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Bora Milutinovic, the smiling, tousle-haired Slav who coached the United States to some of its greatest successes on the soccer field in the last three years, is out. Whether he resigned as national team coach or was fired is open to debate. According to the U.S. Soccer Federation, which issued a two-page statement yesterday morning, Milutinovic "stepped down as coach. " According to Milutinovic, he was forced out. "I didn't step down," he said. "They asked me to step down.

Women's professional soccer seems to be getting a 1998 start in the United States, after all. In recent weeks, the USISL's W-League has begun to move into the void created in December when the National Soccer Alliance closed up shop without ever having played a game. In January, the USISL announced that its W-League was being split into an Elite division (W-1) and a "non-elite" division (W-2). Presumably, it is still trying to come up with a better-sounding name for the non-elite division.

The U.S. Soccer Federation is tightening the schedule for this year's U.S. Open Cup tournament, trying to avoid a repeat of the schedule crush that hit American soccer last August and September. The federation, which announced the schedule on Wednesday, is keeping last year's format, but is beginning several weeks earlier. Starting with the third round, it has set specific dates for the games to be played. Last year, it set ranges of dates, and allowed some stretching of those ranges.

The 1994 World Cup has come and gone, successful on the field until the final game, hugely successful off the field. Consider, for example, the TV numbers. The overnight rating for the Brazil- Italy final - taken from a sampling of 32 major markets - indicates the game was viewed by a record soccer audience for U.S. television. The national ratings are due out Thursday, and ABC figures to wind up with an average rating of between 5.0 and 6.0 for 11 telecasts, well above what U.S. World Cup organizer Alan Rothenberg said was the network's pre-World Cup projection of 4.0 to 4.5. Now, the crowds.

The business of playing the 15th World Cup soccer tournament has been completed, but the business of tallying its financial and artistic success will continue for some time. Joseph Blatter, general secretary of FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, expressed disappointment yesterday that the championship match between Brazil and Italy on Sunday had been decided by penalty kicks. Brazil emerged with its fourth world title after 120 minutes of scoreless soccer. "Naturally, this is not exactly what we in football expected from this final," Blatter said.

Personality conflicts. Contract disputes. Battles for playing time that maybe got a little too heated. All of the modern-day professional sports ailments once could be found on the U.S. soccer team. But with only a month remaining before the United States begins World Cup play against Czechoslovakia on June 10 in Florence, Italy, Peter Vermes figures that any turmoil is in the past. "It's getting close enough now that players are starting to realize what their roles are," said Vermes, the first American-born player ever to play for a European First Division club.

The United States will host the 1994 World Cup, soccer's world governing body announced yesterday in Zurich, Switzerland. And, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Sports Congress says the city has a good chance to become one of the 12 sites selected to host the month-long, 52- match tournament, one of the world's most lavish sports events. "This area has everything that is needed to run the World Cup properly. Now, we have a chance to show it," R. C. Staab, the vice-president of communications at the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau and a spokesman for the Sports Congress, said yesterday.

Negotiators from the U.S. Soccer Federation and its union are to meet with a federal mediator in Chicago today and try to resolve a dispute that may keep the regular players off the field for a World Cup qualifier next month. The sides, arguing over money and other issues, will meet in a hotel at O'Hare Airport. If an agreement is not reached by Feb. 1, the USSF says it will use replacement players for the Feb. 9 game at Trinidad and Tobago, the first of 10 in the final round of qualifying.

Alan Rothenberg, the new president of the United States Soccer Federation, yesterday denied published reports that Franz Beckenbauer, the coach of the World Cup champion West German team, already had been hired by the federation as an adviser. But he did not rule out the chance that Beckenbauer would be hired to assist in the revitalization of the U.S. program. "If there is a chance for somebody like Franz Beckenbauer to be involved in our program, it is something we should vigorously pursue," Rothenberg said at a news conference before the U.S. national team's consolation game against Sporting Lisbon of Portugal in the four-team Marlboro Cup at the Meadowlands.