ALL MATCH NEEDED WAS MARQUEE PLAYERS.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

Mauricio Cienfuegos is the Galaxy's best player. It said so on the award the midfielder received before his team's playoff opener against the Dallas Burn on Sunday.

Sadly, Cienfuegos was not around to accept the award. He was AWOL - away without logic.

Cienfuegos, the spoke that turns the Galaxy's offense, and the team's No. 1 goalkeeper Jorge Campos were rivals on this day, playing in a World Cup qualifier for El Salvador and Mexico, respectively, in Mexico City. Meanwhile, back in Pasadena, their teammates were singed by the Burn in a shootout.

Alain Sutter and Damian Alvarez, the Burn's first and fourth shooters, scored off Campos' replacement Kevin Hartman. Ted Eck came the closest to piercing the wall erected by Dallas goalkeeper Mark Dodd. He nimbly deked Dodd, but his shot clanked off the left post.

It was that kind of day for the Galaxy, which couldn't muster much of an attack without its preeminent playmaker. Had Cienfuegos been in the lineup, the Galaxy almost certainly would have had at least one scoring chance in the first half. Without him, the team was as effective as a yo-yo minus the string, getting off nary a shot in the opening 45 minutes.

``We didn't have a link between the defense and the midfield,'' said interim Galaxy coach Octavio Zambrano, who explored ways of getting the two players back in time for the game but came up empty-handed, like his team.

``We didn't have the offensive punch we needed,'' Zambrano said.

To be sure, the Galaxy didn't have the schedule-makers working in its corner. With the second game of the best-of-three series scheduled for Wednesday in Dallas, the opener could have been played tonight, which would have made it possible for Cienfuegos and Campos to get back and play, provided they weren't too spent. But Major League Soccer, with an eye toward attendance, preferred Sunday's start.

Judging by the announced attendance of 18,921 at the Rose Bowl, many fans must have gotten their fill of soccer during the morning telecast of Mexico's 5-0 victory over El Salvador.

``Of course we would have loved to have suspended this game so we could (have) our whole team here,'' said Martin Machon, a defensive-minded midfielder who filled in for Cienfuegos the best he could. But in reality, it was like asking a square peg to fit into a round hole.

``I think it's very, very unfair to go into a game like this without your top players,'' said Zambrano, who isn't the only coach forced into doing more shuffling than a Las Vegas card dealer.

Of the eight teams that advanced to the postseason, the Burn is the only one without an active national-team member from one of the World Cup-contenders. DC United, which defeated the New England Revolution 3-0, has seven players pulling double duty. The Galaxy, Tampa Bay and Columbus each have four. New England and Kansas City have three and Colorado, two.

The good news for the Galaxy is that it will have Campos and Cienfuegos, who had six goals and 12 assists in 22 games, back for Wednesday's game. The bad news is the team will lose its top scoring threat, Eduardo Hurtado, who will be rejoining the Ecuadoran national team today.

``The people from the league knew about these (World Cup-qualifiers),'' Zambrano said. ``If there was something that could have been done (to avoid the conflict), it would have been done. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that.''

What Major League Soccer is trying to do is akin to the NHL holding games next February even as the league's top players take off to represent their countries in Nagano, Japan. The marketing-savvy NHL knew better, wisely choosing to suspend the season for two weeks rather than put an inferior product on the ice.

What FIFA, the sport's international governing body, is attempting to pull off is akin to having the European and U.S. captains pull their golfers out of a PGA Tour event after the third round to play in the Ryder Cup.

In other words, what soccer is doing to itself is ludicrous.

We suggest a less-elaborate qualifying tournament is in order instead of this year-and-a-half death march. Zambrano would gladly second the motion if he thought his voice would be heard. But he doesn't see any changes forthcoming, not with the soccer world spinning on an axis that is a dollar sign.

``It's an issue of money,'' he said. ``There are a lot more games and they are televised, so there's more revenue.''

Wherever there's sports, there's bound to be the swoosh. And indeed, Nike is an official supplier of MLS, not to mention one of Campos' sponsors. As such, there was some scuttlebutt before the game that Nike planned to fly Campos in for the game.

``We heard rumors,'' said Dallas coach Dave Dir. ``I told the guys that wasn't going to happen. But you never know in this league.''