Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro winger Riley O’Brien has accepted a great scholarship offer to continue her soccer career at Illinois State University. Riley, who plays her prep soccer for head coach Laura Wagley at West Aurora H.S., will be part of ISU head coach Eric Golz’s 2018 recruiting class.

The Redbirds are a perennial powerhouse in the NCAA Division I Missouri Valley Conference. At ISU Riley will join former Team Chicago standouts Kiley Czerwinski, Keely Theobald as well as Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia standout Ashley Santos who is part of the 2017 recruiting class.

Team Chicago Academy Olimpico traveled to Springfield,Illinois last weekend for the SASA invitational. The team breezed through group play and the semi-final scoring 20 goals.

The final turned out to be a larger task against USA Indiana Premier. Olimpico went down a goal early. Soon after, Brian Bertoni went in on a breakaway and evened the score. Unfortunately, USA scored two more goals before half-time making it 3-1. Olimpico battled hard in the second half to get back in the game and were eventually awarded a free kick within shooting range. Dawson Johnson stepped up and buried the ball in the upper corner to bring the team back within a goal. Shortly later Bobby Barnard scored a great header to tie the game. The game went to overtime and then penalties to decide the winner. Unfortunately, Olimpico came out on the short end of the shootout and lost.

The team also had outstanding goalkeeping by Alex Bass. Alex is normally a field player but stepped up when the starting goalie was out for the weekend after an injury in the first game.

Overall it was an amazing weekend for them and they should be very proud of their accomplishments.

Great Job Olimpico!

Team Chicago Academy- Palmeiras will travel to Las Vegas this weekend for the prestigious Players Showcase. This weekend our boys will showcase their talents for the top college programs in the country. In addition, the lads will be tested against some of the top club teams from the western region.

Palmeiras will start the showcase on Friday by playing Albion SC from California South in the morning. Then, the afternoon brings a matchup against Sereno which is currently ranked #6 in Arizona. Saturday will bring an end to group play with a tough matchup against Idaho Rush. Idaho Rush is currently the #1 ranked team in Idaho.

We wish our boys the best of luck this weekend in Vegas as they compete against some of the top teams in Western Region IV. Palmeiras is coached by Boy’s DOC Herb Schuler.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro winger Riley O’Brien and the 2000 Girls Illinois ODP State Select team will head to Phoenix this weekend to represent Illinois and Region II at the US Youth Soccer ODP National Championships.

Illinois will face North Carolina in the semi-final tomorrow afternoon and then the winner of Cal-South and Eastern New York in the final on Sunday morning.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia midfielder Holly Collingbourne has accepted a great scholarship to continue her soccer career at Marian University-Indianapolis. Holly – who plays her prep soccer for head coach Scott Parillo at Kaneland H.S. – will be part of Marian head coach Gary Yohe’s 2017 recruiting class.

The Knights are part of the NAIA Crossroads League and finished the 2015 league season as runners-up behind the eventual NAIA National Champion Spring Arbor.