Fire to bask in national spotlight

It's the kind of marquee matchup that sells out stadiums, draws bigger-than-usual TV ratings and helps leagues draw valuable attention in busy media markets.

In other words, it's not a bad way for MLS to build on the World Cup's success in this country.

For the first time in front of the Fire's home fans, new acquisitions Nery Castillo and Freddie Ljungberg are expected to play Sunday night (8 p.m., ESPN2) under the bright lights on the Toyota Park pitch.

In ML, only New York can put an even more star-studded team on the field, which the Red Bulls will do Sunday. Thierry Henry has already joined Juan Pablo Angel on a potent New York front line, but Rafael Marquez is expected to make his MLS debut in Chicago after signing Monday.

It's the new MLS, a result of the collective bargaining agreement signed in March that allows teams to sign up to three designated players instead of the previous limit of one. When the summer transfer window opened, the Fire and New York jumped through in a way they couldn't in the past.

"I don't think it's a fundamental shift," said Fire executive Javier Leon after the team introduced Castillo to the media. "I just think it's just a natural progression of the designated player rule. I think that's what happened. It obviously started with having that ability, and it was (David) Beckham that was the player that came. And now every team has the ability to sign three players. It's just a natural shift."

Part of the reason the Fire attracted Castillo was the recommendation of former Fire DP Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

"It's almost a self-fulfilling situation," added Leon, who is temporarily assuming team president duties after Dave Greeley resigned this week. "So when Blanco comes and tells everybody in Mexico, 'Listen, the league is a pretty challenging league, it's not an easy league,' I think that players now come here and it's no longer thought of as, 'OK, I'm just going to go there because my career is about to be over.' "

It's reminiscent of the old North American Soccer League days, when Karl-Heinz Granitza and Pato Margetic would lead the Chicago Sting against the New York Cosmos of Pele and Franz Beckenbauer.

Of course, the NASL eventually folded when player salaries got out of hand. MLS has rules in place to make sure it doesn't repeat the NASL mistakes. Signing aging-but-popular veterans has its place, but the league also wants to find talented young Americans and can do so in a way the NASL never could dream of in the 1970s.

"I don't think we're going to get rid of the salary cap anytime soon," Leon said. "So I think that's always going to be there. We also have to place more of an emphasis on development."