One thing Sounders fans can look forward to on Saturday is their first look at Chicago Fire star Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

Blanco is the Fire's designated player, brought in at a cost of almost $3 million -- more than twice what the Sounders are paying Freddie Ljungberg.

And Sounders coach Sigi Schmid makes Blanco sound worth every penny, offering this brilliant description after Thursday training at Starfire.

“He’s a butterfly," Schmid said. "He floats around the field. He finds different spaces, different places. He doesn’t go anywhere real fast. But he gets to all parts of the field, touches all blades of grass on the field, and the moment you take your eye off of him for a second, he packs up, he’s 15-20 yards away from you. The thing that’s impressed me since he’s been here is I never knew his left foot was as good as it was. Watching him on TV, his left foot is very good. He’s very competent that way. If you get tight to him he knows how to use his body. If you’re after him he’s a good passer of the ball. So he’s a player that makes them more dangerous because he see’s those things. He’s insightful.”

Chicago forward Brian McBride today was named MLS player of the month for April.

McBride scored four goals in four games in helping the Fire to a 1-0-3 record.(And yes, he got my vote. No. 2 on my ballot was Casey Conner of Colorado, who had four goals in April, including a hat trick in the Rapids' 3-2 win at LA.)

McBride's selection means that the players of the month for the first two months of this MLS season will share the Toyota Field pitch Saturday as Seattle meets Chicago, because Sounders forward Fredy Montero won the award for March.

Here's the full release from the MLS website.

The Sounders have concluded their Thursday training ... all except for midfielder Freddie Ljungberg.

Ljungberg missed training again today, but is expected back this afternoon after taking a few days off to attend to his grandmother's funeral in Sweden. Coach Sigi Schmid said that Ljungberg will train when he reports in today, then will train with the team Friday morning and fly out with them Friday afternoon when they leave for Chicago.

Otherwise, Schmid also said all the other expected players should be ready to go too, even those who played extensively in Tuesday's U.S. Open Cup win over Real Salt Lake.

Chicago also had a mid-week game -- a 2-1 loss last night to Club America. And Schmid said that game -- obviously one day closer to the weekend -- could be a bit more of a factor. But any real significance could depend on how many regulars played for how long, or even how seriously they treated the game.

“With (the players) who played on Tuesday I think they’re fine," Schmid said. "Riley is pretty fit, so that probably looks good from his standpoint. And Zakuani, we’re trying to build his fitness, and I don’t think the 60 minutes that he played is going to affect him negatively in Chicago this weekend.”

“If (Chicago) wouldn’t have played last night, they would’ve practiced. It’s sort of the same thing for us; if we wouldn’t have played we would’ve trained. A game takes a little more out of you then training for sure, but it’s sort of the same thing, the situation. And different guys react to it better. Younger guys generally respond to that better than older guys.”