McBride negotiations to return already under way

On his way out of Toyota Park on Tuesday, with the contents of his locker in a plastic bag, Fire forward Brian McBride stopped to talk about his future.

The Fire holds an option to pick up McBride's contract for next season, but the reality is more complicated than that.

There will be negotiations. In fact, McBride said his agent, brother Matthew, already has had one session.

"It went pretty well," McBride said. "You never know until something's done. I'm sure people can tell you plenty of stories about different things.

"The one thing I've learned in the past is never think anything is done or not done until it's actually on paper.

"Or even if it's on paper," he said with a laugh.

He feels he has more soccer left, and his teammates and coaches agree. But McBride, 37, knows his options are limited.

"I'm not going to be going anywhere in MLS," he said. "I can say that for sure. But we'll see what happens with the whole prospect."

Would he go back to England?

"I don't know," McBride said. "For me and my family that would be a pretty difficult move. We have to think about our livelihood, of course, but I would say that would be pretty hard to do."

McBride made $385,333 this season, according to the MLS Players Association, second on the team behind Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the team designated player who was paid nearly $3 million.

The Timex of MLS: MLS has long been known as a physical league, where defenders show as much finesse as a hippo in a jewelry store.

Brian McBride has the bruises to prove it.

"I'm pretty battered up at the end of this season," he said. "But my body recovers pretty well. After this game it's taken a lot longer. These three games this postseason I took a pretty good beating. I look forward to getting that rest."

That's just part of playing in MLS. Fire coach Denis Hamlett spent all season complaining that McBride and Cuauhtemoc Blanco get fouled way too often and defenders get away with it.

In the conference championship game, Real Salt Lake committed 23 fouls to the Fire's 8, but no cards were given for persistent infringement.

"Oh, yeah, the referees allow a lot more," McBride said.

He offered an example.

"It's funny, the conversation with probably about 10 minutes left in the L.A. game with Gregg Berhalter," McBride said of his former U.S. national team teammate, who also played first-division soccer in Europe. "He came through the back of me and elbowed me in the back. I got up.

"For the most part Gregg doesn't think he ever fouls anybody. And the referee called it, and he goes, 'What?!' And I go, 'C'mon, Gregg.' And he goes, 'Well in this league I can't believe what I can get away with. I didn't know it was going to be a foul.'

"And I started laughing, because it was so true. There's a lot more allowed, but that's the game. You just have to adapt, deal with it."

Who knew C.J. could shoot?: When the Fire and Real Salt Lake went to penalty kicks Saturday, the fifth Fire player to step forward was team captain C.J. Brown, a veteran defender with 3 career goals.

The Fire Original made his PK like a forward.

"That was my first PK," Brown said. "I take PKs all the time in practice. I knew when I walked up there people would be going, Aw, it's C.J."

Goodbye, Temo?: Cuauhtemoc Blanco is signed with Veracruz of the Mexican second division to start playing in January. The contract has a clause that would allow him to return to Chicago after the World Cup, but early indications are that Blanco won't be back.

"It was great," goalkeeper Jon Busch said of the famous Mexican forward. "It was fun. He was good in the locker room with the guys. I think here for the first time he probably got to decompress and be a normal human being rather than living in a bubble like he probably did forever in Mexico. I think as he got more comfortable you saw that come out here.

"On the field obviously his vision is by far the best in the league, and we'll definitely miss that. We're going obviously to have to find another creative player with that kind of capacity. - But it is what it is. He's moved on.

"C.J. (Brown) and I talked about it quite a bit. It's always fun to watch the circus anytime around him because wherever we went nobody wanted to see us.

"Everybody wanted to see him, and it was kind of cool to be able to just sit back and watch and not worry about people mobbing us. It was fun to see. It was fun to be a part of."

In 62 matches with the Fire, Blanco scored 16 goals and added 26 assists.