All 10 teams were still in the playoff hunt until the final round of games, making for MLS's most exciting season in history.
Perhaps it was the sight of Metros goalkeeper Tim Howard pleading not to be sent off in stoppage time as a raucous RFK Stadium crowd roared in triumph.
Maybe it was the Crew rallying from 3-1 down at Spartan Stadium only to lose to the Quakes in overtime when its goalkeeper and a defender collided to propel the ball into their own net.
Ray Hudson took D.C. United to the final kick of the season before Eddie Johnson's overtime goal scuttled United's playoff hopes in one of the most dramatic games MLS has ever produced. United trailed, 1-0, led, 2-1, and trailed, 3-2, before tying the game in stoppage time and losing in OT.
Two days later, the Revs were also faced with a game it had to win to make the playoffs. They roared out of the gate to score three goals in 36 minutes and cast the Metros into the postseason void.
It could have been the do-or-die matches of the final weekend with every team playing for something – or the elaborate scenarios and possible consequences of head-to-head results and goal differential burning up calculators and brain cells.
Maybe it was Carlos Ruiz sparking the Galaxy, and Taylor Twellman reviving the Revs as they dueled goal-for-goal down to the wire.
The 2002 MLS season was different from the six that had preceded it.
Games were more intense, harder, faster, better. The tackles were tougher, the goals more spectacular. The crowds were louder and in many cases, larger.
This might have been the first season that across the board, top to bottom, city to city, the players and coaches and fans really got into it.
''It's crazy in that every weekend it changes,'' said Galaxy defender Alexi Lalas late in the season. ''You can win and go from last to second place, you can lose and go from second to last, and you can get points and still not go anywhere. If you're a fan of MLS, it's a wonderful year of watching soccer because every game counts, and there's a tremendous amount of competition.''
By no means has MLS turned the corner. A national league with only 10 teams isn't really national at all. MLS has very little presence outside its own cities. No new investors have come aboard.
The breaking of ground for a Galaxy stadium in Southern California is all well and good. But the Fire played on artificial turf in a small-college setting and projects in Dallas, Kansas City and New Jersey were snagged.
CONTRACTION'S ADVANTAGE. Still, the 2002 season had been forecast as a potential catastrophe, what with the cloud of contraction looming over it and a disruptive World Cup hurled into the middle.
Instead of detriments, they turned out to be catalysts to better games and a frantic playoff chase.
''Contraction weeded a lot of players out of the league,'' says Kansas City defender Peter Vermes. ''There are a lot of players out there who can play at this level, but it makes competition a lot tougher. Our World Cup team had a nucleus of MLS players, and they did very well. The MLS teams this year had enough of a base of players that it doesn't hurt you as much if you have to make changes because of injuries or suspensions or somebody being out of form.''
MLS teams won 55 percent of home games, which is only a slight deviation from previous seasons.
But home and away records were skewed in the extreme.
The most glaring example was the Quakes, who were 12-1-1 at home and 2-10-2 on the road. The small field at Spartan Stadium (68 x 110 yards) was set forth as the reason for their success.
Yet the Galaxy and the Rapids used their bigger fields to win more than twice as many home games as they did on the road. And D.C., which didn't win on the road until its last away game of the season, posted an 8-4-2 record at RFK.
For only the second time in MLS history – and the first time since the inaugural season – no team posted a winning record on the road.
The Metros came closest with a 7-7-0 road mark. Their home record was a dismal 4-8-2, lending some truth to the theory that the Meadowlands fans can be just as scathing to their own players.
''They can be tough on you there, no question,'' said Lalas, who counts the Metros among his four MLS stops. ''Vicious is another word that comes to mind. Home and away is all about mentality. That transfers into how you play. It transfers into your thinking on individual plays. It affects every single play that you do. And it gives you a lot more confidence. You're liable to attack more, to take more chances, to feel confident in making moves.''
PARITY PARADOXES. Not until the penultimate weekend of the season could a team win three straight games. Only the Galaxy and Revs were able to do it.
Theories abound. The home dominance by so many teams certainly played a role as did a willingness of coaches to shake things up after a bad result.
''The inconsistencies have a lot to do with a greater equality of teams and greater depth,'' said Rapids coach Tim Hankinson, whose team beat Los Angeles, 3-2, and New England, 5-2, at home in between 3-1 and 4-1 defeats in Dallas.
Colorado also followed a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the Galaxy with a 3-0 victory over the Quakes.
''We've shown that when we lose, we are able to deal with it and bounce back,'' said Hankinson. ''Not all teams have been able to do that. I've been concerned about what happens when we win. A couple of times this season we were within first place, and that's when we've played our worst games.''
Things must be changing when coaches grow more worried if their team wins.
''It's driving all the coaches in the league crazy,'' said Rapids midfielder Pablo Mastroeni. ''They don't know what to do, if they keep it the same or change because they lost last time.''
Added Hankinson, ''The World Cup threw the lineups up and down a bit, and it took some teams a long time to make the adjustments.''
NUMBERS UP. MLS posted an overall attendance increase of 6 percent and for the first time every team averaged more than 10,000.
TV ratings of league telecasts also increased in June, July and August and didn't recede until the final weeks of the season.
The World Cup afterglow contributed, as did more a aggressive pursuit of the youth market. In preseason, Commissioner Don Garber had stated marketing to the youth as one of the league's top priorities.
''Virtually all of our [attendance] gain is directly attributable to the youth groups,'' said Galaxy general manager Doug Hamilton of his club's 10 percent increase. ''And I think that's true for most teams around the league.''
Once the Fire was established in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, it sold out its final four games with crowds of more than 15,000.
''I won't say that segment of the audience has been ignored by the league, but a lot of teams haven't done as good a job as they should reaching those people,'' said Fire GM Peter Wilt.
The exciting Quakes drew a crowd of 14,792 and a sellout of 26,229 for its final two home games. The champs averaged only 9,635 last year while winning the title and were near that mark most of the 2002 season.
Better late than never.
''It's great to have a crowd like that out there,'' said captain Jeff Agoos. ''I hope that happens more often, because we definitely hear them out there. It means a lot to us.'' n
by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney