Raleigh Wings was a W-League women's

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 based out of

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

. The team began play in 1998 and folded after the 2000 season.

History

The club was founded in 1998 by the owners of the

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

club Raleigh Flyers. In their inaugural season the team amassed a record, and won the W-1 Championship by beating the

Boston Renegades Boston Renegades was an American women’s soccer team, founded in 2003. The team was a member of the United Soccer Leagues USL W-League, the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States and Canada. The team plays in the Northeast Divisi ...

4–3 at

Bowditch Field Bowditch Field is the main public athletic facility for the City of Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. It is located on Union Avenue midway between Downtown and Framingham Center. The facility houses a large multi-purpose football stadium that includ ...

before 2,180 spectators. Before the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

, Raleigh Wings played

exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

s against the national teams of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

(a 2–1 defeat) and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

(a 1–0 win). They retained the W-1 Championship by beating the

Chicago Cobras The Chicago Cobras, are a former USL W-League team based in Chicago, Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan ar ...

in a

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

after a 2–2 draw in front of a club record 2,260 home crowd at

WRAL Soccer Center The WRAL Soccer Center is a soccer complex featuring a 3,200-seat, lighted soccer-specific stadium located on Perry Creek Road in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is situated between Capital Boulevard (US Route 1) and Louisburg Road (NC Route 401), ...

. In 2000, Raleigh Wings went but were defeated by Chicago Cobras in the W-1 Championship final. They lost 4–2 on penalties after a 1–1 draw at WRAL Soccer Center. The club then folded due to the creation of

Carolina Courage Carolina Courage was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Fetzer Field on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in 2001, and then at the soccer-specific SAS Stadium in Cary, North Carolina in ...

to play in the

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first Women's association football, women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000 in sports, 2000, the league began its first se ...

Players

Year-by-year

References

External links

Official website
Defunct soccer clubs in North Carolina Sports in Raleigh, North Carolina Defunct USL W-League (1995–2015) teams 1998 establishments in North Carolina 2000 disestablishments in North Carolina Association football clubs established in 1998 Association football clubs disestablished in 2000 Women's sports in North Carolina {{RaleighNC-stub