Portland Timbers Training Quotes and Notes: Prep Time

With their match against the Seattle Sounders tomorrow looming large, the Portland Timbers practiced this morning at Jeld-Wen Field. After another late start, likely due to a team meeting, the Timbers hit the pitch for their usual warmups before closing practice.

After practice, Caleb Porter talked about Seattle's quick turnaround as opposed to the Timbers's full week off.

Seattle's had a couple of days to prepare for us and it is not ideal for them, especially coming off of a loss and having to figure things out. We've had all week to prepare for them. We've had week to talk to our guys about what we're going to do, where we can have success, where we need to do week to manage them, so I am real confident that the guys are going to come out and have a good performance.

Porter talked about the prospect of playing with only four days off from a coach's perspective.

It's not ideal to have to play Wednesday-Sunday. It reduces your preparation time, it reduces your recovery time, and to compound things, if you are coming off with a loss where you have to figure out changes and turn your group around. I know it has probably not been a fun three or four days for [Sigi Schmid]. In some ways I feel for him, because he is a guy that I respect, a guy I like, he's a great coach. I know what he is going through.

Will Johnson talked about the turnaround between games from a player's perspective.

If it was me, I would want to get back on the field right away. I think we want to get back on the field. We've had five really good games in a row now, so we're anxious to get back out there and keep our momentum going as well. I think both teams are just looking forward to getting out here and playing.

Injuries and Absences

Diego Valeri warmed up with the team for the second day in a row this morning. Valeri has been dealing with soreness from an adductor strain suffered a last month, most recently limiting him to a substitution appearance in the Timbers 2-2 draw against The Vancouver Whitecaps last Sunday.

Darlington Nagbe was also in today's warmups. Despite being called "day to day" by Porter following Wednesday's practice, Nagbe has not shown any signs of injury in the limited portions of practice open to the press this week and has not missed warmups at all.

Donovan Ricketts was again training with the team today. Although it was revealed that he has a "thumb injury", as Porter referred to it, Ricketts has been dealing with the injury for some time now and looks likely to get the start against Seattle.

Alvas Powell, Ryan Johnson, and Rodney Wallace all continued their absences for international duty. Johnson played 85' for the Jamaican National Team yesterday in their 2-0 loss to the USMNT, while Powell and Wallace did not see the field for Jamaica and Costa Rica respectively.

Mikael Silvestre continued warming up with the team today. Silvestre has been off and on in participating in the team warmups for the last several weeks as he returns from early-season knee surgery.

Brent Richards was again on the sidelines today, this time spending some time juggling as soccer ball as he observed practice.