Men's soccer: FGCU ready to test itself against MLS competition

For the second straight year, the Florida Gulf Coast University men’s soccer team will face the Chicago Fire at Ave Maria in an exhibition, scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Admission is free.

Last year, the Eagles and Fire, who again have been training at Ave Maria this winter, battled to a 2-2 tie in front of about 1,100 in FGCU’s first exhibition against a Major League Soccer team.

This year, Bob Butehorn’s defending Atlantic Sun regular-season and tournament champion Eagles will take on three MLS clubs. FGCU will play the Philadelphia Union in Orlando on Feb. 11 and face the Seattle Sounders in Bradenton on Feb. 19.

“So we’ve got the northeast, we’ve got the northwest and we’ve got the midwest,” Butehorn said. “We’re getting our players noticed and it’s nice that those teams are calling to play us.”

There’s more to this for FGCU, which went 12-6-2 overall and 7-1-0 in the A-Sun last season, than getting a top-caliber matchup.

“The first thing for us is really for the MLS teams to get a sense of who we are and that we’re producing good players and have some good young players coming up they can track and monitor,” Butehorn said.

And vice versa.

“For our team, it’s obviously a way to keep track of how they’re progressing individually because so many of our guys want to play pro,” Butehorn said. “They can kind of match up and see where they fit and see if there’s the possibility of playing in the pros. They can learn what they have to do or they can have a reality check of understanding whether that’s even a possibility for them.”

Then there’s what likely is the dream of a lifetime for most of the Eagles, to give it a go against MLS players.

“At the end of the day it comes down to just a fantastic experience, a memory that they’ll always flash back to at times when they get older,” Butehorn said.

Expect the FGCU-MLS relationship to continue. On Sunday, FGCU was home to Southwest Florida’s first MLS matchup between Chicago and D.C. United. A sellout crowd of 1,267 saw the teams, which have combined for five MLS championships, battle to a scoreless tie. FGCU senior midfielders Christian Raudales and Josey Portillo suited up for DC United. Portillo entered the game in the 81st minute.

The Eagles, who lost 1-0 in double-overtime at Central Florida in their first-ever NCAA tourney matchup last season, were honored at halftime.

“In the MLS, it’s not like spring training where they come down for a month or so,” Butehorn said. “What they do is they’ll come here and stay for 10 days, then they’ll go to maybe Mexico for seven days, then maybe to Greece for seven days. They move around. I don’t think it will ever be that they hold their camp in one spot. So I think Florida will always be a place they come.

“It’s a nice thing for us.”