Incoherent is the appropriate word, I believe, to describe the 2004 MLS season. The climax to a disjointed year arrives this weekend at the Home Depot stadium in Carson, Calif., where D.C. United take on the Kansas City Wizards in the championship game.

This is not the final that anyone would have predicted before the season, or even halfway through. But predictions have crumbled as no one team has managed to impose itself, to play consistently winning soccer.

Yes, of course, there was an exception. The Columbus Crew put together a splendid 18-game unbeaten streak going into the playoffs, then blew it big-time by losing to the New England Revolution, which had managed to win only eight of its 30 regular season games.

To be fair to Columbus, their exit was greatly helped by the worst refereeing blunder in MLS’s nine-year history. In the 24th minute of the deciding second game against the Revs, Columbus got its big break when the lively Kyle Martino broke through – only to be upended by Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis.

Referee Alex Prus whistled for the obvious penalty kick, but apparently forgot what the rule book very clearly states: a red card must be given to a player who “denies an obvious goal scoring opportunity.”

Reis should have been sent to the locker room, leaving the Revs to play with only ten men for the remaining 65 minutes. But Prus took no action, and Reis celebrated his reprieve by saving the penalty kick. Even worse from the Crew’s viewpoint, Reis later saved a second penalty kick and was voted the game’s MVP.

If the Crew can complain that they were refereed out of the playoffs, the Los Angeles Galaxy have only themselves to blame for losing to the Wizards.

At midseason the Galaxy – then in first place – fired coach Sigi Schmid and replaced him with former U.S. national team boss Steve Sampson. “The fans deserve a more entertaining and attractive product on the field,” said GM Doug Hamilton at the time.

Amen to that. Flamboyant was certainly not a word anyone would attach to Schmid’s cautious style of coaching, but the idea that Sampson would be any more adventurous seemed bizarre.

Going into the playoffs, Sampson had compiled a 2-3-3 record. In those eight games, the Galaxy scored a measly seven goals; even worse, Carlos Ruiz – top scorer in MLS in 2002 and 2003 – had scored only one of them.

Tactical incoherence was the problem here. Schmid had brought in the 35-year-old Austrian playmaker Andreas Herzog, who, according to Hamilton, was supposed to “open the field with one ball – a ball that puts Carlos Ruiz through.”

But Herzog never combined with Ruiz. Of the 11 goals scored by Ruiz this season, not one came off an assist from Herzog. Sampson, while oozing words of praise for Herzog, basically benched him. And the Galaxy went out tamely, incoherently, to the much better organized Wizards.

Which meant that MLS had lost half of its dream final. The Galaxy, playing on its home field, would have ensured a packed, enthusiastic stadium. The other half of the desired final (call it the marketing half) was D.C. United with Freddy Adu.

United have duly obliged. On Saturday they reached the final by defeating the Revs in the Eastern Conference final. It was a superb game that had just about everything that MLS needs: skillful soccer, non-stop action, great goals, and a terrific atmosphere from the crowd of 21,000.

Six goals. Each time DC United went ahead, the Revs came back to tie. At 3-3, the game went to sudden death overtime, and then on to the odious penalty kick shootout.

The blame for losing a shootout falls heavily on the shoulders of the poor guy who misses his kick. Somehow, it’s always the wrong guy. This time it was New England’s Clint Dempsey – a brutal end to a season in which Dempsey has proved a revelation in the Revs’ midfield and a possible Rookie of the Year.

D.C.’s Peter Nowak, in his first-ever year of coaching, has done the job. The manner in which he has done it is not, for my tastes, entirely satisfactory. His emphasis on “running and fighting” is always likely to reduce the chances of good soccer.

But in the game against the Revs, the soccer got a chance: D.C.’s two most physical players – defender Ryan Nelsen and midfielder Dema Kovalenko – were sitting on the bench. Both, fittingly, were suspended for totting up too many disciplinary demerits; in plain English: for too much fouling.

Even without this destructive duo, D.C. yet again managed to markedly out-foul its opponent (25-18), but the physical approach was less noticeable. The game was dominated by a totally different type of player. No, not Freddy Adu, who did not have a particularly good game. I’m talking of Jaime Moreno.

The Bolivian Moreno has been around since 1996 when, in the very first MLS Cup, he played a key role in DC’s 3-2 win over the Galaxy. That was eight years ago, when Moreno was a sprightly 22-year-old. It might have been expected that he would now have matured into a slower, wilier player.

But Moreno has always been a mature player, full of cunning and deception, who can outthink and outrun anyone when the moment requires it. There is never any wasted effort with Moreno. He is the perfect example of a soccer brain at work, conserving energy, forever lurking with intent, and then striking with imperious coolness.

His goal against the Revs on Saturday said it all. With the three Rev defenders in front of him and goalkeeper Reis all expecting him to cross the ball, Moreno flat-footed them all by effortlessly curling the ball into the net from 20 yards out.

Freddy Adu will get his chance against the Wizards in the MLS Cup on Sunday. But he will come off the bench. The guy who will be there from the start, the guy who will most preoccupy the Wizards coach Bob Gansler, will be Jaime Moreno.

My hope for the final is an in-form Moreno, the player who can pull this fragmented MLS season together so that it finishes on a high note of pure, coherent, soccer.