Portland Timbers Training Quotes and Notes: New Week, New Lineup

The Portland Timbers got back to training today after their Sunday night match against the Seattle Sounders. In an open session at the team's Beaverton training facility, the Timbers went through a regeneration routine for the weekend's starters and a short field game for the reserves.

With so many players out injured, the Timbers enlisted the help of their academy teams to fill out the numbers for today's training session. Both the U-16's and U-18s were on hand for the day's practice and held a session of their own after the Timbers' first team had wrapped things up.

Training started off with a quick team warm-up before most of the Timbers' starters split off from the group to head indoors. Alvas Powell, however, stayed outside for some one on one coaching from Sean McAuley on his defensive positioning. McAuley had a whole group of academy players that he essentially used as movable cones for Powell to react to in different situations. As he dismissed the academy players, McAuley told them they had done a good job before noting "you never scored though in a ten on one."

At the other end of the pitch, the reserves started off with a 6 on 6 possession drill before appropriating a few coaches and academy players to fill out a short field game of 7 on 7 plus keepers. Diego Chara, who was suspended for the Seattle match, worked with the reserves for approximately forty minutes before being pulled to join the starters indoors.

Injuries and absences

After rolling his ankle while trying to avoid a flailing overhead kick from Clint Dempsey during Sunday night's game against the Sounders, Jack Jewsbury was on the sidelines for practice today. Jewsbury spent most of the session riding an exercise bike on the sidelines before heading indoors. According to Caleb Porter, Jewsbury will likely miss this Friday's match against Real Salt Lake.

Will Johnson, who has been out since the Timbers' Open Cup loss to RSL, was back in the warmups with the rest of the team today. As the rest of the team started their possession drills, WJ worked on some passing with a trainer for the bulk of practice before running some laps of the field as practice wrapped up. Caleb Porter confirmed after practice that Johnson had suffered an avulsion fracture in his shoulder and that the team was proceeding carefully with him to avoid further injury. Johnson looked to be holding his arm gingerly at the start of warmups, but by the time practice concluded he was moving freely.

Ben Zemanski, who missed practice on Friday and only warmed up with the team on Saturday, was again limited to the warmups today, heading indoors after they concluded. Zemanski played for four minutes plus stoppage time on Sunday and after the match said that he was 80% fit, according to Porter.

Bright Dike and David Horst both took part in the full practice today after their long recoveries from injury. Both will play in Saturday's reserve match according to Porter, the team's first since August 4th, but will not be in the eighteen this weekend. Porter mentioned that he expects to have them back in "the next couple of weeks."

Futty Danso, who is recovering from a foot injury suffered against Norwich City in July, took part in warmups today for the first time since his injury. According to Porter, Futty is not expected to be able to play 90 minutes by Friday, but he will be on the bench for the Timbers.