Club officials from Paris Saint-Germain, Red Star Belgrade and Legia Warsaw released the names of the players travelling to play in the Chicago Sister Cities International Cup presented by Best Buy. The Chicago Fire and Paris Saint-Germain will kick off the tournament on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:00 PM with Legia Warsaw playing Red Star Belgrade immediately following the first match. The Championship match will feature the winning clubs and will immediately follow the Consolation match at 6:00 PM CT on Saturday, May 22. The traveling roster for Legia Warsaw will be released shortly.
The Fire also released the open practice
schedules for each team while they train in Chicago in preparation for the
Wednesday and Saturday matches. Practices are open to both media and fans.
Times and locations are outlined below.
Fans can purchase tickets to the first-ever
Chicago Sister Cities International Cup through the Club’s official website at www.chicago-fire.com
or by calling the Chicago Fire at 1-888-MLS-FIRE (657-3473). Tickets are also
available via Ticketmaster.
Paris
Saint-Germain Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS
(3): Grégory
Coupet, Willy Grondin,
Edel Apoula Edima Bete
DEFENDERS (5):
Marco Ceará, Sammy Traoré, Zoumana Camara, Sylvain Armand, Christophe Jallet
MIDFIELDERS (4):Claude Makelele, Stéphane Sessegnon, Clément Chantôme, Clément Jérémy,
FORWARDS (5): Ludovic Giuly, Peguy Luyindula, Guillaume Hoarau, Mateja Kezman, Jean-Eudes Maurice
Famed
Parisian club Paris Saint-Germain is one of the most decorated outfits in
French soccer and recently won the coveted Coupe de France. Les Parisiens have
won two Ligue 1 titles, seven Coupes de France, a record three Coupes de la
Ligue and two Trophées des Champions. Featured on PSG’s traveling roster is Les
French World Cup finalist and Champions League winner (Real Madrid) Claude
Makélélé along with former Barcelona striker Ludovic Giuly and former France national
team goalkeeper Grégory Coupet.
Red
Star Belgrade Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Boban Bajkovic, Sasa Stamenkovic
DEFENDERS (5): Slavoljub Dordevic, Nikola Ignjatijevic, Nikola Mikic, Vujadin Savic, Milan Vilotic
MIDFIELDERS (7): Vladimir Boganovic, Milan Jeremic, Darko Lazovic, Cadu, Namanja Nikolic, Marko Mugosa, Savio
FORWARDS (5): Aleksandar Jevtic, Slavko Perovic, Stevan Reljic, Milos Trifunovic, Branimir Subosic
Red
Star Belgrade make their TOYOTA PARK debut in the inaugural edition of the
Chicago Sister Cities International Cup. The popular Serbian side won the 1991
Champions League on penalty kicks to become only the second Eastern European
club to take home the European Cup, after Steaua Bucharest of Romania. Red
Star also just won the Serbian Cup two weeks ago. Red Star has reached 25 national
championships in its 65-year history.
Legia
Warsaw Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS(2) Kostyantyn
Makhnovskyy, Jakub Szumski
DEFENDERS(8): Woiciech Szala, Dickson Choto, Pance Kumbev, Tomasz
Kiełbowicz, Inaki Astiz, Marcin Komorowski, Jakub Wawrzyniak, Jakub Rzeźniczak
MIDFIELDERS(9):Piotr Giza, Maciej Iwański, Sebastian
Szałachowski, Adam Banasiak, Maciej Rybus, Miroslav Radović, Tomasz
Jarzębowski, Michal Zyro, Adam Banasiak
FORWARDS(4): Bartłomiej Grzelak, Fangzhuo Dong, Jakub Kosecki, Maciej Gorski
One
of the most successful club’s in Polish soccer history, Legia Warsaw has won a
total of eight league championships and 13 Polish Cups. Legia just completed their 2009/2010 campaign, finishing fourthin the Polish Ekstraklasa with a 15-8-7 record on
52 points, one point shy of qualifying for the Europa League Tournament. The
Polish side was founded in 1916 as the soccer club of the Polish Legions and
after World War I became the main soccer team of the Polish Army. The
Legioniści ("Legioniers") will return to Chicago for the fourth time,
previously appearing in 1959, 1969 and 1999. The Fire defeated Legia 3-2 in
June of 1999 with two former Legia players, Jerzy Podbrożny and Roman Kosecki,
suiting up for the “Men in Red”.
CHICAGO
SISTER CITIES INTERNATIONAL CUP TRAINING SCHEDULE
All
of the below training times are open to fans and media.
NOTE: All times subject to change; Media should contact Chicago Fire Communications to confirm team-related events.
Monday,
May 17
6:30 - 7:30
PM
TRAINING: Legia Warsaw training session at University of Illinois –
Chicago (Flames Field - 901 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago IL 60608)
Tuesday, May 18
8:00 - 9:30
PM
TRAINING: Red Star Belgrade training session at University of Illinois –
Chicago (Flames Field - 901 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago IL 60608)
Friday, May 21
5:00 - 6:30
PM
TRAINING: Paris Saint-Germain training session at TOYOTA PARK Practice
Field (7000 S. Harlem Ave., Bridgeview, IL 60455)
