Who will score the Fire's 600th goal?
online surveys
Looming on the eve of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club’s 13th Anniversary, the question – Who will score the team’s 600th all-time regular season goal?
That’s right folks, Patrick Nyarko’s stoppage time strike in last Wednesday’s 3-0 win over San Jose set the team up to turn the goaldometer over to 600 on Saturday in Dallas… Unfortunately the Fire didn’t hit the back of the net at all in Frisco, giving the side the chance to mark a milestone during Friday night’s 13th Anniversary Match against the Columbus Crew.
The milestone got me to wondering, who scored the other,
“hundred milestone” goals and where did they rank overall in that player’s goal
scoring career...?
Number |
Player |
When |
Result |
1 |
Roman Kosecki |
3/21/1998 |
2-0 W @ MIA |
100 |
Dema Kovalenko |
8/22/1999 |
4-3 SOL @ DAL |
200 |
David Hayes |
6/30/2001 |
3-1 W vs. MET |
300 |
Damani Ralph |
7/19/2003 |
3-1 W vs. NE |
400 |
Lubos Reiter |
8/10/2005 |
3-2 L vs KC |
500 |
Chad Barrett |
5/25/2008 |
5-1 W vs. NY |
599 |
Patrick Nyarko |
9/29/2010 |
3-0 W @ SJ |
600 |
? |
? |
? |
Having spent two seasons with DC United prior to joining the Fire in 2001, striker David Hayes appeared in only three matches for the club that season. The Washington, DC native scored only one career MLS goal – a third minute strike in the Fire’s 3-1 win over the MetroStars on June 30, 2001, which also stood as the Fire’s 200th regular season tally in their 109th game. The match was also Hayes’ last-ever appearance in Major League Soccer.
A veteran of 108 regular season matches for the Fire, Dema Kovalenko’s second career goal in only his fifth Fire appearance stood as the club’s 100th tally in a 4-3 shootout loss away to the Dallas Burn on August 22, 1999… It was the club’s 55th regular season match. As an aside, I tweeted it earlier this week – but MLS has come a long way since the days of that horrible tie-breaker…
Though not at all sensational, Damani Ralph’s penalty kick strike in a 3-1 win against New England on July 19, 2003 was the Fire’s 300th all-time regular season goal in their 166th game. It also has a place close to my heart as it was scored on my 18th birthday… Yes, on the day I officially became a man the club’s last single-season, double-digit goal scorer, in his rookie year no less, scored his seventh career Fire goal… This is also the day Landon Donovan tallied four goals for the U.S. Men’s National Team in a 5-0 rout of Cuba in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals. No birthday cake required, that was more than enough to make me happy…
It looked to be all celebrations for the Fire when Lubos Reiter’s 6th minute strike pushed the club to 400 all-time regular season goals in 234 games, while giving the side a 2-0 lead over Kansas City on August 10, 2005. The Fire would go on to be bit twice by former striker Josh Wolff as the Wizards came back to win 3-2. The goal was also Reiter’s third and final in his second to last appearance for the club.
Chad Barrett’s 7th minute strike was his first of two goals on the day and five for the club as the Fire trounced the New York Red Bulls 5-1 at Giants Stadium on May 25, 2008. Barrett’s early goal was also the club’s 500th in 314 regular season games.
Who do you think will net #600…?
Who do you think will net #600…? Will it
be Brian McBride or Collins John? What about C.J. Brown’s sixth career goal or
Bratislav Ristic’s first in a Fire uniform? Could Alec Dufty, the keeper
called-in from the MLS Emergency pool in the wake of Sean Johnson’s injury
absence, make a substitute appearance, only to venture far up the field and
head in a winner towards the end of the match? Will it be Marco Pappa adding to
his team-leading seven tallies or will a Columbus own goal spoil the fun?
Vote in our poll to the right!
Jeff Crandall is the Team Writer for the Chicago Fire. Follow him on Twitter @JefeCrandall
