A.A.C. Eagles is an American

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 ...

team based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1940, the team plays in Region II of the United States Adult Soccer Association, a network of amateur leagues at the fifth tier of the

American Soccer Pyramid The United States soccer league system is a series of professional and amateur soccer leagues based, in whole or in part, in the United States. Sometimes called the American soccer pyramid, teams and leagues are not linked by the system of prom ...

. They joined the United Premier Soccer League in 2022. The team's colors are red and white.

History

The Eagles were formed as an ethnic club by Polish American immigrants to the Chicago area in 1940. Originally known as the Polish American Athletic Club Eagles (PAAC Eagles), the team first played in the

National Soccer League of Chicago The National Soccer League (Chicago), formed by the merger of the Chicago Soccer League and International Soccer Football League of Chicago in 1928, is a semi-professional U.S. soccer league which is the oldest continuously operating soccer league ...

, and played under that name until 1950, when the team became officially known as the Chicago Eagles. Since then the team has been known by various names, swapping between its earlier names (PAAC Eagles, Chicago Eagles), and newer variants (Chicago American Eagles, Polish Eagles), before settling on its current incarnation in the mid-1990s. The Eagles currently play in the Metropolitan Soccer League, which is a member of the United States Adult Soccer Association Region II group of leagues. The Eagles have a long and distinguished history of competing in the

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. O ...

. Having already reached the final stages of the competition during its early years in 1948 and 1949, the Eagles reached the semi-finals in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, losing on penalties to eventual winners

St. Petersburg Kickers The St. Petersburg Kickers FC are an amateur American soccer team from St. Petersburg, Florida that compete in the Florida Suncoast Soccer League (FSSL). They are notable as the first team from Florida to win the U.S. Open Cup. History Founded ...

, and won the tournament in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

in the pre-MLS era, beating the Brooklyn Italians 2–0 in the final thanks to goals from

Janusz Kieca Janusz () is a masculine Polish given name. It is also the shortened form of January and Januarius. People *Janusz Akermann (born 1957), Polish painter *Janusz Bardach, Polish gulag survivor and physician *Janusz Bielański, Roman Catholic priest ...

and

Peter Modrzejewski Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

. Their win in the competition also gave them entry to the

1991 CONCACAF Champions' Cup The 1991 CONCACAF Champions' Cup was the 27th edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean), the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. It determined that year's cl ...

, where they lost 4–1 on aggregate in the first round to Bermudian club

PHC Zebras The Pembroke Hamilton Club Zebras is a Bermuda, Bermudian association football, football club who participate in the Bermudian Premier Division. They play their home games on PHC Field at "Stadium Lane", which was reopened in 2015 after 17 year ...

. The Eagles qualified for the cup again in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, the last all-amateur competition prior to the entrance of teams from

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, but lost 2–1 to

Bavarian Leinenkugel Bavarian United SC is an American soccer team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Bavarian Majors of the Bavarian Soccer Club compete in the United Premier Soccer League. The team plays its home games in the athletic stadium at the Hea ...

in the quarter finals. Since the introduction of professional teams into the cup the Eagles have not fared as well. They lost in the first round to the Chicago Stingers in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, lost in the first round again in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

to New York Freedom, and lost in the first round for a third time in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, this time falling 4–1 to USL Premier Development League side Chicago Fire Premier. In 2008 the club qualified for their fourth modern US Open Cup, beating the Milwaukee Bavarians and Des Moines Menace Reserves in their regional qualification tournament, but lost 4–0 in the first round to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the USL Second Division. In addition to their USOC triumph in 1990, the Eagles won the USASA Open Cup in 1989 and 2002. They are nine-time Illinois state champions, eleven-time Metropolitan Soccer League Major Division champions,US Open Cup
/ref> and also sponsored the Chicago Eagles Select which briefly played in the USL Premier Development League in 2001 and 2002. In 2022 Eagles announced via social media their joining the United Premier Soccer League.

Players

Current roster

''Source

'

Year-by-year

Honors

U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

Winner (1):

* National Amateur Cup Winner (1): 1989 *

Peel Cup The Peter J. Peel Challenge Cup, better known as the Peel Cup, was an open soccer competition that crowned the Illinois state champion until it was replaced by the Illinois Governor’s Cup in 1971. History Origins Peter Peel was born in 1866 in ...

Winner (7): 1950, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1963, 1999, 2000 *Participations in

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Head coaches

Pawel Otachel Pavel (Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian: Павел, Czech, Slovene, Romanian: Pavel, Polish: Paweł, Ukrainian: Павло, Pavlo) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pavel m ...

(present)

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eagles, AAC Soccer clubs in Illinois Soccer clubs in Chicago National Soccer League (Chicago) teams 1940 establishments in Illinois Polish-American organizations Polish association football clubs outside Poland Association football clubs established in 1940 Indoor soccer clubs in the United States U.S. clubs in CONCACAF Champions' Cup U.S. Open Cup winners