The following are comments from today's' teleconference with MLS Commissioner Doug Logan and Deputy Commissioner Sunil Gulati: Logan on attendance during MLS' third season: "Last Sunday we finished the first season where the playoff participants were determined a week early, and despite that we had some interesting games and decent attendances on the final weekend ... We finished with an attendance average of 14,312, just a few hundred fans below where we finished the 1997 season (14,616) ... In terms of absolute attendance, 2,747,897 million people bought a ticket to an MLS game this year ... this is very healthy, …

G Carly Smolak (Stanford) (1) 5 saves to shut out Santa Clara 0-0 D Emily Janss (Maryland) (1) PKs beat Texas and Colorado D Kristen Palmer (Northwestern) (2) PK beats Minnesota, assist vs. Iowa M Signe Anderson (Hartford) (1) Hits gamewinner vs. Texas A&M in win M Colleen Joyce (Montana) (1) 2 goals, including gamewinner, vs. BYU M Katie Tracy (Virginia) (1) Late header ties Portland M Andrea Warner (USC) (1) Nets lone goal to beat BYU F Lisa Cioffi (James Madison) (1) 6-game goal streak ties team mark F Jessica Limauro (Michigan) (1) Assist vs. Penn St., 2 goals …

G Nick Rimando (UCLA) (1) Blanking of USD ran shutout streak to 445 minutes D Anders Ronnevig (South Carolina) (1) Scored on direct free kick to beat Furman 1-0 D David Wright (Creighton) (1) Solid defense and winner against Coll. of Charleston M Maurizio Rocha (Connecticut) (2) 2 goals and 2 assists, PK goal beat Yale 1-0 M Alex Teixeira (George Mason) (1) 3 goals and 2 assists in 6-2 win over Monmouth M Matt Callahan (Southwest Missouri) (1) 2 goals, 1 assist in 3-1 win over SMU M Chris Brown (Portland) (1) 3 goals and 2 assists for Nike …

Goalkeeper Tony Meola (6) MetroStars Defenders Mike Burns (1) New England Steve Jolley (2) Los Angeles Lubos Kubik (8) Chicago Frank Yallop (2) Tampa Bay Midfielders Marcelo Balboa (4) Colorado Braeden Cloutier (1) San Jose Mauricio Ramos (4) Tampa Bay Andrew Williams (3) Columbus Forwards Stern John (9) Columbus Josh Wolff (2) Chicago Note: In parentheses is the number of times a player has been named to the Team of the Week in 1998.

Mexican national team goalkeeper Jorge Campos is returning to Mexico to play for his off-season club team UNAM Pumas. Campos will leave immediately and will not appear in the playoffs for the Chicago Fire. Campos, whom Chicago acquired from the Los Angeles Galaxy, missed much of the first half of the MLS season due to commitments with UNAM and the Mexican national team for the World Cup. In all, he was available to the Fire for 14 games, playing nine. He finished the regular season with a 4-3 record with a 1.89 goals against average, but could not unseat Zach …

Rochester vs. Hershey GAME 1 Sept. 26 in Rochester, N.Y. Rochester 3 Hershey 1. Goals: Glenn 3, Tilley (Glenn, Daligcon) 61, Tilley (Zavala) 89; Tschantret (Orben) 84. Rochester -- Onstad, Hardy, Demmin, Schweitzer, Walton, Allnutt, McKay (Zavala, 73), Daligcon (Kirmse, 68), Steenkamp, Glenn, Tilley. Hershey -- Azmi, Penny, Williams, Oudin, Regis (Orben, 77), Kelly, Sawatzky, Swords (Feniger, 66), Rodriguez (Fairchild, 81), D'Ambra (Mitchell, 59), Tschantret. Att.: 8,121. (Rochester leads series 1-0.) SCHEDULE Oct. 3 -- Rochester at Hershey Oct. 4 -- Hershey at Rochester (if nec.) San Diego vs. Minnesota GAME 1 Sept. 26 in Blaine, Minn. Minnesota 2 San …

Sept. 29 in Athens AEK Athens (Greece) 3 (Nikolaidis 14, 76, Kopitsis 68) Vitesse Arnhem (Netherlands) 3 (Machlas 11, 17, Reuser 51). Half: 1-2. Att.: 23,000. (Vitesse wins 6-3 on aggregate.) Sept. 29 in Belgrade Obilic (Yugoslavia) 0 Atletico Madrid (Spain) 1 (Kiko 55). Half: 0-0. Att.: 11,000. (Atletico Madrid win 3-0 on aggregate.) Sept. 29 in Bologna Bologna (Italy) 2 (Nervo 78, Signori pen. 90) Sporting Lisbon (Portugal) 1 (Leandro 65). Half: 0-0. Att.: 3,688. (Bologna wins 4-1 on aggregate.) Sept. 29 in Bremen Werder Bremen (Germany) 4 (Wicky 33, Wiedener 70, Maximov 101, Flo 110) Brann Bergen (Norway) …

CHICAGO 3 NEW ENGLAND 2 Sept. 23 in Chicago Chicago 3 New England 2. Goals: Kubik (pen.) 34, Klopas (Wolff) 74, Wolff (Armas) 89; Gorter 43, Burns (Moore, Gorter) 68. Chicago -- Campos (6), Kubik (6), Brown (5), Okaroh (5), Armas (6), Keller (4), Kotschau (5), Podbrozny (4), Nowak (6), Kosecki (6), Razov (4). Subs: Wolff (8) for Kosecki in 28th minute, Ibsen (6) for Keller in 61st, Klopas (7) for Razov in 71st. New England -- Feuer (5), Motajo (3), Burns (7), Dunseth (5), Goulooze (4), Chronopoulos (5), McKinley (NR), Baba (4), Gorter (7), Moore (6), Diaz Arce (5). …

Here is the Soccer America Top 20, taking into account games played through Sept. 27. Rank/Team Record Last Week 1. North Carolina 8-0-0 1 2. Notre Dame 8-1-0 3 3. Santa Clara 8-0-1 2 4. Florida 8-0-0 4 5. Connecticut 9-0-0 5 6. Penn State 8-0-1 6 7. Portland 7-0-1 7 8. William & Mary 7-0-1 8 9. Virginia 6-2-1 10 10. Hartford 5-3-0 11 11. Northwestern 8-0-1 12 12. UCLA 7-1-1 9 13. Stanford 5-1-2 15 14. Dartmouth 4-1-1 13 15. Nebraska 6-2-0 14 16. Texas A&M 5-3-0 16 17. Clemson 5-3-0 18 18. Harvard 4-2-0 …

Here is the Soccer America Top 20, taking into account games played through Sept. 27: Rank/Team Record Last Week 1. Indiana 8-1-0 2 2. UCLA 6-1-0 3 3. Duke 8-1-0 1 4. Clemson 7-1-0 4 5. South Carolina 7-1-0 5 6. Virginia 6-0-2 6 7. San Jose State 8-0-0 8 8. Connecticut 8-0-0 9 9. Creighton 7-1-0 10 10. St. John's 5-1-2 7 11. Dartmouth 4-0-0 11 12. Maryland 6-2-0 nr 13. Saint Louis 8-2-0 13 14. Stanford 5-2-0 15 15. Furman 7-1-2 14 16. Washington 7-1-0 12 17. Boston Univ. 5-1-1 17 18. Portland 5-1-1 nr …

SCORING Player (Team) GP G A P John (Columbus) 27 26 5 57 Jones (Los Angeles) 24 19 13 51 Welton (Los Angeles) 31 17 11 45 Lassiter (D.C. United) 31 18 8 44 Diaz Arce (New England) 32 18 8 44 Moreno (D.C. United) 31 16 11 43 Cienfuegos (Los Angeles) 30 13 16 42 Etcheverry (D.C. United) 29 10 19 39 Cerritos (San Jose) 31 13 12 38 Hurtado (MetroStars) 29 11 15 37 Savarese (MetroStars) 30 14 7 35 Preki (Kansas City) 25 10 13 33 Serna (Miami) 26 11 9 31 Harris (Colorado) …

The U.S. men's national team will return to action against Australia at Spartan Stadium in San Jose on Friday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m. (PT). The game marks the USA's first match since the 1998 World Cup in France, and could be the first appearance of the team's new head coach. The game will be televised tape delayed on ESPN on Nov. 10 at 9 p.m. (PT). The U.S. men have played just once before at Spartan Stadium, a 0-0 draw with Macedonia in front of 23,861 fans earlier this year on May 16. Overall, this is the USA's 11th …

When Javier Clemente quit as Spain coach, he became the 22nd World Cup coach to move on since France '98. The story we ran cited "media pressure" as the governing factor behind his resignation. I find this notion debatable, but less reprehensible than Tottenham chairman Alan Sugar's Twinkie defense for his dismissal of Christian Gross early this season: "The media drove me to it." The dismissal of World Cup coaches comes when a team has "disappointed" or "embarrassed" the nation, but the central problem is there can only be one outright winner in a World Cup. And aren't definitions of …

Results Sept. 27

• Miami 1 Tampa Bay 3
• San Jose 2 Kansas City 0
• D.C. United 3 Columbus 2 (SO)
• Los Angeles 1 Chicago 0

Sept. 26

• New England 0 MetroStars 1 (SO)
• Colorado 3 Dallas 1

Final 1998 Standings EASTERN GP W L P GF GA *D.C. United 32 24 8 58 74 48 *Columbus 32 15 17 45 67 56 *MetroStars 32 15 17 39 54 63 *Miami 32 15 17 35 46 68 Tampa Bay 32 12 20 34 46 57 New England 32 11 21 29 53 66 …

Four-time world champion Brazil will face Ecuador in an international friendly on Oct. 14 at RFK Stadium. The match, which is presented by D.C. United, will begin at 7:30 p.m. The match will be Brazil's second under new head coach Vanderley Luxemburgo, who replaced Mario Zagallo after France '98. Individual tickets for the match will be $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the game. Tickets are available at all TicketMaster outlets and the RFK Stadium box office. However, fans may purchase a package of one general-admission ticket to the Brazil-Ecuador match and one premium ticket to a …