Pineda's Olympic Soccer Dreams Dashed

GUADALAJARA, MEX. —Bolingbrook native and Plainfield East grad Mauricio Pineda will not be going to this year's 2020 Summer Olympics after his U.S. U-23 Men's National Team lost 2-1 to Honduras in Sunday's semifinal of the Concacaf Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Mexico.

The qualifying tournament's two finalists, Honduras and Mexico, will represent the region in the Summer Games, which were postponed last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pineda, who had a fine rookie season with Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire in 2020, did not play in Sunday's match. But he started at defender and played the full 90 minutes in two of the U.S. team's four contests in the tournament: a 1-0 win over Costa Rica on March 18 and a 1-0 loss to Mexico on March 25, both of them Group A contests.

In the 28th minute of the Mexico contest, Pineda made one of the plays of the game, when his well-timed slide tackle took the ball off the feet of Mexico's Manuel Mayorga, who was about to shoot from just 12 yards out.

Though Pineda will not be heading to Tokyo for the Olympics, scheduled from July 23 to Aug. 8, he still has plenty of soccer to play this season. The Chicago Fire are scheduled to open the 2021 campaign on April 17 at Soldier Field against the New England Revolution, kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. The Fire recently announced they would welcome 7,000 fans to the game after Chicago officials approved reduced-capacity attendance at sporting events.

Pineda, 23, was somewhat of a revelation for his hometown club last season after the Fire drafted him out of the University of North Carolina. The 6-foot-1 defender/midfielder started all 23 matches for the Fire, playing a team-high 2,022 minutes. Pineda had three goals and two assists.

Mauricio Pineda's older brother Victor Pineda spent five seasons with the Fire from 2010 to 2014 and their sister Cindy Pineda played collegiate soccer at University of Notre Dame.