How much will Fire give up to get McBride in uniform?

If your team was off to a 6-3-1 start and second in MLS in scoring, would you want to trade for a nearly 36-year-old target striker?

If you're the Fire and that player is Arlington Heights native Brian McBride, the answer is a resounding yes. Not only can McBride still contribute savvy and scoring on the field, he could draw more fans to the Toyota Park stands and attention from the Chicago-area media.

Nobody doubts his influence in the locker room or on the practice pitch, either.

"We want him to be here. We've stated that," Fire technical director Frank Klopas said.

What is reasonable to give up for McBride, who is coming home to finish his career after 4½ years in England with Fulham? Toronto FC gets the first shot at McBride, according to MLS rules, so the teams are talking trade.

"There's always going to be some players involved," Klopas said. "The question is which players."

Want some names? Though Justin Mapp hasn't lived up to fans' high hopes, he is a quick and dangerous player when on his game. Considering Mapp is only 23 years old, Toronto would be extracting a high price from the Fire for a player likely to only play 1-2 seasons. And who would replace Mapp on the left side of the midfield? The Fire has the least depth at midfield, especially wing players.

Chicago has plenty of numbers at forward already, and some fans are down on leading scorer Chad Barrett, believing he should have even more goals than 5, though he is tied for third in the league. But again, Fire management probably wouldn't want to give up a 23-year-old starter for a player already retired from the national team and prone to serious injuries.

Would Toronto take backup forward Andy Herron or first-round draft pick Patrick Nyarko instead, even though Nyarko (remember him from February?) has yet to see first-team action?

Wilman Conde would seem to be available and be a good acquisition for Toronto, but the Fire would risk Conde being sent on to its arch-nemesis, New York. Could team owner Andrew Hauptman put his personal feelings aside to do this deal?

"It might seem like Toronto holds the cards. They do in one way, but they really don't, because at the end of the day it's got to make sense for us too," Klopas said. "We want him here, but it just depends on what players they're asking for, and we'll go from there."

There's also the question of McBride's salary. A big name like that could command designated-player status, as Claudio Reyna did when he came back across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. But the Fire already has one in Cuauhtemoc Blanco and would have to trade for another DP slot as well as trading for McBride, if McBride were to expect DP money.

"We're trying to make something work out, and we'll just keep working on it," Klopas added.

If you still need to know why Klopas is just going to keep working on it, go to www.fulhamfc.com and check out the video salute to McBride and his 40 goals for the London club. He's been a U.S. Soccer and Craven Cottage "Hero." Maybe he can be the Fire's hero, too.

This time it's for real

After playing friendlies against three of the world's best soccer teams -- England, Spain and Argentina -- the United States national team starts its 2010 World Cup qualifying this weekend with the first of two games against lowly Barbados.

It's the start of a long process for the U.S. that the team hopes will end in November 2009 with one of CONCACAF's three guaranteed bids to the World Cup hosted by South Africa.

"I think we're getting stronger," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said after Sunday's Argentina game. "We're understanding what it takes to play in the better games, and I think that even though Barbados is a different opponent, we understand how to play together as a team, we feel good about the depth that we have, and these are things that we are building to put us in the right direction."

The commish speaks

Women's Professional Soccer league commissioner Tonya Antonucci met the media at halftime of Saturday's Fire game, speaking mainly about player allotment.

Antonucci said the league hopes to allocate three women's national team players to each league team before the Olympics in August. Those picks will be made at a meeting sometime in July in which players tell the league what cities they want to play in, and the teams request certain players, then they hammer out some decisions.

The rest of the players will be dispersed through a 4-round to 6-round draft after the Olympics.

The league hopes to attract foreign players such as Brazil's Marta, who is out of contract as of July 1.

"She's a league-changing, game-changing player, and I'm sure Chicago would like to have her," Antonucci said. "… What we are hearing is that she is going to be interested in talking to us."

Chicago's team, the Red Stars, is one of seven teams in the league, which opens play in 2009, but the league hopes for an eighth and could expand to 10 teams in 2010, and 12 in the next few years, Antonucci said.

Holes in the defense

Brandon Prideaux's red card Saturday night against D.C. United means the right back will miss the Fire's next MLS game, Sunday at FC Dallas. On the other side of the defense, left back Gonzalo Segares will miss the next two weeks after being called to national team duty by his native Costa Rica.

This means C.J. Brown could see his first action of the season after rehabbing an injury, and 2007 starter Dasan Robinson also could also get the call in the back for Fire coach Denis Hamlett.

-- Orrin Schwarz