It's in my experience that most MLS teams will undergo about 3-4 pre-season MLS games prior to the regular season starting. At least official pre-season friendly games, if that makes any sense. The Timbers look to be aiming a lot higher with their pre-season count.
Of course, being a new expansion team with a large influx of new team mates is an obvious reason. I'm glad to see John Spencer and Gavin Wilkinson recognizing that this new team absolutely needs a lot of immediate playing time together. As such for the month of February the Timbers will play six games, plus a Cascadia tournament in March.
Here's February's breakdown:
Portland Timbers 2011 Preseason Match Schedule (subject to change):
Friday, Feb. 4: Match vs. Ventura County Fusion (PDL) at Ventura College, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 6: Match vs. San Jose Earthquakes
Tuesday, Feb. 8: Match vs. TBA
Saturday, Feb. 19: Match vs. Houston Dynamo
Wednesday, Feb. 23: Match vs. TBA
Saturday, Feb. 26: Match vs. Sporting Kansas City
Supposedly, the Timbers will also be playing against the LA Galaxy and Montreal Impact at some point, although no word on whether or not that tournament has fallen apart.