Portland Timbers Training Quotes and Notes: Errybody Wearing Boots

The Portland Timbers resumed their usual practice schedule today with a quick but intense recovery session at the team's Beaverton training facility. With the long weekend following Friday's 2-2 draw against the Houston Dynamo, the Timbers had their full team out on the pitch for at least part of the day's practice session.

After their usual warmups, the Timbers split into four groups with two at a time running through a passing, dribbling, and shooting circuit on the periphery of the field, while the other two groups faced off in the center of the pitch, trying to score on four smaller goals.

Following several repetitions of the circuit, the Timbers' starters from Friday headed indoors to continue their recovery session while the rest of the team stayed on the pitch and lined up in a 7v7 short field match with keepers. With the teams largely split between T2 loanees and first team bench players, the attacking trio of Fanendo Adi, Maximiliano Urruti, and Dairon Asprilla were able to assert themselves on the game nicely.

The Timbers' newest acquisition, Michael Seaton was on hand for today's training session, his first session spent with the first team that was open to the press. Although he was not exactly a goal scoring machine in the short field matches, Seaton seemed to have forged a quick understanding with his T2 teammates, getting into good positions repeatedly. In the close quarters of the short field match, Seaton's main weapon when taking on a defender one on one was mostly neutralized, but it was clear that he likes to push the ball past his defender and go at goal.

Injuries and Absences

Ben Zemanski and Andrew Weber were on the sidelines of training today, working with fitness coach Nick Milonas on their respective returns to fitness.

Zemanski, who has been working his way back from a torn ACL suffered in preseason this year, could potentially rejoin practice in approximately eight weeks, Caleb Porter told the press after practice wrapped up. Of course, Porter pointed out, after that Zemanski will still need to return to match fitness before the Timbers even consider playing him in a game, making it very unlikely that he will be able to return this season.

Weber, meanwhile, is returning from a series of back spasms that held him out of the Timbers' last two matches. Porter also gave a potential timeline for him, with the backup keeper hopefully returning to practice on Wednesday of this week if things go as planned.