| Club: | Chicago Fire |
| Season: | 1998 |
| League: | Major League Soccer |
| League Result: | West: 2nd Overall: 3rd |
| Mgrtitle: | Head coach |
| Manager: | Bob Bradley |
| Cup1 Result: | Winners |
| Cup2 Result: | Winners |
| Cup3: | Brimstone Cup |
| Cup3 Result: | Winners |
| Pattern B1: | _horizontalonwhite |
| Leftarm1: | FFFFFF |
| Body1: | 000050 |
| Rightarm1: | FFFFFF |
| Shorts1: | FFFFFF |
| Socks1: | FFFFFF |
| American: | true |
| Nextseason: | 1999 |
The 1998 Chicago Fire season was the Chicago Fire Soccer Club's inaugural season of existence, and their first season in Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer.
The Chicago Fire enjoyed one of the strongest debuts for an expansion club in the history of American soccer and of the North American sports leagues in general. The Fire won the double by winning both MLS Cup '98 and the 1998 U.S. Open Cup Final, both in a five-day timespan. It was the first time that an expansion franchise in any of the major American sports leagues won the league championship. The next time an expansion franchise would reach the championship of their respective sports league would be 20 years later, when the first-year Vegas Golden Knights NHL ice hockey team reached the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals.
The last professional soccer club to play in the Chicago area was the Chicago Sting, who played in the original NASL from 1974 to 1983, and then in the Major Indoor Soccer League from 1984 to 1988. The Sting won two Soccer Bowl championships: in 1981 and again in 1984.
The Chicago Fire were one of two new MLS expansion teams to join MLS in 1998, and the first two ever expansion teams in league history, the other team being the now-defunct Miami Fusion. The Fire were founded on October 8, 1997,[1] on the 126th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. The club was named after the event. The club focused on recruiting players of various descent to reflect on the diversity of the region. The team brought in Polish players Piotr Nowak, Jerzy Podbrożny, and Roman Kosecki; the Mexican Jorge Campos; and the Czech Luboš Kubík.
| No. | Name | Nationality | Position | Date of Birth (Age) | Previous Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | |||||
| Jorge Campos |  | GK | November 1, 1998 | Cruz Azul | |
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| Defenders | |||||
| Diego Gutiérrez | | DF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Ritchie Kotschau | | DF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Luboš Kubík | CB | November 1, 1998 | |||
| Francis Okaroh |  | CB | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Mike Richardson | | DF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Tom Soehn | | DF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Brian Bates | | DF | November 1, 1998 | Colorado Rapids | |
| C. J. Brown | | CB | November 1, 1998 | San Francisco Bay Seals | |
| Andrew Lewis | | DF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Joe Carver | | DF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Midfielders | |||||
| Chris Armas | | MF | November 1, 1998 | LA Galaxy | |
| Zak Ibsen | | MF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Josh Keller | | MF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Manny Lagos | | MF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Jesse Marsch | | MF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Peter Nowak |  | MF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Jorge Salcedo | | MF | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Forwards | |||||
| Frank Klopas | | FW | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Roman Kosecki | | FW | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Tony Kuhn | | FW | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Jerzy Podbrożny | | FW | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Ante Razov | | FW | November 1, 1998 | ||
| Josh Wolff | | FW | November 1, 1998 | ||
See main article: 1998 Major League Soccer season.
See main article: 1998 U.S. Open Cup.
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