Fire offense were stifled and unable to create scoring chances until late in the second half. Chicago clinched a series victory and their second MLS Cup berth by defeating the MetroStars 3–2 at Soldier Field. Following goals from Brown and Stoitchkov in the first half-hour of the match, the MetroStars rallied with a pair of goals from Valencia within four minutes to tie the match at 2–2 heading into half-time. The winning goal came in the 88th minute from Razov, who received a long pass from Armas and dribbled around Ammann to break the second-half deadlock. Summary of results Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away). Playoffs were in best-of-three format requiring five points to advance and sudden death extra time as a tiebreaker. Broadcasting The MLS Cup final was broadcast in the United States on ABC with English commentary and Spanish via secondary audio programming. The English broadcast was led by play-by-play announcer Jack Edwards and color commentator Ty Keough, who were joined by studio hosts Rob Stone and Alexi Lalas. The Spanish broadcast comprised play-by-play announcer Roberto Abramowitz and MetroStars coach Octavio Zambrano as color commentator. The ABC broadcast drew a 1.0 national rating, matching the 1999 final. The local broadcast in the Kansas City area had an estimated 5 percent share of televisions, falling behind concurrent broadcasts of the film Blank Check and a Kansas City Chiefs game that drew 64 percent. The match was also carried via streaming radio on Internetsoccer.com with English commentary from Dave Johnson and Miami Fusion coach Ray Hudson. Local radio stations in the Chicago area also broadcast the match, including WIND-AM in Spanish and WNVR-AM in Polish. Match Summary The match began with Chicago on the offensive early, with Ante Razov and Hristo Stoitchkov creating several attempts within the first ten minutes. In the 11th minute, however, Wizards midfielder Chris Klein stole the ball from Chicago's Diego Gutiérrez near midfield and stormed down the touch line. Klein's cross from the right wing made contact with Fire midfielder Jesse Marsch who failed to clear the ball, allowing Miklos Molnar to make light contact and roll the ball past keeper Zach Thornton for the only goal of the match. The Fire responded by using its attacking forces to find an equalizer, but failed to break the Wizards defense and goalkeeper Tony Meola, who