By Lesley Ryder
The Chicago Stars made plenty of moves in the offseason after finishing in last place in 2025. But will they be enough to pull the Stars out of the basement in 2026? I’ve got few burning questions as the season kicks off this weekend.
How will they play?
With preseason games played behind closed doors, very little is known about the preferred starting XIs and formations for this Stars team. Last season, they found success with a diamond midfield clogging up the center of the pitch, but that formation seemed to go out the window later in Anders Jacobson’s interim management stint.
Past interviews with General Manager Richard Feuz indicate the Stars want to play a possessive style, but they haven’t really had the personnel in place to find success on the field in that way. The Feuz Era Chicago Stars have struggled to make meaningful connections upfield. If they still can’t find their way forward in 2026, we’ll be in for a very long season.
Who scores the goals?
The Stars lost Ludmila and Ally Schlegel in the offseason whose 14 goals accounted for nearly half of the team’s 32 goals on the season. The Stars brought in more forwards in Ryan Gareis and Jordyn Huitema, who’ve notched a combined 14 goals over 4 seasons in the NWSL.
Huitema came to the Stars on a transfer from the Seattle Reign worth $500k in transfer and allocation funds. That’s on top of the reported €500k spent on Ivonne Chacon’s release clause las summer.
Chicago Stars GM Richard Feuz has spent over a million dollars retooling the Stars attack. Has he finally gotten it right?
What of the youths?
The Stars brought in more young talent this offseason, recruiting highly-rated Elise Evans from Stanford, UNC’s Tessa Dellarose, and UCLA’s Emma Egizii. They’ll have to do better in developing these young players than they did last season. Micayla Johnson is a goal-scoring machine for the USYNT, but she spent the better part of 2025 glued to the bench. With two new expansion teams, the NWSL season has grown four games longer. Midweek matches are back on the table in 2026, so teams will need to lean on their depth to get through the tough stretches.
The Stars will kick off their 2026 campaign on Sunday, March 15th against Angel City FC at 6:00 PM Central time.