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The Portland Thorns opening the 2017 preseason with their first training of the year at Providence Park on Monday.
With all but Christine Sinclair (family matters) and Ashleigh Sykes (not joining the team until June), the Thorns began their training working on their conditioning, with goalkeepers Adrianna Franch, Britt Eckerstrom, and Emily Armstrong working on a variety of drills with Nadine Angerer, while the field players worked with Thorns assistant coaches for the first half of training, which including a variety of passing activities and small-sided keep-away games.
The goalkeepers joined the field players for larger sessions of keep-away for the second part of training. With many of the players coming off national team camps and matches, several of the players are coming into camp in form to start the preseason.
With only 10 training sessions with the complete team together before the next FIFA window, Parsons looks to emphasize building up the team as a unit. With little turnover from the 2016 NWSL Shield-winning team, the Thorns have already come into preseason in a better position than they did last season, a fact that both Parsons and Tobin Heath commented on in post-training interviews.
Parsons also updated the condition of Meg Morris, who he said was 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule.
Thorns Preseason Roster:
Goalkeepers (3): Emily Armstrong*, Britt Eckerstrom, Adrianna Franch
Defenders (9): Ellie Boon*, Meghan Cox*, Caroline Flynn#, Kelli Hubly*, Kendall Johnson, Meghan Klingenberg, Emily Menges, Katherine Reynolds, Emily Sonnett
Midfielders (7): Celeste Boureille, Dagny Brynjarsdottir, Amandine Henry, Lindsey Horan, Allie Long, Mana Shim, Mallory Weber
Forwards (6): Tobin Heath, Ashley Herndon*, Nadia Nadim, Christine Sinclair, Meg Morris, Hayley Raso
*Non-roster invitee
# 2017 NWSL College Draft pick