Fascinating game in a lot of ways. Three of the goals came on penalty kicks, including the game-winner in stoppage time. Chivas played a man down for the last half hour. The LA crowd seemed as eager to cheer Blanco -- who scored two goals, both on PKs -- than to cheer the home team. The Fire remains the only unbeaten team in MLS.

Here's the game report from MLSnet.com.

But for all that, the bottom line is that the Sounders have a chance to pick up three points in the standings if they take care of business at home Saturday against Columbus.

Thinking outside the box makes my head hurt, so I went with the obvious today and asked coach Sigi Schmid how he feels about going against his former team this weekend: the Columbus Crew, 7:30 p.m., at Qwest Field. And that topic also is the focus of my story in our Friday paper.

"I have a lot of friends there," he said. "When you work with a staff for three years you obviously stay in contact. Because of the league rules you don’t want to be accused of tampering or anything like that, so you can’t stay in touch with the players. But there are a lot of players that I have known for a lot of years there."

We asked him about his decision to leave Columbus after leading them to the Supports Shield and MLS Cup: "It was hard. It was hard. Obviously it had taken us three years to put the team together. You can see even despite their record it’s still a quality team, a quality group. And winning a championship always puts it in a special place. But the way things happened, it is what it is. I’m here now, and so we move forward."

When Schmid was hired in Seattle, I asked him if he would have stayed there had Columbus management instantly offered the kind of contract that he thought he deserved.

This was his answer from those months ago:

“It was a situation in Columbus where things didn’t proceed as I thought they were going to proceed in our negotiations, especially early on in that stage. At that point, I wanted to look at what other opportunities are out there. I’m getting older, so maybe I’m a little more limited as to how many more years I can do this. When I was presented with the opportunity (in Seattle) and came out to visit, it just seemed like the right fit.”

Remembering that answer, I asked if that for all his feelings for all his friends among the players and staff in Columbus, if there also was some feeling that he hadn't been shown proper respect by the front office there.

"That’s a front office decision, and that’s the way the negotiations went," he said. "I try not to worry about that."

The Sounders trained at Qwest Field this morning, and the injury updates were generally good.

Both Freddie Ljungberg and Brad Evans said they expect to play Saturday against Columbus, assuming no setbacks. (Ljungberg, in fact, appeared to be feeling very good. He celebrated loudly when putting a volley into the back of the net, and then ended practice by filling in in goal.

Meanwhile, coach Sigi Schmid said that Zach Scott's lower abdominal strain likely will not land him on the injured reserve as previously assumed.

Schmid also said that Osvaldo Alondo (quadriceps strain) is coming along well, perhaps better than expected.

Even at that, the Sounders have two players on the IR -- defender Taylor Graham and keeper Chris Eylander -- so Schmid admitted that a new player could be added "if the right situation presents itself."

The Columbus Crew will arrive at Qwest Field on Saturday fresh from a 2-1 win Wednesday against the San Jose Earthquakes.

However, the apparently came at the price of
defensive midfielder Brian Carroll, who suffered what the team doctor called a "significant" injury to his right shoulder. He will be evaluated today, but surgery that could sideline him for months is considered likely.

Here's the MLS web report.

It's not quite Barca-ManU, but the Chicago Fire and Chivas USA will meet tonight in a rare pairing of MLS conference leaders ... and, of course, a game with Sounders implications.

With Seattle at home vs. slow-starting Columbus this weekend, there is every chance to pick up a needed two or three points in the standings, depedning on tonight's result.

Kickoff is a 7:30 p.m. and the game will be shown on ESPN2.

Here's a pregame release sent out by MLS:

For just the fifth time in a decade, two teams in sole possession of first place in their respective conferences will meet when Chivas USA hosts the Chicago Fire Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2. The old adage is that defense wins championships, but in the regular season, does offense rule? That question will be tested Thursday.

The Fire (4-0-6) are the only remaining undefeated team in Major League Soccer. The Fire lead the League in goals scored with 17, an average of 1.70 per game, and they have not been shut out. Brian McBride is tied for the League lead with six goals in 10 games. Mexican playmaker Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who will report for Mexico’s World Cup qualifiers next week, is as crafty as ever, providing a goal and five assists (tied for 2nd in the league), for the Fire.

Chivas USA coach Preki has his squad atop the Western Conference and top of the overall MLS table with a 7-1-3 record and 24 points. Chivas USA has allowed only six goals in 11 matches. Much credit goes to five-time MLS All-Star goalkeeper Zach Thornton, who has rejuvenated his career after playing just nine games in the past two seasons. He leads the League with six shutouts and a 0.55 goals against average. Chivas USA are 5-0-1 at home this season.

Current Chivas USA squad members Zach Thornton, Jesse Marsch, and Ante Razov all played for the Chicago Fire’s 1998 MLS Cup Championship team and defender Jim Curtin spent his first eight seasons with the Fire. The 1998 Fire are the only team to win MLS Cup in their inaugural season.

In the past 10 seasons, the only other meetings between two teams in sole possession of the conference leads occurred later in the season (records entering the match):

08/08/2004 LA Galaxy (9-5-6) 0, at MetroStars (8-6-5) 3
07/04/2006 D.C. United (10-1-5) 1, at FC Dallas (8-4-3) 0
07/22/2007 Houston Dynamo (10-5-3) 3, at New England Revolution (7-3-5) 3
07/04/2008 New England Revolution (9-4-3) 2, at LA Galaxy (6-5-3) 1

If you're planning to follow the Sounders down to their (big) game at Chivas on June 6 or their (Beckham)game at the Galaxy, you are invited to contact a group called SoCal Sound. It's an LA-based Sounders supporters group (regional sub-group of Emerald City Supporters) that is aimed at bringing big crowds to all Sounders games in LA.

Here's some of the info I received from them:

We strive for a lively, but family-friendly atmosphere, singing, standing, beating our drum, and waving our scarves whether our boys are winning, losing, or tied. We require no membership dues, but just encourage people to get to the games and have fun with us. We anticipate having shirts for sale soon. At our first game (4/18 vs Chivas USA), we had 80+ in one section - and it was beautiful!

*More general info about SoCal Sound can be found at: http://www.weareecs.com/groups/socal-sound/
The main push is for 6/6 Sat 7:30pm in LA (Carson, CA) at the Home Depot Center - vs Chivas USA.

We have set up an arrangement with Alaska Airlines so that flights are at 10% discount *from* any Alaska/Horizon Airlines city *to* any LA area airport 3 days before gameday, including gameday, and 3 days after gameday for the trip home. For the 6/6 game, the discount can only be applied on over-the-phone reservations (because they haven't set-up the web code yet), and they definitely are waiving the normal $15 fee for over-the-phone reservations. Call Alaska group reservations at 1-800-445-4435.
Monday-Friday: 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. (PT); Saturday: 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.

The code is CMB1000 and will not work on web reservations.

Game Tickets for 6/6 vs Chivas USA- 105 tickets are reserved for SSFC fans. $18 each + $5 per order (not per ticket). Call Julie 310 630 4586

*Note that for this game, it is a possibility that we will have a meet & greet with one of the sounders players after the game. Our Chivas USA ticket rep (Julie) has been in contact with the Sounders FO and has submitted an official request to have one of the players come to meet w/ us after the game. Originally, this was based upon having 80 people, but we've been asking them to consider it regardless of how many we have. We currently have 35 people, and want more!

-We will be meeting at 3 pm on the June 6 gameday in lot 6 of Home Depot Center and encourage everyone to get there around then to meet one another, enjoy some food, and practice our chants.

Game tickets for 8/15: vs. Galaxy - a full 284 tickets (a whole section!) are on hold for Sounders fans. $25 each. These are actually "$50 tickets", but we've been upgraded because we had too many people! We currently have 120 confirmed paid as of a few days ago, and this will be (barring any shenanigans by Beckham) Beckham's 1st MLS game back in LA - and we want to welcome him back. Call Sid: (310)-630-2236. Please refer to the ECS forum (weareecs.com) for pregame meetup info closer to gameday.

*The Socal Sound main base of operations is a "socal sound" sub-forum on the Emerald City Supporters forum.

The forum is the best to get in the middle of things, but our email is socalsound@gmail.com