RAPIDS CONTINUE SEASON OF GIVING IN 2-1 LOSS TO DALLAS BURN

DALLAS -- (Saturday, May 16, 1998) -- The Colorado Rapids were defeated by the Dallas Burn, 2-1, on Saturday night at the Cotton Bowl. Dallas (6-2) got unassisted goals from Dante Washington and Jason Kreis off of Colorado (3-7) miscues, sending the Rapids to their fourth consecutive loss. Wolde Harris scored for the Rapids with four minutes left to avoid the shutout.

Colorado, which has struggled to find chemistry on the field all season, fielded a pieced-together starting line-up that was without the services of regulars Chris Henderson (birth of his first child), Chris Martinez (strained hamstring), Adrian Paz (suspended for a yellow card in each of the last three games) and Marcelo Balboa (with the U.S. World Cup team).

Colorado coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick also gave the starting nod to goalkeeper Paul Grafer for the third consecutive match, in place of regular starter Marcus Hahnemann. Grafer kept the Rapids from giving away an embarrassing goal in the first thirty seconds, as along ball from the back sailed over the head of defender Joey DiGiamarino and allowed Dallas' Leonel Alvarez to move down the right flank, in alone on Grafer. Alvarez hit a low, hard shot that was headed for the far corner of the goal, but kept out only by an acrobatic kick-save from Grafer.

Dallas did open the scoring in the 12th minute as Colorado continued its recent charitable habit of donating goals to the opposing team. An unchallenged Joey DiGiamarino played a soft back pass to Paul Grafer, creating a 50-50 ball and allowing Dante Washington to run onto Grafer. A sliding Grafer barely beat Washington to the ball, but the keeper was unable to clear the ball to safety, allowing Washington to collect the ball behind the fallen Grafer and slot the ball into the open net to put the Burn up 1-0.

The remainder of the half saw both defenses stretched, but not broken, as both Colorado and Dallas found room down the flanks, but were unable to find the finishing piece. Marquinho continued to look the part of the attacking midfielder Colorado expected, his distribution creating many opportunities, but again the Rapids could not find the elusive final touch. Myernick decided to take a proactive stance to the Rapids' lack of finishing, inserting Wolde Harris into the game at forward and taking out Waldir with just under five minutes remaining the first half.

Ten minutes into the second half, Myernick brought on Chris Henderson for Jason Boyce, but in the 62nd minute, Colorado again shot itself in the foot, giving away yet another soft goal. A Peter Vermes clearance out of the back was picked off by Jason Kreis, forty yards out from goal. Kreis proceeded to drive the ball over Grafer, who was caught off his line, and into the upper corner of the net to put the Burn up 2-0.

Colorado received a potential break in the 70th minute when Dallas' Leonel Alvarez was ejected after picking up his second yellow card of the night, leaving the Burn to play short-handed.However as has been the case as of late, Colorado gave the man-advantage right back, when Tahj Jakins was ejected for a hard tackle on Jason Kreis just four minutes after Alvarez was sent off.

Colorado stole a late goal to make for an interesting final four minutes when substitute Chris Henderson played Wolde Harris down the right side of the box. Harris hit a low, hard shot into the far corner of the net, past a diving Dodd. The Rapids pressed with all nine field players in the final four minutes, the best chance coming when Paul Bravo collected the ball on the right side of the penalty area, but fired well over the net.

1st minute: A long ball finds Alvarez breaking down the left flank, in on a break-away on Grafer. Alvarez fires low to the far corner, with only a Grafer kick-save keeping Dallas from opening the scoring in the first sixty seconds.
7: Paule passes across the field to Boyce, deep in the Dallas end, crosses into the box for Bravo, whose header goes just wide of the far post.
10: Paule plays to Bravo down the right flank, crosses to Waldir at far post, Waldir's left-footed shot sails over the bar.
12: DiGiamarino plays a soft back pass to Grafer as Washington rushes in. Grafer barely beats Washington to the ball and slides, but is unable to clear the ball, and Washington collects the ball behind the fallen Grafer and slots into the empty net for a 1-0 Dallas lead.
41: Wolde Harris substitutes into the game for Waldir.

54: Marquinho dribbles past two defenders and is tackled, the ball comes to Bravo at the top of the box, who fires over the net from fifteen yards out.
55: Chris Henderson enters the game, replacing Jason Boyce.
62: Jason Kreis intercepts a Peter Vermes pass forty yards from goal and proceeds to chip a long drive over Paul Grafer and into the upper corner of the net.
70: Alvarez is sent off after his second yellow card.
74: Jakins is sent off for a tackle from behind on Jason Kreis.
86: C. Henderson finds Harris down the right side, who fires into the far corner of the net with a low, hard shot.

Chris Henderson and wife, Dee, gave birth to their first child, Adain Christopher, on Friday afternoon in Denver. After not making the trip Friday morning with the team, Henderson was scheduled to arrive in Dallas Saturday afternoon, but his flight was canceled, and Henderson finally arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport at 5:50 p.m. and went directly to the Cotton Bowl, arriving less than an hour before the game.

Colorado travels to Chicago for its second meeting with the expansion Chicago Fire. The two teams will meet at Soldier Field on Saturday, May 23 at 6:30 pm MST.

SCORING
SJ: Baicher (Vasquez) 20; Lewis (Baicher, Barrett) 46; Cerritos (Sebapole) 80.
COL: Marquinho (Waldir) 32; Bravo (Paz, Marquinho) 73.

LINEUPS
COL: Paul Grafer, Joey Giamarino (Marquis White 70), Steve Trittschuh, Peter Vermes, Sean Henderson, Jason Boyce (Chris Henderson 55), Tahj Jakins, Marquinho, Ross Paule, Waldir (Wolde Harris 41), Paul Bravo.
DALLAS: Mark Dodd, Jorge Rodriguez, Richard Farrer, Eric Dade, Brandon Pollard, Leonel Alvarez, Jorge Flores (Ted Eck 64), Jason Kreis, Gerell Elliott, Damian Alvarez (Brian Haynes 57), Dante Washington (Mark Santel 70).

CAUTIONS
COL: Bravo (dissent) 49; DiGiamarino (dangerous play) 57.
DALLAS: Damian (professional foul) 13; Flores (dangerous play) 17; L. Alvarez (dissent) 57; L. Alvarez (reckless foul) 70; Kreis (dissent) 81.

EJECTIONS
COL: Jakins (tackle from behind) 74
DAL: L. Alvarez (second yellow card) 70

Referee: Ricardo Valenzuela
Asst: Chip Reed
Asst: Andrew Barnes
4th Official: Gary Owen

Weather: 90 degrees, partly cloudy, wind 6 mph

Attendance: 15, 280

RAPIDS COACH GLENN "MOOCH" MYERNICK:
"Good teams don't give away soft goals and we've been doing it for a month. Right now we are not a good team."

"No one is more frustrated than the players. We continue to make bad mistakes that lead to goals, and other than hard work and to address it, I don't know how to fix that. If I knew how to fix it, I would fix it."

"Outside of the two goals that we literally gave away, we actually played very well. It's a shame that two mistakes will absolutely cancel out what was our best performance of the season on the road. It is very frustrating."

RAPIDS KEEPER PAUL GRAFER:
(ON THE FIRST GOAL) "I came out and did what I could. I think I got there first, but when I hit it amazingly hit off his shin and fell right behind me for him to pick up and walk in, it was extremely unlucky."

(ON THE SECOND GOAL) "We had the ball and I was off my line, anticipating our possession of the ball. I was awake, I was not caught sleeping, I was just looking to see our passing lanes, and Kreis stole the ball and punished me."

DALLAS' DANTE WASHINGTON:
"When a team is giving away goals, you try and put extra pressure on them. We had seen the goals they had been giving up and planned to turn up the pressure on their back line, which paid off twice."

DALLAS' JASON KREIS:
"I think most people watching that game know that if Colorado doesn't make those mistakes, its a different result. They played quite well and we did not play our best game."