{"id":672806,"date":"2026-05-16T05:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T05:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672806\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T05:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T05:45:13","slug":"rally-madison-fc-debuts-womens-pre-professional-soccer-in-capital-city-home-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672806\/","title":{"rendered":"Rally Madison FC debuts women\u2019s pre-professional soccer in capital city home match"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Madison\u2019s newest women\u2019s soccer team officially took the field Friday night.<\/p>\n

Rally Madison FC hosted Chicago House AC in a preseason friendly ahead of the club\u2019s inaugural season, drawing a large crowd excited to welcome women\u2019s pre-professional soccer to the capital city.<\/p>\n

(WMTV)<\/p>\n

Head Coach Giuliano Oliviero said the club hopes to build on Madison\u2019s already strong soccer culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve watched Forward Madison over the past seven years and now here we are with Rally Madison FC and some great young female athletes getting out there and putting on a show in front of some great fans,\u201d Oliviero said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the support on the Forward Madison side and we\u2019re hoping for the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team is made up largely of Wisconsin players, with athletes representing several levels of college soccer programs across the region.<\/p>\n

Oliviero said the roster has quickly started to come together as players spend more time with one another ahead of the regular season.<\/p>\n

(WMTV)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really nice mix and just a really great group of players coming together,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the more time they spend together, the more they\u2019re going to gel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans packed the stadium Friday night, many saying they were excited to see women\u2019s soccer continue to grow in Madison.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my gosh, it\u2019s a dream,\u201d fan Hailey Kronberg said. \u201cWomen\u2019s sports is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kronberg said having a women\u2019s team in Madison gives young girls like her daughter local athletes to look up to.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs she grows up, it\u2019s like looking to the people that can do it just as great as anybody else,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a girl is an awesome thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s match also added another chapter to the long history of Breese Stevens Field, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fans said the atmosphere inside the historic stadium is part of what makes Madison\u2019s soccer community special.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust means friendship, fellowship,\u201d fan John Geary said. \u201cComing here to Breese Stevens, it\u2019s just always a good vibe. Everyone\u2019s great and the games are awesome. The players are awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geary said he had been looking forward to Rally Madison FC\u2019s debut since the team was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d he said. \u201cI love going to Forward games and now there\u2019s a women\u2019s league. It\u2019s like twice the fun in one season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliviero said while the club expects challenges during its first season, the support from fans Friday night was encouraging.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport the players, cheer for the players,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to have some ups and downs. It\u2019s our first year, but really we just want the support of the crowd, and we want them to be loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rally Madison FC\u2019s official regular season opener is set for May 23 against Minnesota Aurora FC at Breese Stevens Field.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download the WMTV15 News app or our WMTV15 First Alert weather app.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WMTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Madison\u2019s newest women\u2019s soccer team officially took the field Friday night. Rally Madison FC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[32676,49,48,9467,2890,1112,184931,11517,4552,5268,23249,28061,247592,6903,561,82,2341,1994],"class_list":["post-672806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-rally","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-debut","tag-fc","tag-game","tag-inaugural","tag-madison","tag-match","tag-new","tag-pre-season","tag-professional","tag-rally-madison","tag-season","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}