By Ridge Mahoney

The Quakes lose but clinch a playoff spot when the Burn falls in L.A. … The latest round of the Hunt Cup goes to the Crew. … Colorado wins in San Jose for the second time this season. … Chicago is struck by a Brown-out.

BEST GOAL: Mark Chung scored the 50th goal of his MLS career in the Rapids' 2-1 win over San Jose. Chung took a feed from Chris Carrieri on the left flank and darted inside to play a one-two with John Spencer. He met Spencer's bouncing flick with a first-time, left-footed strike that drove the ball inside the far post from a tight angle.

STAT: Colorado, which also beat the Quakes 2-0 July 12, became the first team since Columbus in 1999 to do the double over the Quakes in San Jose.

BEST ASSISTS: Great service from his teammates provided Chris Brown with the opportunity to hit a hat trick in New England's 5-1 thrashing of Chicago.

Steve Ralston set up Brown for his first goal with a lateral dribble that began near the touchline and ended with a precise pass Brown controlled with his first touch and banged in with his second.

Brown netted his third goal after Jay Heaps darted forward to head down a loose ball. Heaps then pushed it to Pat Noonan, who cleverly redirected it for Brown to blast into the net.

STATS: The Fire's seven-game unbeaten run (4-0-3) was snapped by the defeat, which ended the Revs' nine-game winless streak. It was the first time in team history Chicago had lost a league game by four goals.

BEST SAVES: Burn keeper D.J. Countess pulled off two superb stops in a 2-1 loss in Los Angeles. He denied Carlos Ruiz with a spectacular kick save in the 60th minute, and leaped acrobatically to paw away an Arturo Torres header in the 89th minute, but on the rebound of the latter Alejandro Moreno pounced to blast the winning goal into the roof of the net.

STAT: By losing, the Burn remained 24 points behind San Jose with eight games to play. Even if Dallas won all of its remaining games and the Quakes lost all of theirs, San Jose would win the head-to-head tiebreaker and thus is assured of a playoff spot with two months left in the season.

RIVALS: The season series between Kansas City and Columbus finished tied 1-1-1 after the Crew took a 1-0 victory on Sunday on a Brian West goal.

They tied 2-2 on May 3 and Kansas City captured a 1-0 triumph July 19. In all-time league meetings between the Hunt Sports Group's original two teams, Columbus leads 10-8-2.

MLS: Game Summaries (Aug. 30-31)

Aug. 30 in Foxboro, Mass.
NEW ENGLAND (6-8-8, 26 pts) 5 CHICAGO (11-5-6, 39 pts) 1.
Goals: C. Brown (Ralston) 6, Kamler 44, C. Brown (Kamler, Cancela) 63, C. Brown (Noonan, Heaps) 66, Heaps (Cancela) 88; Williams (Razov) 14.
Att.: 10,846.

Aug. 30 in Carson, Calif.
LOS ANGELES (7-7-8, 29 pts) 2 DALLAS (4-14-4, 16 pts) 1.
Goals: Ruiz pen. 50, Moreno 90; Davis 12.
Att.: 23,263.

Aug. 30 in San Jose
SAN JOSE (11-4-7, 40 pts) 1 COLORADO (9-9-4, 31 pts) 2.
Goals: Mullan 6 (Russell, Robinson ) 59; Chung (Spencer) 21, Spencer (Carrieri) 67.
Att.: 10,116.

Aug. 31 in Columbus
COLUMBUS (7-9-6, 27 pts) 1 KANSAS CITY (7-7-8, 29 pts)0.
Goal: West (Paule, Buddle) 37.
Att.: 18,147.