. I'm a PRO athlete. But now it's the offseason, and so what next?
The difficulty as a player within this first-year league is that there is very little to count
on once the season ends.
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What an amazing experience being part of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season has
been! I'm a part of history. I'm a PRO athlete. But now it's the offseason, and so what next?
The difficulty as a player within this first-year league is that there is very little to count
on once the season ends.
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The seven hard working former Chicago Fire executives pictured above averaged about seven years
each with the organization. The institutional knowledge and relationships they took with them when
they left was significant.
AÂ key for successful chief executives is to surround themselves with talented, hard working
people with good character.
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In case you have missed anything, here are some recent links with Chicago pro soccer mention:
WPS expansion draft
• John Howell, Bleacher Report: Red Stars lose two subs to Philadelphia in WPS first expansion
draft
• Beau Dure, USA Today: Philly looks strong in WPS expansion draft
• Jeff Kassouf, The Equalizer: Grading the WPS expansion draft
Chicago Fire player development
• L.
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Last season's Red Stars selected in WPS expansion draft
Defender Nikki Krzysik (top) and forward Danesha Adams (bottom) will continue their Women's
Professional Soccer tenure in Philadelphia in 2010. This past season's members of the Chicago Red
Stars were selected by the Philadelphia Independence in the first-ever expansion draft Tuesday.
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(Editors Note: We profiled Jill Oakes shortly before the start of the WPS season. A high
school and college soccer standout, Jill just wrapped her first season as a pro and will be a
regular contributor to Pretty Tough as she, and the league, gear up for a second season).
As I reflect on the roller-coaster ride I like to call the inaugural WPS season, my own personal
journey reads with the same dramatic exclamations of a thrilling 1920's newspaper headline.
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(Editors Note: We profiled Jill Oakes shortly before the start of the WPS season. A high
school and college soccer standout, Jill just wrapped her first season as a pro and will be a
regular contributor to Pretty Tough as she, and the league, gear up for a second season).
As I reflect on the roller-coaster ride I like to call the inaugural WPS season, my own personal
journey reads with the same dramatic exclamations of a thrilling 1920's newspaper headline.
Click to continue reading...
Editor's Note: Chicago Red Stars President and CEO Peter Wilt returns for
his third weekly column on Pitch Invasion, pulling no punches as he grades the first season of the
league his own team plays in.
Sunday's Women's Professional Soccer All-Star victory over Swedish powerhouse Umea ended WPS'
first season and that makes this a good time to reflect on the inaugural year and analyze WPS'
progress.
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Chicago Red Stars meet their fans
Editor's Note: Chicago Red Stars President and CEO Peter Wilt returns for
his second column on Pitch Invasion, considering the critical role good customer service plays in
winning fans in American soccer.
One of the basic tenets of the soccer management philosophy I discussed last week was the
importance of providing good customer service.
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Chicago midfielder, along with Lloyd and Rapinoe, to train with squad
On Tuesday, three players from the Chicago Red Stars were named to the U.S. Women's National Team's
training session running from Sept. 21 to Oct. 2.
Red Stars midfielder Brittany Klein (pictured) joins the team with the hopes of earning her first
international camp.
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Peter Wilt
Editor's note: We write about the supporter experience a lot here at Pitch
Invasion, but what's the view like from the other side of the fence? We've invited Peter
Wilt, the President and CEO of the Chicago Red Stars of WPS and former President and CEO
of MLS' Chicago Fire to write a weekly column on his experiences as an executive in American soccer
and on the business of the sport.
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SlideTackles.net dishes final grades of Chicago's inaugural season
The Women's Professional Soccer playoffs are here this weekend. But missing from this group of four
postseason teams are the Chicago Red Stars, who finished their inaugural season with a 5-10-5
record, 20 points and a sixth-place finish.
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Cristiane, Rapinoe, Klein join lineup for Aug. 30 festivities in St. Louis
Three Chicago Red Stars players will represent the organization during the first-ever Women's
Professional Soccer All-Star Game on Aug. 30.
Brazilian forward Cristiane and midfielders Brittany Klein and Megan Rapinoe will be part of the
match, which features a collection of WPS All-Stars against Swedish champions Umea IK.
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Chicago tries to finish the way it started, with a win vs. St. Louis
For many, it is difficult to imagine that the Chicago Red Stars' inaugural Women's Professional
Soccer season is just about to come to a close.
The Red Stars wrap up their regular season against the team they first faced, St.
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Especially after the drubbing the Chicago Red Stars served up to the league-leading Los Angeles Sol
last Sunday one cannot help but wonder why this team has not advanced to post-season play. The
deciding factor may have been two games in particular: May 16against Gold Pride FC and July 19
against Sky Blue FC, when they played both times without the services of four of their regular
starting players, who were inopportunely whisked away for national team duty.
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The Chicago Red Stars saved their best for last, winning their final home game of the 2009 season
and avenging their worst ever loss against the Los Angeles Sol Sunday in front of a franchise
record crowd. "It really wasn't what we expected," LA's superstar forward
Marta
admitted afterwards.
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Check out my Examiner.com feature highlighting this Sunday's anticipated Brazilian showdown: the
Chicago Red Stars' Cristiane and the Los Angeles Sol's Marta. This is the last home game of the Red
Stars' inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season. The Red Stars are expecting one of their
biggest crowds of the season for this clash against the first-place Sol.
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Not happy this morning putting up this highlight clip. The Chicago Red Stars are not in
contention for the playoffs anymore.
My guess is Ella Masar was out of the lineup for too long!
Next year ladies, keep your heads up!
JM
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A report by the Commission on the Future of Women's Sport which the BBC's Gordon Farquhar
blogged about earlier this month points out that just 2% of media coverage on elite sport focuses
on women. Now I first got into writing about football by following one of my best friend's journeys
through the matches, tournaments and politics of women's football in Oxford.
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Hanks' stoppage-time goal dooms Chicago
The Chicago Red Stars' playoff hopes for their inaugural Women's Professional Soccer campaign hit
an all-time low Sunday. Sky Blue FC's Kerri Hanks scored in second-half stoppage time en route to a
1-0 victory over Chicago at Yurcak Stadium in Piscataway, N.
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The regular-season countdown is now at four games. This is not a bad time to regularly repeat the
"must-win" motto as the Chicago Red Stars stand on the outside of the Women's Professional Soccer
playoff race.
Chicago (4-7-5) stays out on the road to take on Sky Blue FC (5-6-4) at 3:30 p.m.
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Congrats to the Chicago Red Stars' Cristiane for scoring the 1st WPS hat trick in history!Â
Must be a cool record to have, no one can ever beat that one!
JM
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Chicago vying for third straight victory
With Brazilian Cristiane heating up, so are the Chicago Red Stars. They hope to ride the momentum
of her recent hat trick when they take on the host Boston Breakers for a 6 p.m. (CST) Women's
Professional Soccer match Wednesday at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Mass.
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CLICK HERE for an Examiner.com feature with goalkeeper Briana Scurry and Chicago Red Stars defender
Kate Markgraf, who talked about the 1999 World Cup, Women's Professional Soccer and more in
celebration of their memorable accomplishment over China 10 years ago.
~ Charlie Corr
Chicago Sports Examiner at Examiner.
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1. YACHTING
Yesterday we didn't have any WPS games to cover... and the sun was shining bright... so in lieu
of spending every waking hour in front of my computer, my friends and I hopped about the Kronos for
some serious yachting action. (Stay tuned for more pics.) We're talking about a
2-bedroom/2-bathroom 50-foot yacht complete with a salt water filtration system, satellite TV, full
kitchen, a Jet Ski that Ethan swears is the fastest water craft he's ever driven, exotic beverages,
cheese & fruit plate, homemade pasta salad (yum Paigey), sunshine, bikinis, dice games, and
more.
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