Portland Timbers Training Quotes and Notes: The Ultimate Goal

The Timbers put in one last practice this morningbefore flying up to British Columbia for tomorrow's Cascadia Cup match against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Practice started late after the team got out of their usual day-before meeting around 10:20 and gradually made their way out to the pitch at Jeld-Wen Field.

Darlington Nagbe talked about his perception of the game tomorrow as a potentially playoff clinching match rather than a Cascadia Cup match.

We've never been to the playoffs before and I feel like making it to the playoffs for the first time and winning a championship is the ultimate goal, so it is definitely playoffs first.

Injuries and Absences

Diego Valeri trained with the team again today ahead of tomorrow's match. Valeri trained yesterday as well but missed practice in the first half of the week while recovering from last Sunday's match against the LA Galaxy. Yesterday Porter confirmed that Valeri would start and that the team would monitor him during the game for any soreness.

Mikael Silvestre hit the field early again today, doing some dribbling and passing with John Cone before joining the team for warmups.

Brad Ring, who missed Practice on Tuesday and Wednesday with a bruised foot, was back in warmups for the second day in a row.

Brent Richards was on the sidelines for practice again today, observing the proceedings.