BY SCOTT FRENCH RELIEF EFFORTS: The New York Power and Washington Freedom called off their planned treks to China after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and instead will face off in a pair of Unity Games doubleheaders to raise funds for victims of the carnage. The Freedom and Power will meet in the first games of the events Oct. 28 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and Nov. 3 at RFK Stadium in D.C. MLS’s New York and Washington clubs, the MetroStars and D.C. United, will play in the nightcaps. Proceeds will be donated to the Soccer United Relief Fund, which was announced a week ago to combine resources and efforts of the U.S. soccer community into a single relief effort. The U.S. Soccer Foundation, established to oversee profits from the 1994 World Cup, is managing SURF. Money earned from Monday’s National Soccer Hall of Fame Induction Game in Oneonta, N.Y., pitting the Freedom against the Boston Breakers, also will be donated to SURF. Individuals and groups wishing to donate may do so online at www.soccerunitedrelieffund.com or by sending donations to SURF, c/o U.S. Soccer Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 96444, Washington, D.C. 20077-7391. Among the groups involved in SURF are the USSF, WUSA, MLS, United Soccer Leagues, AYSO, National Soccer Coaches Association of America, National Soccer Hall of Fame, Major Indoor Soccer League, World Indoor Soccer League, U.S. Club Soccer, Eurosport, Umbro, Nike, adidas USA, Kappa USA, Kwik Goal and Puma. Also involved is Soccer America and the Professional Soccer Reporters Association. POWER AID: The New York Power has been doing what it can to assist the relief effort since Day 1. On Monday, General Manager Susan Marenoff, nine players — Tiffeny Milbrett, Sara Whalen, Gao Hong, Ronnie Fair, Jen Lalor, Anne Nielsen, Jessica Reifer, Jen O’Sullivan and Kristy Whelchel — and other Power staff worked eight-hour shifts at Nino’s Restaurant near Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan. The restaurant is serving free food to New York fire and police forces and to other rescue workers. Several players also participated Saturday in KaBOOM! Community Playground Build, in which a children’s playground was constructed on a vacant lot in the Bronx. “In light of everything which took place over the last couple of weeks,” Lalor said, “it is important not to forget we must go on with our lives, and helping kids is a very worthwhile endeavor.” GAO’S DECISION: The Power expects Chinese goalkeeper Gao Hong back in uniform next season, although she won’t play in the Unity Games matches. She needs wrist surgery but hasn’t decided whether to get it done in the United States or in China. She plans to see doctors in China before making her decision. TOUGH BRANDI: It was vintage Brandi Chastain we saw the final month of the WUSA season. The Bay Area CyberRaysé left back, long one of the toughest players in the women’s game, competed with two stress fractures in her right foot. It didn’t seem to hinder her on the field, as she led the CyberRays to the WUSA title, but anyone watching her hobble around after the games, with a knee-to-angle walking boot strapped to her right leg, had to know something was off. The injury occurred in Bay Area’s 2-0 win July 15 at Boston. Chastain knew things weren’t right, but she wasn’t about to complain. A correct diagnosis would have forced her off the field — there wasn’t much chance she’d allow that to happen. So she continued to play, through the Aug. 25 title game and into the Nike U.S. Women’s Cup — she saw 90 minutes in the 4-1 victory Sept. 9 over Germany in Chicago. The Americans’ final two U.S. Cup matches were canceled following terrorist attacks, but the Yanks scrimmaged Japan on Sept. 12 in Columbus, Ohio. “We had three 30-minute scrimmages,” Chastain explained. “I played the first scrimmage, and I was supposed to play again in the third. During the break, I took my shoes off, and when it was time to play again, I couldn’t even put my shoe back on.” The fractures are in her third metatarsal and navicular bones, and she hopes to be back in time for the CyberRaysé training camp next month. GOING CAMPING: The Atlanta Beat is in camp, mostly at Agnes Scott College, through Friday. San Diego’s first offseason camp begins in late October. BEST OF: The Carolina Courage may have been the worst of the WUSA, but the club has been cited as the best thing in North Carolina’s Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) by two publications. In Spectator Magazine’s “Best of the Triangle” issue last month, the Courage was voted, by readers, the “best thing to happen in the triangle in the past year.” A Web site, triangle.citysearch.com, honored the club as the “best big event,” edging North Carolina’s state fair and the Jimmy V. Celebrity Golf Classic. Imagine the honors had the Courage actually been decent. The Atlanta Beat, which was better than decent, was chosen “best new arrival on the sports scene” in Creative Loafing magazine’s “Best of Atlanta” issue. Didn’t see the whole issue, but our guess is that the Beat was beaten out by the Braves’ decision to dump controversial closer John Rocker for “best thing to happen in Atlanta in the past year.” WORLD CUP NEWS: Carolina’s Kristin Bengtsson scored the first goal in Sweden’s 4-1 romp Sunday over Denmark in a 2003 Women’s World Cup qualifier in Malmo. The Swedes are 2-0 in a group that also features Finland and Switzerland. With the WUSA’s Germans — Philadelphia’s Doris Fitschen and Boston’s Maren Meinert and Bettina Wiegmann — finished internationally, Philly’s Kelly Smith was the lone league rep in the Germany-England showdown three days earlier. The Germans were up, 3-0, by the 11th minute in the 3-1 victory, in which England’s Smith was booked.