Portland Timbers started preseason training camp this week. Players reported on Monday for some general fitness tests, and then proceeded to play small sided games interspersed throughout fitness and conditioning drills the rest of the week. All signed players are in town, though David Horst and Sal Zizzo are recovering from injuries and not practicing with the team. Homegrown signing Brent Richards was held out of practice Thursday and Friday due to a quad strain. There are a few trialists in camp, midfielder Franck Songo'o from Cameroon and American goalkeeper Joe Bendik, in addition to the non-roster players picked up in the drafts earlier this month. Andrew Jean-Baptiste is guaranteed a contract through his Generation Adidas deal, while second round pick Brendan King and all four supplemental picks must earn their contracts.
The story of the week has to be Jose Adolfo Valencia not training with the team. He was with the team Tuesday, but has not been seen after he appeared at the team store to sign autographs. Much speculation as to the reasons for his absence abounds, with rumors thrown about from influenza to leukemia, but with no official word from the team concerning specifics we are left in the dark.
We did get a cryptic tweet from Merritt Paulson on Wednesday (the first day of Valencia's absence): "Sports can be a cruel, cruel bitch", which gave the fear mongering over his absence validity. Fans and media were given a generic explanation for his absence Wednesday, "medical testing."
We got a few quotes in the Oregonian Friday morning from Gavin Wilkinson: "... if there's one or two small red flags, you need to do your homework. There may have been a few small red flags that have been raised ... I can't say he's going to be back on the field Monday until we come up with all the final results from the testing that we have been doing."
And of course @merrittpaulson followed things up with a great reaction to the hysteria (I'm looking at you Stumptown Footy): "on-demand generation wants now now now. when club appears not forthcoming, there are usually good reasons...trust me. its players first". Of course this put the yappers into hysterics, but they had been rightfully put in their place.
The second major story coming out of camp this week is the announcement of new assistant coach. Longtime PTFC fans will remember defender Cameron Knowles, who played under Gavin Wilkinson for the final four years of the USL era. Knowles replaces Trevor James, joining Amos Magee and Mike Toshack on the coaching staff. He is a native of New Zealand like Gavin, went to Akron (like Darlington Nagbe) and was a member of the inaugural 2005 Real Salt Lake roster. Cameron spent last season playing for L'Impact de Montreal in the NASL.
Jack Jewsbury missed practice Friday but not because he failed any medical tests. Captain Jack and his wife had their second daughter, so a hearty congratulations to the Jewsbury family is in order. I hope you take the weekend off Jack.
According to @geoffreyCarnold, Mamadou Danso (hereafter to be referred to as "Futty") and Jorge Perlaza received their green cards, and Diego Chara will receive his in days, freeing up three international roster slots I think everyone assumed they would be filling for a while, so this is a very nice surprise. Our wonderful owner's twitter feed also tells us there may be a fourth in the works. It is really great to see players taking these steps to help the team acquire new international talent. The meaningless statistical question of the week is: Will Colombians net more first team minutes than Americans this year? I am going to guess not, but that the margin will be slim.
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