By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor

U.S. under-17 coach John Ellinger is close to finalizing a deal by which Utah Soccer LLC will hire him as coach of the MLS expansion team that starts play next year in Salt Lake City and U.S. under-20 coach Thomas Rongen will be announced Thursday as the coach of Chivas USA.

Two sources, both with ties to the parties involved, confirmed Ellinger is the choice of Utah Soccer chief executive Dean Howes and an agreement should be reached soon. Ellinger's agent, Richard Motzkin, was in England and unable to return a phone call yesterday.

Rongen's deal with Chivas USA has been completed, although U.S. Soccer secretary general Dan Flynn is requesting compensation from MLS for Ellinger and Rongen terminating their contracts with U.S. Soccer. Ellinger's contract runs until December of next year; Rongen's deal runs through the World Youth Championship CONCACAF qualifying tournament in January.

Ellinger was interviewed by Howes in Washington, D.C., during the MLS All-Star break in July and recently visited Salt Lake City to meet investor-operator Dan Checketts. They toured potential training sites and proposed stadium sites. ''I was very impressed with everything, no question,'' said Ellinger, who has coached the U-17s since 1998. He was an assistant coach with Columbus in 1996.

Ellinger said discussions were proceeding but no deal has been finalized.

In addition to the four original Salt Lake candidates — Ellinger, Rongen, U.S. national team assistant Glenn Myernick, and former national team coach Steve Sampson — originally listed by Howes, the only other candidate to be interviewed was D.C. assistant coach Tom Soehn, who reportedly did well in a lengthy telephone interview with general manager Steve Pastorino, who was hired just last week.

Myernick said he interviewed with Salt Lake but after discussing the job with his wife decided to stay with the national team. Sampson was hired to coach the Los Angeles Galaxy three weeks ago.

Rongen, who left his native Netherlands in 1979 to play in the North American Soccer League, is a friend of fellow Dutchman Hans Westerhof, who was the coach of Guadalajara until last May and is now the Chivas technical director.

Rongen coached Tampa Bay during the inaugural (1996) MLS season, then coached two seasons in New England before taking over for Bruce Arena at D.C. United in 1999. He won the MLS title that year and coached D.C. for two more seasons. His contract was not renewed following the 2001 season.