The 2016

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

season was the eighth season of the

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club and its fourth season in

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

. 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 Boyds is an unincorporated community in rural Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located approximately north of Washington, D.C. Its ZIP Code is 20841. According to the United States 2010 Census, the ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) f ...

against

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and cont ...

on September 30, falling 2–1 and did not reach the championship match. This season the Red Stars returned to

Toyota Park SeatGeek Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, about twelve miles southwest of downtown Chicago. It is the home stadium of the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League, Chicago Fire FC II of the MLS Next Pr ...

for its home games, where it last played on a regular basis during its 2010 season in

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

league. In 2016 season, the Red Stars honored the retirements of several long time members; Michelle Lomnicki,

Julianne Sitch Julianne Marie Sitch (born September 18, 1983) is an American former professional soccer defender. She is currently a coach for the Chicago Red Stars and head coach of the University of Chicago men's soccer team. In 2022, she became the first wo ...

Jackie Santacaterina Jacqueline Manny (; born December 29, 1987) is an American former professional soccer defender who last played for the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League. Early life Santacaterina was raised in Geneva, Illinois, where s ...

, and

Lori Chalupny Lori Christine Chalupny (born January 29, 1984) is a former American soccer defender who last played for the Chicago Red Stars and the United States women's national soccer team. She is a gold medalist from 2008 Beijing Olympics, and a bronze med ...

. The jersey number 17 worn by Chalupny, a 3-year captain, an Olympic gold medalist and a FIFA world champion was retired in honor of her accomplishments. After the season, National team coach

Jill Ellis Jillian Anne Ellis (born 6 September 1966) is an English-American soccer coach and executive who is currently the president of San Diego Wave FC. Ellis coached the United States women's national soccer team from 2014 to October 2019 and won two ...

called up 5 Red Stars, Christen Press, Alyssa Naeher, Arin Gilliland, Casey Short and Danielle Colaprico to national team training camp. On October 7, NWSL announced the voting results of NWSL Best XI and NWSL Second XI; while Press and Gilliland were named to Best XI; 5 Red Stars, Naeher, Julie Johnston, Short, Colaprico and Vanessa DiBernardo were named to NWSL Second XI. In the off-season 8 Red Stars, the highest number in team history, went to play in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

on loan to W-League sides; Samantha Johnson to

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

; Jen Hoy and Arin Gilliland to

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Australia ...

; Alyssa Mautz and Vannesa DiBernardo to

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

; and Katie Naughton, Danielle Colaprico and Sofia Huerta to

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional Association Football, soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under North American professional sports league organization#Systems ar ...

. Chicago Red Stars loaned the largest number of players to W-League, 4 more than any other NWSL club.

First-team squad

;Roster Players who are under contract to play for the club in 2016 NWSL season. ( C) ;College draft Players selected by the club in

2016 NWSL College Draft Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * '' Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film di ...

. Naughton, Gorden and Raetzman joined the Red Stars first team; Flaws, Jordan, C Johnson and Ellenwood joined the Red Stars Reserves team which competes in

Women's Premier Soccer League The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is the top amateur league for women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, below only National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). T ...

. Janelle Flaws played for 45 minutes in NWSL regular season, in an away match against Washington on July 9. ;Amateur call-up Amateur players listed below were called up during the absence of international players training or playing for the national team at the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

or international friendly

Player movement

Management and staff

;Front Office * Owner Arnim Whisler ;Coaching Staff *Manager Rory Dames *Assistant Coach Bonnie Young *Assistant Coach Brian Kibler *Assistant and Goalkeeper Coach Jordi King

Regular-season standings

;Results summary ;Results by Round

Match results

Preseason

On February 8 Chicago Red Stars announced its preseason schedule.

National Women's Soccer League

Regular season

Postseason playoff

NWSL awards

Squad statistics

Source: NWSL Squad statistics are of regular season matches only Key to positions: FW -

Forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, MF -

Midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, DF - Defender, GK –

Goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Chicago Red Stars team awards

On October 5 Chicago Red Stars announced the winners of 2016 team awards. For the third time in 3 years Julie Johnston was the recipient of the award for Defensive Most Valuable Player. For second consecutive year, Christen Press was named the Most Valuable Player, and Vanessa DiBernardo the Unsung Hero. New Red Star Alyssa Naeher, with 75% save percentage, was named the Iron Women of Character, while another new Red Star Casey Short was named the Rookie of the Year. ;Team Most Valuable Player Christen Press (received this same award in second consecutive year) ;Defensive Most Valuable Player Julie Johnston (received this same award in third consecutive year) ;Rookie of the Year Casey Short ;Unsung Hero Vanessa DiBernardo (received this same award in second consecutive year) ;Iron Woman of Character Alyssa Naeher

Images

References

;Match reports (preseason) ;Match reports (regular season) ;Match report (postseason playoff) ;Notes {{2016 in American soccer

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Chicago Red Stars (NWSL) seasons