The Portland Timbers held training this morning at their Beaverton facility. It was yet another closed session, as will all sessions be for the foreseeable future. At the end of the session today, all players except the goalkeepers left the pitch as a unit, instead of the usual lingering to get in some extra work.
Mike Fucito, Jack Jewsbury, Steven Smith and David Horst all trained as normal today. Steven Smith has yet to leave for his wedding, and Kris Boyd has yet to return from his. Eric Brunner continues to deal with concussion symptoms and is not yet clear to train.
The Timbers were also missing the five players currently away on international duty -- Jake Gleeson got a cap for New Zealand in a 2-1 World Cup Qualification win over Papua New Guinea today (which for us was yesterday). Futty Danso played 90 minutes for The Gambia in their draw against Morocco on Saturday, also a World Cup qualifier.
More notes, plus interviews with John Spencer and Jack Jewsbury, after the jump.
Steve Purdy started for El Salvador on Saturday as well, in an international friendly against Honduras at RFK stadium. Lovel Palmer did not appear for Jamaica this weekend, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Rodney Wallace played for Costa Rica this weekend.
MLS reserve keeper Brian Rowe continues to train with the team. He and Troy Perkins and Joe Bendik finished their session by aiming long drop kicks at the FieldTurf logo about two thirds of the way up the artificial field from the goal they were kicking from. Perkins was the only one to hit the target, although the other guys got very close at times.
Quotes
John Spencer
Jack Jewsbury