{"id":42437,"date":"2017-01-18T12:48:19","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T17:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=42437"},"modified":"2017-01-18T12:48:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T17:48:19","slug":"fgcu_msoccer-to-play-mls-chicago-fire-in-friendly-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2017\/01\/fgcu_msoccer-to-play-mls-chicago-fire-in-friendly-game\/","title":{"rendered":"FGCU_MSoccer to Play MLS’ Chicago Fire in Friendly Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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Special to the Lehigh Acres Gazette<\/p>\n

For the second consecutive season Fort Myers will not only host an MLS training camp but will also witness the FGCU men’s soccer program feature in a friendly match with the professional team. Alongside last month’s announcement of the Chicago Fire coming to the beach-lined FGCU campus, the Eagles and Fire will meet in a friendly\u00a0Saturday Feb. 4 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by called the FGCU Ticket Office at\u00a0239-590-7145<\/a>, or by visiting FGCUTickets.com. Admission for the event is $10 for adults and $7 for youth and military. Discounted group rates are also available and interested groups should call the ticket office for more information or to purchase at the group rate.<\/p>\n

Last season, FGCU welcomed MLS member New York City FC to its campus for an 11-day period. To conclude the week, FGCU battled the professional side featuring international stars David Villa, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo to a 1-0 loss in front of a standing room only crowd and FGCU Soccer Complex record 3,000 fans.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Chicago is no stranger to Southwest Florida as the Fire have trained in the area on four separate occasions prior to their scheduled camp at the end of January. The 1998 MLS Cup champions made their first trip to the area in 2010 and continued to do so until 2014. This latest trip sees a new-look Chicago Fire squad, featuring three-time MLS Cup Champions Juninho and Winter Park-native Dax McCarty. In addition, the Fire feature one of MLS’ rising talents, David Accam who has scored 19 goals over the previous two seasons.<\/p>\n

One of the more storied clubs in MLS history, the Fire were introduced during the league’s first round of expansion in 1996. On the 126th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, the club was introduced and is now in its 20th season. During that 20-year span, the Fire have been crowned MLS Cup champions and U.S. Open Cup Champions in 1998, 2000, 2003, and 2006.<\/p>\n

FGCU is coming off another historic season, ending the year 20 in the final NSCAA poll (after climbing to as high as a 11 national ranking earlier in the season). The Eagles finished 14-4-3 and secured its fourth NCAA Tournament berth\u00a0in six years\u00a0of postseason eligibility. During the 2016 season, the Eagles won 10-straight matches, the NCAA’s longest winning streak at the time, behind what became the NCAA’s most prolific offense. FGCU ended the year averaging a nation-best 2.95 goals per game, led by\u00a0Albert Ruiz’s (Barcelona, Spain\/UE Cornella\/CE L’Hospitalet)<\/strong>\u00a022 goals (1.10 goals per game) – also a nation’s best. Ruiz also led the country with 49 points. For his play, Ruiz was named FGCU’s first ever First Team All American and was one of three finalists for the MAC Hermann Award – college soccer’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.<\/p>\n

Further details regarding the camp, including an open training session, will be released at a later date.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW ALONG<\/strong>
\nFor up-to-the minute information and a behind-the-scenes look at the FGCU men’s soccer program, follow on Twitter @FGCU_MSoccer, Instagram @FGCU_MSoccer, Facebook \/FGCUMSoccer and YouTube \/FGCUAthletics.<\/p>\n

SUPPORT THE CAUSE<\/strong>
\nFGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu\/foodpantry<\/a>) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org<\/a>), FGCU Athletics’ charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit\u00a0www.fgcu.edu\/foodpantry<\/a>\u00a0and utilize the hashtag FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Read More<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Special to the Lehigh Acres Gazette For the second consecutive season Fort Myers will not only host an MLS training camp but will also witness the FGCU men’s soccer program… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}