By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor

BEST GOAL: Landon Donovan stormed past four opponents to polish off a one-two with Manny Lagos and score San Jose's second goal in its 4-2 loss to D.C. United.

A close second is Carlos Ruiz's second goal in the Galaxy's 3-0 defeat of New York. A clever chip from Cobi Jones was nodded by Sasha Victorine into the path of Ruiz, who hammered it first-time.

BEST ASSIST: Secondary assists are normally ranked behind primary assists in the creation of a goal. The primary assist is given to the last attacking player to touch the ball prior to that of the scorer.

But a superb spin to escape pressure in midfield by Preki was followed by a perfectly weighted ball — left-footed, of course — to Chris Klein, who delivered the pass Dario Fabbro stabbed into the net for the Wizards' first goal in a 2-1 win over Chicago.

BUSCH LEAGUE: There's nothing minor-league about the numbers keeper Jon Busch is putting up for the Crew. With him in the nets, Columbus is 7-1-2. He earned his fourth shutout of the season last Saturday when the Crew and Revs tied, 0-0.

Busch played in the A-League for Worcester, Carolina, Hampton Roads and Hershey prior to being picked in the second round of the 2002 SuperDraft.

His 0.84 goals-allowed average would lead the league in the official stats if he had played enough minutes.

With Tom Presthus in the nets Columbus is 3-9-3 and has conceded 1.85 goals per game. He ranks 10th amongst MLS keepers.

PUT OUT THE FIRE: Kansas City's last-minute win over the Fire was its first against Chicago since MLS Cup 2000.

Chris Brown's left-footed volley in the final minute of regulation gave the Wizards the game, 2-1.

The Wizards had lost three straight against the Fire following their 1-0 win in the 2000 championship game and had been outscored, 14-1.

FISH IN THE HAT: Ruiz attained a personal milestone by scoring all of the goals in a 3-0 Galaxy win over the MetroStars: His first MLS hat trick.

He also hit the soccer version of the ''pure'' hat trick by putting away a loose ball with his left foot, blasting in a half-volley with the right foot, and heading in the final goal.

Ruiz regained the MLS scoring lead (20 goals, 1 assist, 41 points) and he has scored against every league opponent this season. He is also one behind the team record of 21 goals set by Eduardo Hurtado in 1996.

FOUR DEBUTS: Faced with a brutal schedule of three games in five days, Burn coach Mike Jeffries gave four players their first MLS starts in the 3-2 loss to Colorado Sunday.

Lee Morrison, Matt Behncke, Jordan Stone and Carl Bussey were the first-starters. Sitting out the Rapids game were Oscar Pareja, Jason Kreis, Ryan Suarez, Steve Morrow and Joselito Vaca.

Bussey earned an assist on the first Burn goal as it rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game, 2-2, but Chris Carrieri scored his 11th goal of the season in the 87th minute to earn Colorado the victory and clinch a playoff spot for the Rapids.

The Burn plays Los Angeles Tuesday night in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal and faces the Metros Thursday on ESPN2.