Winners: A season after failing to reach the playoffs, Coach Dave Sarachan's CHICAGO FIRE has reached the semifinals thanks to an emphatic 4-0 win over D.C. United in which IVAN GUERRERO notched two goals, including curving left-footed 25-yard strike that befuddled D.C. keeper Nick Rimando. In the semifinal, Chicago faces NEW ENGLAND, which over came a 1-0 first-leg loss to the MetroStars and a 1-0 deficit in the second leg to win 3-2 on aggregate. JOSE CANCELA ignited the Revs' comeback when he came off the bench in the 62nd minute, scoring the Revs' first goal six …

DC UNITED 0 CHICAGO 4 (Chicago wins, 4-0, on aggregate.) Oct. 30 in Washington, D.C. D.C. United 0 Chicago 4 Goals: Stewart (Thiago) 10, Guerrero 37, Guerrero (Rolfe) 50+, Marsch (Guerrero, Thiago) 67. Yellow cards: D.C. United -- Olsen 21, Filomeno 7, Adu 80; Chicago -- Segares 52. Red card: D.C. United -- Gomez 55. Referee: Kevin Stott Att.: 20,089. Even before Christian Gomez was red-carded for spitting at C.J. Brown, the Fire had wrapped this one up thanks to three first-half goals, including a pair of beauties from Ivan Guerrero. Two rookies played key rolls: Chris Rolfe …

ACC QuarterfinalsNov. 2 in Cary, N.C.#2 Virginia vs. #5 Wake Forest#3 Florida State vs. #6 Clemson#1 North Carolina vs. #8 Maryland#4 Duke vs. #5 Boston CollegeSemifinalsNov. 4FinalNov. 6 America EastFinalNov. 5 in Boston#1 Boston University vs. #2 MaineAtlantic SunQuarterfinalsNov. 3 in Boiling Springs, N.C.#4 Jacksonville vs. #5 East Tennessee State#3 Gardner-Webb vs. #6 StetsonSemifinalsNov. 4 in Boiling Springs, N.C.#1 Florida Atlantic vs. Jacksonville/East Tennessee State winner#2 Campbell vs. Gardner-Webb/Stetson winnerFinalNov. 5 in Boiling Springs, N.C. Atlantic 10QuarterfinalsNov. 3 in Dayton, Ohio#4 Dayton vs. #5 St. JosephÆs#3 Charlotte vs. #6 DuquesneSemifinalsNov. 4 in Dayton, Ohio#1 Saint Louis vs. Dayton/St. JosephÆs winner#2 …

Oct. 29 in Dallas FC Dallas 2 Colorado 2 (agg: 2-2; Colorado wins, 5-4, on PKs) Goals: Ruiz (Mina, Rhine) 67, Ruiz (Gbandi, Vanney) 105; Cunningham 1 (Cooke, Nkong) 19, Kotschau (Cooke) 106. FC Dallas -- Garlick, Rhine (Pareja, 100), Goodson, Jolley, Vanney, Gbandi, O'Brien, Valakari, Wilson (Mina, 46), Nunez, Ruiz. Colorado -- Cannon, Cullen (Peguero, 101), Petke, Denton, Cooke, Beckerman, Mastroeni, Nkong, Ben Dayan (Kotschau 79), Cunningham, Kirovski, Yellow cards: Dallas -- Rhine 57, Valakari 63, Gbandi 92+. Colorado -- Mastroeni 48, Denton 68, Cannon 91+, Kirovski 92. Red cards: Colorado -- Nkong 54. Referee: Terry Vaughn …

SOCCER AMERICA WomenÆs College Top 25The following is the Soccer America WomenÆs College Top 25 with records through Oct. 30:TEAM (RECORD) LAST WEEK 1. Penn State (19-0-0) 12. Portland (17-0-1) 23. North Carolina (17-1-0) 34. UCLA (15-1-2) 45. Notre Dame (17-2-0) 56. Florida State (15-2-0) 67. Virginia (13-4-1) 88. Santa Clara (14-3-2) 99. Duke (12-4-1) 1010. Connecticut (14-3-2) 711. Marquette (17-2-1) 1112. California (12-3-2) 1413. Texas A&M (13-3-2) 1514. BYU (15-1-3) 1215. Boston College (11-4-2) 1316. West Virginia (11-4-3) 1817. Tennessee (12-5-1) 1918. Florida (13-4-1) 2019. Pepperdine (12-3-3) 2220. Vanderbilt (15-3-1) 2421. USC (10-5-2) NR22. Cal State Fullerton (15-3-0) NR23. …

The following is the Soccer America MenÆs College Top 25 with records through Oct. 30:TEAM (RECORD) LAST WEEK 1. Akron (16-0-1) 12. Maryland (13-3-1) 23. New Mexico (12-1-1) 34. Indiana (10-1-6) 45. Connecticut (12-3-1) 76. Santa Clara (12-3-1) 87. UCLA (10-3-2) 98. Duke (10-3-2) 69. Old Dominion (13-2-2) 1010. Virginia Tech (10-3-4) 1211. Virginia (11-3-2) 512. North Carolina State (10-5-1) 1713. North Carolina (12-3-2) 1314. Penn State (9-6-2) 2015. California (11-3-1) 1516. San Diego State (9-1-5) 1817. Wake Forest (10-5-2) 1918. UNC Greensboro (12-4-0) 1419. Hartwick (10-3-1) 2120. South Florida (11-5-0) NR21. Cal State Northridge (11-2-3) 2322. UC Santa Barbara …

By Paul Gardner The impressive thing ... the vastly impressive thing  ... about Colorado's PK win over Dallas was the ordered, skillful, intelligent, and at times even attractive, way that the Rapids played with 10 men ... playing short-handed invariably means a team will pack their defense and, yes, Colorado did that ... it also means a team will indulge in time-wasting activities and, yes goalkeeper Joe Cannon was stupidly blatant about that ... but above all it usually means that a team loses its soccer brains, assuming that it has any, and starts whacking the ball aimlessly out …

America EastQuarterfinalsOct. 28 in Boston#5 New Hampshire 1 (Hourihan 88) # 4 Vermont 0.#6 UMBC 1 (Hearin 19) #3 Binghamton 2 (White 58, Povill 98) (OT).SemifinalsOct. 30 in Boston#1 Boston University 2 (Shulman 86, 92) New Hampshire 1 (Rivard 85) (OT).#2 Maine 0 Binghamton 0 (OT). (Maine wins 3-1 on penalties.)Big EastQuarterfinalsOct. 30#1B Notre Dame 6 (Hanks 11, 68, Buczkowski 23, Jones 55, Thorlakson 69, Koloup 88) #4A Georgetown 0.#1A Connecticut 1 (Tegeler 16) #4B Rutgers 1 (Avner 90) (OT).(Connecticut wins 4-2 on penalties.)#2A Marquette 2 (Thompson 70, Zwolski 89) #3B Louisville 1 (Craft 8).#2B Villanova 2 (Mabery 6, Koch …

Oct. 28Minnesota 0 #1 Penn State 1 (Kriege 115) (OT).(Tiffany WeimerÆs goalscoring streak ends at 17 games.)Wake Forest 0 #3 North Carolina 4 (OÆReilly 17, Gilbert 32, Guess 45, 90).#10 Duke 3 (Riggs 22, McCabe 32, Seibert 76) Miami (Fla.) 1 (Pflunger 59). #12 BYU 1 (Zwahlen 52) Utah 1 (Feight 68) (OT).#14 California 0 #4 UCLA 2 (own goal 56, Adams 84).#15 Texas A&M 4 (Pistorius 9, 14, 67, 78) Baylor 0.(Ashlee Pistorius ties A&M record with four goals.)#17 Stanford 0 USC 1 (Loucks 88).#20 Florida 3 (own goal 30, DeLorenze 40, 50) South Carolina 0.San Diego 0 #22 …

Oct. 28#1 Akron 1 (Ubiparipovic 115) Michigan 0 (OT).St. MaryÆs 0 #8 Santa Clara 1 (Scott 77).#6 Duke 0 #13 North Carolina 0 (OT).#9 UCLA 1 (Hill 76) Oregon State 0.George Mason 0 #10 Old Dominion 1 (Mackenzie 52).#18 San Diego State 0 Washington 0 (OT).#22 James Madison 0 Hofstra 1 (Osooli 94) (OT).East Carolina 0 #24 SMU 7 (D.Saintus 11, 13, Zindel 22, Wileman 28, 49, Oliva 36, Hishimoto 88).(Mustangs capture Conference-USA regular-season title.)Oct. 29#2 Maryland 3 (Garey 7, 30, King 40) #4 Indiana 3 (Peterson 74, own goal 75, Stevning 90) (OT).(Game draws Ludwig record crowd of 6,203 …

Former great George Best was reported to be improving, but he remained on a ventilator in a London hospital.The 59-year-old Best, who is being treated for internal bleeding, has suffered from alcoholism for many years and had a lifesaving liver transplant three years ago.He has been in the intensive care unit for a month.''He's been fighting for quite a while but I did get a shock,'' Dennis Law, BestÆs former Manchester United teammate, said after visiting him at the Cromwell hospital. ''The man's not looking too good.''Law was in tears as he left the hospital.Best was the great superstar of …

Joshua Boateng Jason Garey Melissa Garey Kerri Hanks Ossie Michalsen Christopher Nyarko Simon Omekanda Katie Thorlakson AND Jason YeisleyWhat do they have in common?They are among the college stars featured this week in Soccer AmericaÆs COLLEGE SOCCER REPORTER.Subscribe to SOCCER AMERICA and receive Soccer America's COLLEGE SOCCER REPORTER, a benefit for Soccer America members. COLLEGE SOCCER REPORTER, your briefing on the national college scene, is published twice on Monday and daily Tuesday-Friday during the college season.Here are some of the stories that appeared in last week's COLLEGE SOCCER REPORTER.STREAKINGSMU is perfect in Conference-USAAfter starting out 2-4-2, SMU's men have run …

A national team's performance can affect a country's stock market, according a Dartmouth College report, which attributes the ''decisive impact'' a final score can have on the mood of a nation.Co-written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Alex Edmans and Norwegian School of Management's Oyvind Norli, the study claims stock markets decline 0.39 percent on average after a World Cup game loss and 0.29 percent after any international match.''We wanted to find an event that affects a large portion of a given population's sentiment and we found it in soccer,'' said Norli told the Bloomberg news agency. ''The correlation gets stronger …

Playoff Fever: Thoughts on Games 1 Nothing-nothing says the scoreboard, But that's just fine, says Colin Clarke - It's playoff soccer, you're s'posed to be bored, By a game that looks like it's out of the ark. In case you've missed it or nobody told you We're right in the middle of playoff fever. Inertia galore to grip and to hold you - Paradise Now! for the true believer. We've hours and hours of super defense - With hardly a sign of scoring. The coaches are all looking seriously tense, Ain't that all excitingly boring? Shutouts are …

By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor Soccer America Magazine SKY IS FALLING. It's appropriate that an advertising blitz for the feature film ''Chicken Little'' is underway as postseason doomsayers descend on higher-seeded teams that lost their first game. No. 1 seeds New England (0-1) and San Jose (1-3) are in arrears, goes the reasoning, and thus, all but kaput. Yet every top-seeded team, save one, that failed to win the first game rallied to win the series under the current playoff format. The 2003 Quakes lost the first game in Los Angeles, 2-0, and fell behind in the second …