BRIEFLY GALAXY LEAVES SPAIN WITH WIN.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

Chris Albright scored two goals and Mauricio Cienfuegos added another to lead the Major League Soccer champion Galaxy to a 3-0 victory over Viking of Norway Friday in the third-place match of the La Manga Cup in Cartagena, Spain.

The Galaxy, which finished 3-0-1 during its two-week trip in Europe, will return to the United States today and resume training in Florida in preparation for a match against the Colorado Rapids on March 5 in the Copa Carnival in Miami.

The Galaxy will return after that match and resume training at the Rose Bowl in preparation for its March 16 match in Honduras against CD Motagua in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.

The second leg of the home-and-home series against Motagua will be played March 23 at Cal State Fullerton.

The MLS season begins April 5, with the Galaxy visiting Columbus at Crew Stadium.

The Galaxy will play eight consecutive road games before opening play at the Home Depot Center in Carson on June 7 against the New England Revolution, which the Galaxy defeated 1-0 in sudden-death overtime in the MLS Cup championship game in October.

--UCLA will host the men's NCAA Final Four soccer championship in 2004 at the Home Depot Center.

The 2004 semifinal games and the championship and will be played Dec. 10 and Dec. 12 at the Carson stadium.

The championship was to be played at Southern Methodist but was moved when field conditions suitable for soccer could not be guaranteed because of numerous events at Ford Stadium.

This year's Final Four will be Dec. 12 and Dec. 14 in Columbus, Ohio.

The NCAA also awarded the 2005 event to North Carolina State.

YACHTING: Switzerland's pursuit of nautical history will have to wait.

Race 5 of the America's Cup was postponed today because of light wind on the uncooperative Hauraki Gulf in Auckland, New Zealand. It was the seventh postponement in the best-of-nine series, which Alinghi leads 4-0.

The forecast called for wind of 7 to 12 knots from the northeast, but it was down to 4 knots during much of a two-hour delay, with an occasional breeze of 7 knots.

Principal race officer Harold Bennett called it off about two hours after the scheduled starting time. The race committee will try to get the race under way Sunday.

The light conditions came a day after Team New Zealand's 110-foot mast snapped in two amid high wind and rough seas, the second major Kiwi breakdown in four races.

Alinghi, the whimsically named sloop that represents an Alpine country with no coastline, needs one more victory to take the cup back to Europe for the first time in 152 years.

OLYMPICS: Two senators visiting the headquarters of the U.S. Olympic Committee said they might have found evidence of possible fraud.

Republican Sens. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and Ted Stevens of Alaska would not elaborate. ``It touches on criminal activity, but I'm not sure we can verify it yet,'' Stevens said.

BASKETBALL: LeBron James began playing for a state title, hours after a court case on his eligibility took another unexpected turn.

A lawyer for the Ohio High School Athletic Association - which ruled James ineligible Jan. 31 - asked a judge in Baberton, Ohio, to dismiss James' case on the grounds the 18-year-old superstar did not properly appeal the OHSAA's ruling.

TENNIS: Marino Zabaleta of Argentina celebrated his 25th birthday by defeating Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (3-7), 7-5 and reaching the finals of the Mexican Open in Acapulco.

After beating the three-time French Open champion, Zabaleta dropped to one knee, then jogged off the court where tournament organizers presented him with a large birthday cake. He bent over and thrust his face into the frosting.

Zabaleta will play Spain's Felix Mantilla or Argentina's Augustin Calleri for the championship of the $890,000 tournament.

TRACK: Steeplechase world-record holder Brahim Boulami was suspended by track and field's governing body in Monte Carlo, Monaco, because he tested positive for the endurance-enhancing drug EPO.

Boulami, who has denied taking the banned substance, could be banned for two years if found guilty.

--Chris Brasher, the 1956 Olympic steeplechase champion and a pacemaker for Roger Bannister's sub-4-minute mile, died. He was 74.

He died at his home in the village of Chaddleworth, Berkshire, northwest of London, according to organizers of the London Marathon, which he helped found in 1981.