home win over the Wiz. With a record of 17–15, the Burn finished in second in the Western Conference behind the Los Angeles Galaxy. They lost in the best of three playoff semifinals to the Wiz after three games, the last one being decided by a shootout. Their first campaign in the U.S. Open Cup ended with a 2–3 home defeat in the semifinals against D.C. United. In their second season, the Burn again reached the playoffs, where they lost in the conference finals to the Colorado Rapids. Later in 1997, they won their first U.S. Open Cup by defeating the MLS Cup champions, D.C. United. In 1999, striker Kreis was voted the league's MVP for a season in which he became the first player to reach 15 goals and 15 assists. That season ended in the playoffs with a defeat to the Galaxy in the conference finals. In October 2000, head coach Dave Dir was fired, despite again taking the team to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive time. Dir's replacement in January 2001 was Mike Jeffries, who had won the 1998 MLS Cup and two U.S. Open Cups with the Chicago Fire. In his first season in charge, which was cut short as a result of the September 11 attacks, Dallas lost in the playoff quarterfinals to Jeffries' former team. They were also eliminated in the second round of the 2001 U.S. Open Cup by the Seattle Sounders Select, an amateur team from the third-tier Premier Development League. The 2002 season ended with a third-place finish in the West and overall for Dallas, along with an early playoffs exit to the Colorado Rapids. For the 2003 season, the Burn relocated their home games from the Cotton Bowl to the much lower capacity Dragon Stadium (a high school football stadium) in Southlake, which is a northern Fort Worth suburb. The team performed poorly in 2003 and Jeffries was fired in September. He was temporarily replaced by his assistant, former Northern Ireland international Colin Clarke. The team missed the playoffs for the first time, having been one of only two teams to have qualified on all seven prior occasions. For the 2004 season, Clarke was named the permanent coach and the team returned to the Cotton Bowl, for a campaign in which they again missed the playoffs. In August, club owner Lamar Hunt announced that the club would be re-branded