It's Throwback Thursday on the Social Media which lines up for an interesting moment in Fire History that occured this week in 2001.
Coming up on the end of his career, legendary U.S. international Eric Wynalda was acquired by the Fire in a trade with New England that sent John Wolyniec and a 2002 SuperDraft pick to the Revolution on May 3 of that year.
At the time, Wynalda was the all-time leading goal scorer for the U.S. Men's National Team (34 goals) but injuries and national team commitments had kept him from really making an impact for his previous MLS clubs in San Jose, Miami and New England.
Bolstering a Fire attack which already featured the likes of Ante Razov, Hristo Stoitchkov, Piotr Nowak and DaMarcus Beasley, Wynalda joined the team a month into the campaign and took just two days to score his first goal for the club in a 2-0 win over Tampa Bay on May 5. That goal was the first of 10 he scored in less than a full season with the Fire (the first time he'd done it since the inaugural MLS campaign in 1996). He also added two more in the Open Cup and a single marker in the MLS Cup playoffs.
That would be his only season with the Fire and curtain call in MLS but his double-digit goal campaign makes him one of just seven Chicago Fire players to achieve the feat. (Can you name the others? Answer below the photo...)
Though he played only one season for the Fire, Wynalda went into the National Soccer Hall of Fame as a Fire player in 2004, joining former U.S. teammates Paul Caligiuri and Mike Windischmann as well as Women's National Team legend Michelle Akers in that year's induction class.
ANSWER: All-Time Chicago Fire double digit goal scorers: Ante Razov (1998-2000, 2002-2003), Damani Ralph (2003-2004), Eric Wynalda (2001), Josh Wolff (1999), Dema Kovalenko (2000), Dominic Oduro (2011), Mike Magee (2013)
