Chicagoland Area Native Brian McBride Bids Farewell to Soccer Career

The MLS season has come to a close with the MLS Cup final being played between F.C. Dallas and the Colorado Rapids on Sunday, Nov 21.   

 On the home front, however, Bridgeview's Toyota Park closed its doors on the Chicago Fire home season back on Oct 16, along with former US national soccer team member, Brian McBride's farewell and final home game. The Chicago Fire, with several opportunities created by McBride, were unable to take the lead, ending the game with a 0-0 tie against DC United.

 McBride a Chicago area native, announced his retirement back on Sep 3 of this year after a long and productive career

 During his farewell speech at Toyota Park, with one of his daughters in his arms, McBride expressed his gratitude in being able to conclude his career close to home with his family. Growing up, McBride called Buffalo Grove, where he played in high school and met his first accomplishments, his home.

 While a member of the Buffalo Grove High School soccer team, McBride lead the team to the 1988 Illinois State Championship. Thereafter, he played his college career at St. Louis University, where he became a two time All-American and set career team records with 72 goals, 40 assists and 184 points for the St. Louis University Billikens.

McBride‘s club career began in 1994 with US minor league team Milwaukee Rampage and later that year joined Germany's second division team VFL Wolfsburg.

In 1996, McBride was drafted to the Columbus Crew for the MLS inaugural season, where he played for eight seasons. While at Columbus, he played 161 games and set the team record at 62 goals while earning 45 assists. It was during this time with Columbus that he gained more international experience, having been loaned to England's second division team, Preston North End, and later The Premier League's Everton F.C. In 2004, he was finally bought by Fulham FC., where he was very successful.

His time at Fulham FC granted McBride wide recognition as a top international football striker. While at Fulham, McBride scored a total of 40 goals with 154 appearances and 111 started games. In 2005 and 2006, he was voted the club's Player of the Year and later served as team captain for the 2007-08 season. McBride's contribution to the Fulham organization was thought so significant that the club renamed their restaurant lounge "McBride's."

As a member of the US national soccer team, McBride proved to be a significant contributor to the US Soccer organization. Having been called up for the national team for the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World cups, he is the first US national team member to score goals in three separate World Cups, and he is ranked third on the USA's all-time leading scorer, behind Eric Wynalda and Landon Donavan. In total, his international career racked up 95 caps and 30 goals.

McBride played his final two seasons with the Chicago Fire. His Fire debut was on Aug 16, 2008 as a second half sub. In the following two years McBride played 65 games, scored 19 goals and recorded 6 assists. His final game was on Saturday October 23, with a Chicago Fire 4-1 win against Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California.