The A-League Championship may have been the same, Minnesota vs Rochester III, but the road to the championship was an exciting one as the defending US Open Cup champion Rhinos struggled at times during the regular season and the defending A-League champion Thunder were on the brink of elimination early in the playoffs.

The start of the surprises came early when Rochester was stunned in its home opener 2-1 by the Toronto Lynx, who made a dramatic improvement on the dismal seasons that preceded 2000, opening the campaign with an eight-game unbeaten streak. After starting the season with three losses in its first five games, Rochester righted its ship for another steady season, but the road to victory was not always easy for the perennial powerhouse. The remainder of the season saw 13 games decided by one goal with two draws and no wins greater than two goals.

Minnesota, on the other hand, sailed through much of the regular season, clobbering many of its opponents for an amazing goal-differential of 44. The postseason was another story though. After ripping the Indiana Blast in the first round 7-0, the Thunder hit the road in the first game of the two-game, aggregate goal series and fell behind 3-0 to the Vancouver 86ers. Facing a three-goal deficit, Minnesota needed to outscore Vancouver by three in order to stay alive, and did just that.

Tied at the conclusion of the second game 3-3, the series went to a tiebreaking series overtime session where defender John Coughlin set up Morgan Zeba for the series-winner four minutes into the extra session.

It was all Raging Rhinos in the championship match before a standing-room only crowd of 14,276 fans at Frontier Field in Rochester. The Rhinos claimed their second A-League title and third championship (1999 US Open Cup) in three years with an impressive 3-1 victory.