Jordan

NEW YORK (Friday, September, 3, 1999) - Dallas goalkeeper Matt Jordan, who led the Burn to a 4-1 record last month, was named the MLS Player of the Month for August by the Professional Soccer Writers Association (PSRA). Jordan is the second Dallas player to win MLS player of the Month honors in 1999. Burn forward Jason Kreis won the award in June.

Among the four Burn wins during August were three important victories over teams ahead of Dallas in the Western Conference standings (Colorado, Chicago and Los Angeles). Dallas (14-12, 38 pts) currently is in fourth place in the West, but only four points separate the Burn from conference leader Colorado (16-8, 42 pts).

Of the five games Jordan played during the month of August, he registered three shutouts, the most shutouts ever recorded in a single month by a Dallas 'keeper. Additionally, his shutout of Los Angeles on August 28 gave him nine for the year, tying the all-time league record for clean sheets in a season set by Tony Meola in 1996. Jordan will look to break Meola's shutout record when the Burn travels to RFK Stadium to battle D.C. United on Saturday, September 4.

"It's a great honor for me to be named the league's player of the month," said Jordan, who currently is second in MLS with a 0.96 goals against average. "More importantly, I'm happy that the team has recently been able to play consistent and solid soccer. Hopefully we can continue to improve with each game with hopes of peaking at the right time."

Also considered for the August Player of the Month award were the following players: Miami forward Welton, who had three goals and three assists in the Fusion's six games in August; Dallas forward Ariel Graziani, who scored three goals and added one assist in three wins after joining the club August 13; and D.C. United forward Jaime Moreno, who scored a pair of goals and added four assists as the Red-and-Black went 6-0 in August.