Portland Timbers Training Quotes and Notes: Draw the Lines

Update: Sebastian Rincon is on a training stint with an Argentine club currently.

The Portland Timbers trained at Jeld-Wen Field today in preparation for the turf of Seattle's CenturyLink Park, where they travel tomorrow for their first game in the 2013 MLS Playoffs. Today's practice started after a brief team meeting and saw the team go through their usual warm up period before it was closed to the press.

Practice, originally scheduled to be held at the team's Beaverton training facility, was moved Jeld-Wen to take advantage of both the turf and the football lines on the field, which were laid down in preparation for tomorrow's Portland State football game. Merritt Paulson tweeted that the Timbers had the lines added early:

@TimbersInsider we did. did it early and added yellow like tomorrow. think they would have practiced on lines otherwise?

— Merritt Paulson (@MerrittPaulson) November 1, 2013

After practice Michael Harrington confirmed that, as distracting as football lines may be on the pitch to the fans, they don't make much of a difference to the players.

On the field there are just a lot of other things that you are focusing on other than that.

Pa Modou Kah had a similar sentiment about the presence of football lines on the pitch.

Lines are lines, so it doesn't matter. That is for if you are looking for an excuse... When the game starts it is about the game. It's not about the lines because when the game is on you don't focus that much on the lines. That's why we have linemen and the referee. They should worry about the lines, not us. We should just go and do our job.

Injuries and Absences

Diego Valeri was in the team warm up again today, his second day in practice this week. This follows a now familiar pattern for Valeri of participating in practice for two days a week leading into each game as the team continues to manage the adductor strain that Valeri suffered two months ago in the Timbers' match against Real Salt Lake.

Maximiliano Urruti was also in the team warm up today. Urruti warmed up with the team yesterday for the first time since leaving the Timbers last match up with the Seattle Sounders thanks to a hamstring strain. Urruti looked fit in the warm ups today and could potentially travel with the team to Seattle, although Caleb Porter said on Tuesday that he would likely miss tomorrow's match.

Sebastian Rincon was again absent from practice today, making it over a week since he was last spotted with the team. Update: Rincon is on a training stint with an Argentine club currently.

Donovan Ricketts, who has been dealing with an injured thumb and went down briefly with an apparent leg injury in last weekend's regular season finale against Chivas USA, continued practicing as normal today. Ricketts has not missed any time this season due to injury, although he has missed two games due to international call-ups.