Every season I like to take in a few away matches as a fan and with a Toronto away date finally coming on a weekend again, I did so on Saturday.
The ups and downs of that match are easily memorable and even though the team didn't walk away with three points, the fighting spirit displayed to earn a point at a bolstered TFC side gave positive feelings as we walked away from BMO Field.
During that maze of an exit through the carnival going on at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Section 8 Chicago chairman Pattrick Stanton pointed out to me that both Robert Earnshaw and Quincy Amarikwa scored against their former side Toronto FC and said, "That has to be the first time two players have ever done that for the Fire."
While I fancy myself a "stat man", i honestly couldn't rifle through the previous 520 matches in my head to confirm. With the help of a small bit of free time, I can confirm that Pattrick is right.... sort of, with an asterisk*
Technically on August 25, 2001 Ante Razov -AND- DaMarcus Beasley scored in a 3-1 victory over the LA Galaxy at The Rose Bowl. The reason this stat was asterisk worthy was because while Beasley, who scored a second half brace in that match was originally allocated to the LA Galaxy in 1999, he never played for the side that year.
- PERUSE: TrueCar Player Registry
Instead the Fort Wayne, Ind. native played a couple games with the Project-40 team (a precursor to Generation adidas) and the bulk of his time that year with the U.S. U-17 National Team that finished fourth at the World Championships in New Zealand. At that tournament, DMB was awarded the Silver Ball, as second best player of the competition behind teammate Landon Donovan.
In other words, while Beasley was part of the Galaxy, a lot of his time was spent away from LA before being traded to the Fire for the club's natural first round SuperDraft selections in 2000 and 2001... HISTORY SIDE BAR: The Galaxy selected Danny Califf (2000) and Isaias Bardales, Jr. (2001) with those picks.
So with that in mind I'll make up a new stat...
Saturday's goals from Earnshaw and Amarikwa were the first from Fire players in the same game who actually played for the former team they scored against. A mouth full for sure, but certainly noteworthy.
In my research, I also found three instances where a player scored a brace against his former side. All of these are listed below.
<strong>Date</strong> |
<strong>Game/Result</strong> |
<strong>Goal Scorer(s)</strong> |
May 22, 1999 |
3-1 W vs. Kansas City |
Diego Gutierrez 27' 75' |
August 25, 2001 |
4-1 W at LA Galaxy |
Ante Razov 5', DaMarcus Beasley 64, 93'+ |
June 12, 2004 |
2-3 L at LA Galaxy |
Ante Razov 28', 67' |
October 12, 2008 |
2-2 D vs. Columbus Crew |
Brian McBride 13', 79' |
August 23, 2014 |
2-2 D at Toronto FC |
Robert Earnshaw 70', Quincy Amarikwa 90' |
