RAPIDS NOTCH FIRST VICTORY OF THE SEASON (1-0) ON PAUL BRAVO'S SECOND-HALF SCORE

COLORADO FINDS A WAY TO GRAB A MUCH-NEEDED WIN ON ASSISTS FROM SPENCER AND PAULE

DALLAS (Saturday, May 05, 2001) - If you looked at the Colorado Rapids and the Dallas Burn on paper before Saturday's match, there were a lot of similarities: Both teams lost their last game 2-3; their all-time series is tied a 9-9, and in that series, each team is 6-3 at their home stadium. One important statistic, however, separated the two teams: Colorado was winless (0-3-1), and Dallas was 2-2-0.

Fortunately for the Rapids, that winless moniker is a thing of the past. And with a 1-0 win over the Burn at the Cotton Bowl, Colorado also took control of the all-time series mark 10-9. But more importantly, Colorado took control of their season.

The first half was similar to two counter-punching fighters trading jabs and the occasional combinations with neither coming away the clear winner on points.

The Rapids Junior Agogo had three excellent crosses delivered virtually at his feet, but couldn't score on any of them. The first was an excellent cross by Lance Key in the 14th minute skipped off the wet turf between Agogo's legs. The second pass by John Spencer sent a pass to an Agogo that sailed left of the goal. The third pass Agogo chested but lost it to the Burn defender near the six-meter box.

The Burn had their fair share of chances at the goal as well. Arial Graziani had a beautiful shot on goal in the 15th minute off a great center from Chad Deering, but Adin Brown showed why he was a national team call up and smothered the shot. Both Graziani and Jason Kreis also had clear shots that sailed over the top of the goal.

The second half started out like gang busters. Agogo missed wide right on a beautiful pass from Spencer. Jordan had come out of the net to attack Spencer, who deftly slipped the ball to Agogo. It looked like a sure goal, but the ball slipped away.

All night long, Spencer and Agogo were like a quarterback and wide receiver who were just slightly out of synch. The chances were there, but the goals never materialized. Then, sensing the Rapids had spent their chances at the net, the Burn launched an all-out offensive between the 50th and 60th minutes with shot after shot going wide or being saved by Brown. The Rapids weathered the storm in fine fashion. In the 73rd minute, Tim Hankinson replaced Agogo with Paul Bravo, and the game was starting to go in favor of the Rapids when Ted Eck received a red card for dangerous play in the 76th minute for kicking Jason Moore in the crotch.

That's when the Rapids took over.

Within 11 minutes Ross Paule, who came in in the 60th minute for Steven Herdsman, streaked down the right side of the field, laid a leading pass for John Spencer, who in turn sent a cross off the outstretched arms of Burn goalie Matt Jordan to a patient Paul Bravo. Bravo tapped the ball a few times, as if he was slightly nervous about the ball slipping away, before he sent it home and gave the Rapids the game.

Robin Fraser saw brief action at the end of the game (88th minute), but by then the game was well in hand.

UP NEXT: The Rapids take on Carlos Valderrama and the Tampa Bay Mutiny on Saturday, May 12 at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. (MT).

LINESCORE:
		0		0		F
Dallas		0		0		0	
Colorado	0		1		1		

SCORING:
DALLAS: 	none

COL: 	Paul Bravo on a deflected pass from John Spencer. Second assist goes
to Ross Paule.

Minute-By-Minute:

8th minute: Graziani yellow card for tripping on Chris Martinez

13: Shot on goal by Baba

14: Junior misses cross from Key one-on-one with Jordan in goal.

15: Save by Brown on Graziani who was inside the 18 meter box on a pass from Deering pass. The play was created by a defensive breakdown by the Rapids.

19: Yellow card for Scott Vermillion for tripping on Jorge Rodriguez

22: Penalty shot Kubik bounces off the wall in front of Brown

22: Brown catch on ensuing corner kick.

23: Moore shot on goal. Catch by Jordan.

32: Rodriguez blocks Agogo shot on open net with Jordan out of position. Pass was from Spencer.

34: Spencer shot on pass from Balboa shot ? wide left.

36: Lance Key's shot on a penalty kick from 45 yards. Shot caught by Jordan at goal mouth.

38: Kreis shot from 25 yards out punched by Brown. Results in goal kick.

41: Graziani has a hard shot all alone; misses over the top of the goal

40: Hard contact between Herdsman and Farrer. No foul, Farrer takes it on the chin.

45: Kreis and Martinez have major collision at the edge of 18-yard box.

46: No halftime substitutions

47: Junior misses pass from Spencer on an open net that Jordan abandoned to block possible shot from Spencer. Agogo's shot goes wide right.

49: Graziani cross to Rodriguez on the far post; shot misses wide left.

53: A medley of shots by the Burn end up in a penalty kick by Graziani that is punched away by Brown.

54: Kreis from Rodriguez shot on goal. Great save by Brown.

55: Farrer to Rodriguez; shot goes wide right.

57: Deering shot over the goal pass from Suarez pass is blocked over the post by Brown.

58: Brown catches deflected corner kick.

58: Burn taking control of the game on offense

59: Farrer to Graziani just misses ball to

60: Rapids substitution: Ross Paule subs for Steven Herdsman. Rapids go to 3-5-2.

61: Yellow card Chris Dawes for tripping on Vaca

64: Yellow card for Spencer for dissent.

66: Paule cross just misses Balboa's head and goes wide.

67: Antonio Martinez substitution for Miles Joseph.

73: Rapids substitution: Paul Bravo for Junior Agogo. Burn substitution: Bobby Rhine for Ariel Graziani.

75: Ryan Suarez own goal saved by Jordan off a Moore corner that bangs around in the box.

76: Red card for Ted Eck kicked Jason Moore in the crotch.

82: Offsides on Joselito Vaca negates Burn goal.

83: Moore center to Balboa for a header; wide right.

84: Baba cross is kicked OB by Suarez.

87: Paule to Spencer to Bravo. Deflection by Jordan off Spencer's center.

88 Penalty kick by Kreis over the crossbar.

88: Rapids substitution: Robin Fraser for Imad Baba.

90: Burn substitution: Aleksey Korol for John Farrer.

Lineups (Players are listed right-to-left in starting formation by
position):
COL (4-4-2) -- GK - Adin Brown; D - Scott Vermillion, Steve Herdsman, Chris
Martinez, Lance Key; M - Imad Baba, Christopher Dawes, Marcelo Balboa*,
Jason Moore; F - Junior Agogo, John Spencer.

Dallas (3-5-2) -- GK - Matt Jordan; D - Jorge Rodriquez, Lubos Kubik*, Ryan
Suarez; M -Chad Deering, Ted Eck, Joselito Vaca, Richard Farrer, Miles
Joseph; F - Jason Kreis, Ariel Graziani.
* team captain

STATS		DALLAS	COL
Total Shots	15	11
Shots on Goal	6	5
Saves		3	6
Fouls		14	12
Offside		2	2
Corner Kicks	7	4

Cautions:  	DALLAS:  Graziani (tripping) in 8th minute
		     
	COL: 	     Vermillion (Tactical foul) 19th minute
		     Dawes (Tripping) 61st minute
   		      Spencer (Dissent) 64th minute
				
Ejections:  	DALLAS: Eck (Dangerous Play) 76th minute
		COL: 	None

Referee: Kevin Stott (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.)
SAR (bench side): Tom Bobadilla 
JAR (far side): Jorge Reyes
4th Official: Sergio Vega
Attendance: 14,504

GOALS:
COLORAODO :	1   Bravo  from Spencer/Paule (83rd minute)
		
DALLAS:       		0	 

RAPIDS HEAD COACH TIM HANKINSON:

All in all, each guy came in and played an important role and actually made a contribution. It (our first win) is way overdue. It's great. You'd like to get there in the first couple of games. Our focus all week was not to come here and play a beautiful game. Our focus was to win.

JASON MOORE: I'm just starting to get my confidence. And we're just starting to come together as a team. This year, we haven't had the results we wanted. But we're coming together. It's just really good to get a win.

PAUL BRAVO: The way things have gone the first four games, I was going to make sure that I was going to put that ball away. If I had to take four, five, six or seven touches, they all count the same as a goal. It was a good to get a goal, but more importantly it was points for us towards the season. That's the most important thing.

On what was going through his mind when he scored:

Don't mis-trap this. Don't mis-hit this. Make sure it goes in the goal. Most goals you don't watch go in the back of the net, but this one I made sure it was in the back of the net. That was an important goal for us.

JOHN SPENCER: This is a great way to start my MLS career, but I'd trade all those points for the goals and the assists for a few more wins. It was great for me, but Paul Bravo was there to finish it. I'm delighted for him and delighted for the team. It doesn't matter how they go in. It's three points for us. That's what matters. We deserved a little bit of luck.

Like I said after the Los Angeles game last week when we hit the framework three times, we were unlucky. But soccer is a funny game. After the red card, we switched from a 4-4-2 to a 1-9 all-out attack. To be fair, once the guy got sent off, we seized the moment. Soccer game, basketball game, NFL game, you have to seize the opportunity. It was like a wounded animal. So we said, let's go for it.

MARCELO BALBOA: There's noting like a win. It was just a good feeling. We fought for 90 minutes. We changed our line-up. Today was more of me and Dawes sitting back trying to control with J. Moore doing more of the running around. And it worked. We had a good first half: We had some chances; they had some chances.

They came after us for a little bit in the second half, but we weathered the storm. And last time we didn't weather the storm. The last 10 minutes we weathered the storm, but it was good. It was good for us to pull it out in the end. Ugly, good, whatever, we got three points ? four points overall. And we have a home game against Tampa Bay next week, so we'll take this momentum over to Saturday's game.

LANCE KEY: In the second half down in our end, they were taking a corner, and I looked down and saw a $10 bill right there on the ground. I put it my sock, and I was going to give it to one of the ball kids, but we scored five minutes later. So I'm putting it in my sock every game until we lose again.

ROBIN FRASER: It was great. I was getting set to come into the game when we scored a great goal to go ahead. So I was just coming in to help out with a great effort and our first win of the year. It was beautiful.

ROSS PAULE: This is something we can build on. It wasn't pretty, but we get the three points and a win under our belt, which is a big, big thing for us. We can definitely build on this.

RAPIDS TRAINING SCHEDULE

Day		Date	Time 	Location
Sunday		May 6	12:30	Westminster
Monday		May 7	OFF	
Tuesday		May 8	10 a.m.	Westminster
Wednesday	May 9	10 a.m.	Westminster
Thursday	May 10	10 a.m.	Westminster
Friday		May 11	10 a.m.	Mile High Stadium
Saturday	May 12	8 p.m.	Game vs. Tampa Bay
Sunday		May 13	OFF	

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