CARSON, Calif. – MLS Cup 2004, you might think, ended up a close game: The scoreboard read D.C. United 3, Kansas City Wizards 2 when the final whistle blew. You could even argue that the scoreboard should have read 2-2 at 90 minutes, because D.C.’s second goal was a touch controversial. But the soccer – virtually all of it – was played by United.

The controversial touch I’m talking about happened in the 23rd minute, when Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad, trying to kick the ball to safety, slammed it into the onrushing Alecko Eskandarian, who raised his arm to knock the ball down in front of him. A pretty obvious foul, not spotted by either referee Michael Kennedy or his assistant on the touchline… and Eskandarian was allowed to sprint forward and beat the Wizards goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi with a low shot from 12 yards out.

It was a vital goal because it gave D.C. the lead and made it clear that D.C.’s evident superiority would be rounded off with goals. Just four minutes earlier, Eskandarian had scored D.C.’s first goal, a superb left-foot strike from the edge of the penalty area, after he had spun away from the tight marking of Wizards defender Nick Garcia.

With those two Eskandarian goals – albeit one of them a tainted score – D.C. had imposed some reality on the scoreboard, which until then had read Wizards 1, D.C. 0.

The Wizards’ goal had come after only six minutes. After slightly misplaying a ball in his own penalty area, D.C.’s captain, Ryan Nelsen, hurriedly kicked the ball away, sending it straight to the Wizards’ Jose Burciaga. That ought not to have been too disastrous, but Burciaga quickly unleashed a swerving, dipping shot from 35 yards out that sent the ball, on one bounce, past diving goalkeeper Nick Rimando and into the net.

After the game, D.C. coach Peter Nowak said what winning coaches have a habit of saying, that he never doubted his team would win, even when the Wizards had so quickly taken the lead. His confidence was probably shared by most onlookers: D.C. immediately began to move the ball smoothly, with sequences involving as many as a dozen passes. It was pretty to watch, especially when Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez were involved, which they usually were.

By the 20th minute, the Wizards were barely in the game at all, hardly able to get control of the ball, unable to pass accurately when they did so. Three minutes after the second of Eskandarian’s goals, the Wizards’ defense fell into embarrassing disarray as Alex Zotinca, trying to prevent Earnie Stewart’s driven cross from reaching the marauding Eskandarian, turned the ball into his own goal.

At that point, only 27 minutes into the game, it seemed that it was all over, and D.C. looked likely to run up a tennis score against the hopelessly bemused Wizards. D.C.’s lively fan group, the Screaming Eagles, was chanting “We want goals!” and it looked certain that they would get them.

Not quite. D.C. inevitably relaxed, the Wizards pulled back a goal in the second half on Josh Wolff’s penalty kick, and we got that close-looking 3-2 score line. After Wolff’s goal, most of the interest focused on Freddy Adu, who was subbed in at the 65th minute. Though Freddy made no significant contribution, the Wizards could not find another goal, and D.C. United deservedly took the trophy.

In sum, it was a satisfactory, if not brilliant, final which no doubt brought sighs of relief from the MLS biggies. For these MLS Cups are not easy occasions for the league. They should be glittering climaxes, but everyone knows that soccer is a perverse beast that has a habit of behaving badly on big occasions. MLS Cup 2002, for example, did exactly that during an abysmal yawner that the Los Angeles Galaxy won 1-0 in overtime.

Last year, the sport sparkled as the San Jose Earthquakes beat the Chicago Fire 4-2 in a splendid game. This time, in a game that featured plenty of goals, soccer produced yet another variation from its bag of deceptive tricks: a game that was very one-sided everywhere but on the scoreboard.

It looked close, but it wasn’t, and the tension never built up. At the beginning of the second half, as the Wizards fought hard to get themselves back in the game, they did so in a stadium that seemed almost unaware of the struggle on the field. The Screaming Eagles – hundreds shouting like thousands – kept up their chanting, but the bulk of the 25,797 fans produced nothing but a low, almost conversational, hum of voices. And even that tended to be drowned out by the moronic honking of those cursed plastic horns. The lack of real tension in the stadium, the missing roar from ecstatic or aggrieved fans, is a good indicator of how far soccer has to go in this country.

To allow for all the special-event preparations, publicity, and ticket selling, MLS Cup has to be played at a pre-decided venue. Unless that turns out to be the home field of one of the two eventual finalists, the majority of fans in the stadium will be neutrals. This was clearly the case on Sunday at the Home Depot stadium. The home team Los Angeles Galaxy failed to make the final, and the stadium was never going to be full of fans who had traveled thousands of miles from D.C. and Kansas City.

Next year, MLS Cup will be played in a new, soccer-specific stadium that is currently under construction in Frisco, Texas, just outside Dallas. We can only wait to see what the sport itself offers us on the field, but as far as the atmosphere goes, this is not a good choice. The home team is the former Dallas Burn, now renamed F.C. Dallas. The club has performed pathetically during the past two years, failing to make the playoffs in both seasons. The atmosphere at MLS Cup 2005 is likely to again be more party-like than passionate, with the wretched plastic horns triumphant.