Portland Timbers Training Quotes and Notes: A Short One

The Portland Timbers practiced at their Beaverton training facility today as they finish their recovery from Sunday's match against the LA Galaxy. Only two days removed from their hard fought match against the LA Galaxy, the Timbers kept it short today, wrapping up their outdoor session after only forty minutes.

Practice started off with the usual stretching and warmups before the team broke into three groups of seven for 15 minutes of 5v2 keep away. The Timbers then switched over to a larger possession game in which one group of seven would have to keep the ball away from two men and pass the ball six times before passing to another group of seven in order to score a point.

After the early end to practice, a number of players stayed out on the pitch, taking shots on goal. Bravely, Diego Chara and Jose Adolfo Valencia both stepped into goal with Kalif Alhassan, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Sebastian Rincon, and Ben Zemanski taking shots. Trencito even went so far as to make several diving saves.

Injuries and Absences

Diego Valeri was once again riding an exercise bike on the sidelines of practice today. In his post-game remarks on Sunday, Caleb Porter mentioned that Valeri was still feeling some soreness after the match.

Brad Ring was also on the sidelines today thanks to a knock on his foot. Ring got kicked in training on Monday and was taken to get an x-ray of his foot which came back negative, according to Porter.

Brent Richards was also on the sidelines for practice today and did some stretching by himself, but mostly just observed practice.

Frederic Piquionne and Steven Evans both warmed up with the team today and participated in the whole practice, short as it was.

Mikael Silvestre also warmed up with the team, but split off to work one on one with John Cone afterward. Silvestre went through a number of increasingly physical drills with Cone and the trainers. After practice, Porter told the press that he did not expect Silvestre to be back this season and that the team was taking its time with his recovery to make sure that he is completely healthy for next year.

Practice Notes

It has been mentioned several times in the last few weeks how hard Will Johnson works in practice. This was more apparent than ever during the final possession game game of the day, when WJ was sprinting from end to end, trying to win the ball back for his team.

Steven Evans, who is now several weeks removed from a nasty ankle injury, was also getting after it in practice today. His level of effort really stood out on a relatively relaxed day and made it seem like he was trying to show something to the coaches as the season winds down.