Minnesota-Rochester III capped off the 2002 season with the Raging Rhinos reclaiming the A-League title with a 3-1 victory in front of 14,276 fans at Frontier Field.

 

The story of the year may have been the stunning upsets in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by the PDL's Chicago Sockers and Mid Michigan Bucks over the Kansas City Wizards and New England Revolution, respectively. The Sockers downed Kansas City in penalty kicks of a scoreless match while the Bucks stunned the Revs on the road 1-0, scoring two minutes into stoppage time.

 

The Charlotte Eagles took the D3 Pro League crown in convincing fashion by handing the regular season champion New Jersey Stallions a 5-0 loss in front of 5,350 fans in Charlotte. The club's success led to promotion to the A-League for the following season.

 

Bret Hall continued to work his magic, leading the Sockers to their second straight PDL title with a 1-0 win over the Bucks in the championship game. The championship was his third consecutive for the franchise, which played in the D3 Pro League as the Stingers in 1998.

 

In the W-League, the Raleigh Wings were finally dethroned as W-1 Champions by the Chicago Cobras. Chicago, who had lost in shootouts the previous year to Raleigh and in 1995 to Long Island, came out victorious in the tiebreaker, ending Raleigh's two-year championship run. The W-2 title went to the Springfield Sirens, who denied Charlotte a sweep of men's and women's titles. Springfield breezed through the season with an 11-1 mark and captured the title against the Charlotte Lady Eagles with a 2-1 victory.

 

The Super Y-League exploded in growth in its second season, growing from 16 teams to 75 for 2000.