I have received word that the Sounders will be wearing their blue kits in public for the first time Saturday night against the Galaxy.

I don't know why. The Galaxy has a navy blue kit and a white kit, and it doesn't seem that the green jerseys would conflict with either. But that's what the Sounders say is planned.

The weather in Southern California is just about perfect today, and something similar is expected to remain through the Sounders-Galaxy game on Saturday night.

However, the pitch could be another matter. ... Which is to say, there was no completed pitch when I passed by Home Depot Center around midday.

Apparently the natural grass field was lost under a sea of dirt brought in for a motocross event there. So as of noon Friday, work crews were still laying down strips of sod and the edges of the field were nothing but dirt.

As my neighbors know only too well, I'm no lawn expert; but that seems a little rushed: dirt and strips of grass one day, important professional soccer match the next.

But we'll see. Plus, there may not be that much to lose, considering the Sounders seemed to have plenty of trouble keeping their feet on the previous pitch during their two earlier visits against Chivas USA.

Meanwhile, a quick look ahead to the game:

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (7-5-8; 29 pts.)
AT LOS ANGELES GALAXY (7-3-10; 31)
8 p.m. Saturday, Home Depot Center; Carson, Calif.
TV: KONG 6/16.
Radio: 97.3 FM (in Spanish on 1210 AM).

Head-to-head: The teams played to a 1-1 draw on May 10 at Qwest Field.

Team leaders: For Seattle – G 9 Fredy Montero; A 6 Montero/Nate Jaqua; S 60 Montero; SOG 21 Montero. For L.A. – G 9 Landon Donovan; A 5 Donovan/Mike Magee; S 38 Alan Gordon; SOG 18 Donovan.

Coach Sigi Schmid scouting report: “You’re looking at Eddie Lewis, (Gregg) Berhalter, (David) Beckham, (Landon) Donovan, people like that, and (Donovan) Ricketts in goal. There is a lot of international experience. … They have got individual players who have been explosive. They are a team, right now, that is confident. And I think that more than anything else, that confidence is what is carrying them through.”

Notes: The Galaxy is in second place in the Western Conference, but Seattle would pass them with a win tonight. … Donovan is questionable due to swine flu. Seattle defender Jhon Kennedy Hurtado is out due to yellow-card accumulation. … This is the third straight road game in league play for the Sounders, who have lost two in a row and are winless in their last three MLS matches. Seattle hasn’t scored in four straight games. … L.A. has won five and drawn once in its last six games. This will be the first league home game for L.A.’s David Beckham since his return from AC Milan. … Sounders coach Sigi Schmid began his pro coaching career with the Galaxy, going 79-53-38 and winning the 2002 MLS Cup. Sounders players who have worn the L.A. colors are Peter Vagenas (2000-2008), Tyrone Marshall (2002-07), Nathan Sturgis (2006-07) and Nate Jaqua (2007).

Next: 7 p.m. Thursday, New England Revolution, Qwest Field; ESPN2.

Cobi Jones walks past LA Galaxy associate head coach Dave Sarachan after training today ... and coughs.

Sarachan looks at Jones and both start laughing.

There's no doubt about the top story today as the Galaxy concluded training for their Saturday game against the Sounders: Landon Donovan has swine flu.

Neither Donovan nor David Beckham were at practice today at Home Depot Center. Coach Bruce Arena gave Beckham the day off after he traveled back from Amsterdam yesterday from English national team duty. However, while Beckham is expected to play tomorrow -- although Arena didn't fully confirm it -- Donovan seems less likely -- although Arena didn't fully rule it out.

"I haven’t seen him today, but like anybody else who has the flu, depending on how quickly he can turn it around he might be an option," Arena said. "If it’s how I felt, he’s playing. It’s certainly on how Landon feels and what the doctors tell me."

Arena said the worst is over for Donovan, that he isn't a threat to spread the flu among his teammates, and that his availability will depend on how he feels at gametime.

"I haven’t gone to medical school, so I don’t know the exact how it happened, but it happened," he said. "We had the flu run through the team last week in Boston. We took the necessary precautions, had a couple of staff members who were out a couple of days on medication and everything’s fine.

"... The little understanding I have of this flu is it’s a flu that is very manageable. I think the worst part of it is the word ‘swine.’ People tend to panic. I’m told there are other flues that are much more difficult to deal with. My guess – this is my guess, I haven’t been in a lab all night working this out – is that he probably got contaminated last week when a couple of other staff members did in Boston, where a couple of people didn’t feel good on Friday and it carried through. I think that’s exactly the case with Landon as well. And it’s not infectious – it’s well passed that stage – and there’s no issues on our team or anything else."

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out, because the Galaxy with Beckham and Donovan are the glamour team of MLS. And the Galaxy without Beckham and Donovan are pretty much indistinguishable from the Charleston Battery.

Meanwhile, Sounders coach Sigi Schmid sounds like he expects to see Donovan.

“I do not know if he is going to play or not play," Schmid said after practice today in a quote provided by the club. "Obviously, he played down in Mexico and he already had the symptoms there. So, I am not anticipating him not playing. I am anticipating him playing.”

The Sounders get one last local practice today at Starfire. But if my plane is right on time and the LA freeways aren't too bad, I might be at Galaxy practice instead.

Before heading out, I asked Sounders coach Sigi Schmid what it would be like to coach a player like David Beckham, someone who is not only the face of the team, but to some degree is intended to be the face of the league. Someone, frankly, who you can't really treat like any other player because he so clearly isn't just any other player. (Which was sort of the point of my story today.)

“It’s different challenges all the time," Schmid said. "Sometimes it is the integration of a couple players. Sometimes it is an individual player like that. You just have to make decisions. I remember reading a coach of a famous English team saying: ‘No decisions are tough decisions as long as you make them for the best of the team.’ It doesn’t mean they aren’t hard. It just means they are easy decisions because you are doing them for what’s good for the team.”