By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor

''Everyone loves goals but defense wins championships.'' These are words to be expected from a defender — in this case, Robin Fraser of the Rapids — but the MLS semifinals have verified them.

New England has pushed Columbus to the brink of elimination by conceding zero goals in 190 minutes while scoring only one and the Galaxy knocked out Fraser's team with 4-0 and 1-0 victories.

Columbus 0 New England 1. (Revs lead series, 4-1)

For the second straight game the Crew had a man advantage and didn't know what to do with it.

Despite playing a man up for 51 minutes and launching 20 shots, the Crew couldn't beat Adin Brown and the numerous teammates who blocked shots with lunges and stabs and full-length slides.

TURNING POINT. Jay Heaps chested a Brian Kamler corner kick that had been flicked on by Wolde Harris past keeper Jon Busch in the third minute to give the Revs a 1-0 lead and take a lot of steam out of the Columbus crowd.

RED ZONE. The Revs had played the final 18 minutes of game one down a man and held out for a 0-0 tie. When Heaps was sent off in the 39th minute of Game 1 New England again had to bunker in.

Brian McBride headed over the bar on a corner kick and was snuffed by Brown on a point-blank chance. Jeff Cunningham's penchant for running powerfully but blindly helped the Revs hang on.

STAT: In their last nine games the Revs have posted seven shutouts and have conceded only three goals.

Colorado 0, Los Angeles 1. (Galaxy wins series, 6-0)

After L.A. had conceded eight goals in three quarterfinal meetings with Kansas City, Coach Sigi Schmid said, ''Obviously that's a concern and something we'll need to address.''

Schmid stuck with his man-marking system for both semifinal games, although for Game 2 he replaced sweeper Alexi Lalas with Tyrone Marshall and used Craig Waibel in Marshall's marking role.

Lalas had picked up yellow cards in the two previous games and as things turned out, he would have had to sit out the final had he been cautioned in Game 2.

Keeper Kevin Hartman was required to make just one save.

TURNING POINT. Los Angeles got the goal it needed from Carlos Ruiz, who set a single-season playoff record by scoring his seventh goal.

Pete Vagenas, who had just come on for Mauricio Cienfuegos, fed a ball down the left wing that Cobi Jones crossed for Ruiz to score.

QUESTION MARK. The nearest Rapid to Ruiz was midfielder Mark Chung, which is probably not the defensive scheme Coach Tim Hankinson had in mind when he decided to bring Rick Titus back into the starting lineup in place of Ritchie Kotschau.

COSTLY MISS. Colorado's best scoring chance came with four minutes remaining in the first half, but Chris Carrieri slammed his shot off the post and Chung hit the rebound wide.