Portland Timbers Training Quotes and Notes: Return to Real Salt Lake

The Portland Timbers practiced at their Beaverton training facility today before flying out to Utah for tomorrow night's fixture against Real Salt Lake. With today's session closed after the normal warmups, there was not much on offer from the team, although Caleb Porter did mention that they were planning on bringing some "twists" to their game plan against a now familiar opponent.

Injuries and Absences

Futty Danso, three weeks after injuring his foot during the team's friendly against Norwich City at the end of July, was back in training today. Futty has been reintroduced to the team this week, warming up with the team on Tuesday and Wednesday before appearing to take part in the whole practice today. Porter mentioned Futty as a potential starter tomorrow, despite saying earlier in the week that Futty would probably appear on the bench for the Timbers "because that's all we have."

Ben Zemanski fully participated in practice today after only warming up on Tuesday. Porter confirmed that he would travel with the team and raised the possibility of Zemanski playing at either right back or as a holding midfield, although the holding midfielder role seems much more likely with Alvas Powell showing strongly since being given his chance on the back line.

Will Johnson did not warm up with the team today, instead passing the ball back and forth with a trainer while the rest of the team started practice. As training closed to the press, Johnson headed indoors to continue his workout. When asked about his captain after practice, Porter confirmed that Johnson would not travel to Salt Lake, but did say that he could be available for next week's home game against Toronto FC.

Frederic Piquionne did not practice with the team today, but was again at the training facility, working indoors. Piquionne will not be traveling with the team according to Porter, who also said that Piquionne's sprained ankle was taking longer than expected to heal.

Jack Jewsbury watched today's warmups from the sidelines again before heading indoors to train. We did not get an update on Jewsbury, but earlier in the week Porter said that he was "out."

Trialists and Guest Players

The Timbers again had some of their academy players on hand for training today: Foster Langsdorf, Nike DeVera, Jacob Kempf, Anthony Macchione, and Alejandro Segovia. This group will probably travel with the team to RSL for Saturday's reserve match, given the number of injuries that the Timbers are currently dealing with.