The soccer gods were smiling on the Chicago Fire.
In a nice bit of irony, the Fire will host CF Monterrey at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 25 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals.
What makes this matchup so intriguing is that the Monterrey squad features Hugo Cuypers, who a month ago was the Fire’s best player.
When the Fire picked up Polish superstar Robert Lewandowski, Cuypers requested a transfer and ended up with Monterrey.
After the Fire stunned Cruz Azul 2-1 on Aug. 13 in front of a SeatGeek crowd of 19,567 in the first phase of the Leagues Cup, it set up the matchup between Cuypers and his former team.
“Can’t write a better story than that,” Fire goalie Chris Brady said. “I mean, we know Hugo, we’re familiar with him, and a lot of the scouting will revolve around him because I know he’s hot right now. So it’ll be a good game.”
Even though Cuypers won’t play another MSL game, he led the league with 13 goals before his departure and has scored three goals in four appearances with Monterrey.
“Of course, right? Of course it turned out like that,” Fire coach Gregg Berhalter said of the matchup. “It’s a good team. Monterrey is a good team. It’s going to be a good competition.
“It would be nice if we could do something for Hugo — honor him in front of the fans. I don’t know if we can do that, if Leagues Cup allows it, but that would be nice because he was a big part of what we were doing here. Now he’s enjoying Monterrey, scoring some goals, and they’re going to be a good opponent.”
South African Puso Dithejane scored both goals for the Fire against Cruz Azul in front of a crowd that heavily favored the Mexican league team.
The Fire returned to MLS action on Aug. 16 and beat Portland 2-1 at Soldier Field. Robin Lod and Dje D’Avilla scored in the first half for the Fire (10-6-2).
The Fire was scheduled to play Orlando City on Aug. 19 on the road.
Fire II splits
The Fire II split a pair of MLS NEXT Pro games at SeatGeek Stadium as they beat Orlando City B 2-0 on Aug. 15 and fell to Toronto FC II 4-2 on Aug. 10.
Robert Turdean and Damyan Villanueva scored in the win, while Jason Nemo Jr. recorded the shutout. Villanueva and Tidiane Diawara scored for the Fire in the loss.
The Fire II (9-7-6) was scheduled to play at Atlanta on Aug. 18.
Marist ranked in national poll
Marist’s girls volleyball team — the two-time defending Class 4A state champion — is ranked 16th in the nation by MaxPreps.
Although no other Illinois teams made the list, RedHawks coaches are eying possibly 10 matchups against top 25 teams via tournament play.
Redhawks senior hitter Maggie Kurpeikis (who is headed to Michigan) was named Best Player in Illinois by MaxPreps as well as a second-team All-American. Mother McAuley senior setter Peyton Heatherly (Coastal Carolina) is on the All-American first team.
The AVCA/USA Today poll was slated to be released on Aug. 19.