Seattle Pitch - Seattle

May 17, 1996

Colorado Foxes  3 - 2  Seattle Sounders

17' Walter Boyd (C)
35' Dick McCormick (S)
41' Chance Fry (S)
74' Wolde Harris (C)
90' Wolde Harris (C)

Seattle: #18 Marcus Hahnemann (GK), #4 Neil Megson, #19 James Dunn, #6 Billy Crook, #2 Wade Webber, #5 Dick McCormick, #17 Sidney Zanin (46' #3 Doug Morrill), #10 Joey Leonetti, #13 Jason Farrell, #9 Chance Fry, #14 Jason Dunn (67' #15 Tom Bialek).

Colorado: #1 Trey Harrington (GK), #3 Robert Lipp (89' #18 Dave Adams), #5 Scott Patterson, #6 Chris Martinez (38' #2 Bill Sedgewick), #19 Anthony McCreath, #4 Stoner Tadlock, #7 Carsten Siersbaek, #14 Arron Lujan, #10 Jeff Hooker (59' #8 Henrik Fig), #11 Walter Boyd, #13 Wolde Harris.

Cautions: Colorado 1 (12' Harris), Seattle 0.
Offside: Colorado 2, Seattle 1.
Other Fouls: Colorado 9, Seattle 8.
Corner Kicks: Colorado 5, Seattle 1.
Shots: Colorado 20, Seattle 15.
Saves: Harrington 2, Hahnemann 9.
Referee: Esse Baharmast.
Attendance: 7,180 announced.

Match report courtesy of Ron Stickney:
Rookie Wolde Harris, a Jamaican who just finished his college career at Clemson, led the Colorado Foxes to a come-from-behind 3-2 win in their home opener over the Seattle Sounders. Harris assisted Colorado's first goal, scored the second on a header, and both created and finished the final goal in injury time. At Clemson, Harris had been their all-time leading scorer and ACC player of the year. Why the Atlanta Ruckus, who chose Harris in the A-League college draft, traded Harris' rights to Colorado is a mystery to this reporter.

The game was played at Colorado's new Mile High Greyhound Park, which has been built into a great soccer stadium as well as a greyhound track. The stadium features a great 69 x 120 yard grass pitch, just one yard too narrow to meet FIFA requirements for international matches. The stadium seats just shy of 10,000, and most of the seats were taken for this match.

Wolde Harris made his presence known early, forcing a diving save by Seattle goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann in the second minute. Hahnemann would later make several great saves on Harris' shots, but he wouldn't save them all.

Harris got booked early, seeing the yellow card for sliding under Joey Leonetti to put the ball into touch. Harris got the ball just before taking out Leonetti's legs and Leonetti got knocked completely outside the field. Referee Esse Baharmast showed that he was not going to allow play that rough, and did not have to use his cards the rest of the match. He didn't have to use his whistle much either, with less than ten fouls per side.

Colorado opened the scoring in the 17th when Walter Boyd hit the upper left corner from 20 yards. Stoner Tadlock crossed the ball after a nice run up the left side. Harris got a touch on the ball while tightly marked by Neil Megson, and the ball fell nicely for Boyd to finish.

Colorado outplayed Seattle for the first 20 minutes, then the tide turned and the rest of the first half was dominated by the Sounders.

Seattle leveled the score at 1-1 with a free kick play at 35'. Chance Fry pushed the ball two yards to the right and Dick McCormick blasted the shot through a hole in Colorado's defensive wall. Seattle had earned the free kick when Chance Fry was knocked down from behind just outside the area trying to head a ball.

At 38' Bill Sedgewick replaced Colorado captain Chris Martinez, who suffered a groin pull.

Seattle went ahead 2-1 four minutes before halftime when Jason Farrell's throwin bounced once into the area and Chance Fry chested the ball with his back to the goal, then turned and volleyed into the top right corner. Fry is the A-League's all-time leading goal scorer with 65 goals now.

Doug Morrill started the second half, replacing Brazilian Sidney Zanin. Morrill played as a back while player/coach Megson moved up to midfield. At 59' Colorado's Henrik Fig came on for an injured Jeff Hooker. At 67' Seattle's Jason Dunn was elbowed in the jaw and was replaced by Tom Bialek.

Colorado pulled even at 2-2 in the 74th when Tadlock sent a long free kick in the air toward the goal and Harris went up with two Seattle defenders and won the ball, heading over goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann and hitting the bottom side of the crossbar on the way in. Seattle captain Billy Crook got his head bloodied challenging Harris in the air on the play, but stayed in the game after some sideline first aid.

At 89' Dave Adams replaced Robert Lipp of the Foxes after he suffered a leg injury. There would be a lot of injury time due to the several time-consuming injuries that had happened in the second half.

Three minutes into injury time, Harris received a ball near the top of the penalty arc and worked a nice wall pass to Carsten Siersbaek, who one-touched the ball back to Harris who was running straight at goal. Hahnemann came out for the pass, but Harris got there just in time to poke the ball under Hahnemann and into the net for the match winner.