VENTURA, Calif., — Day 2 in California featured another action-packed day for the Portland Timbers. With two training sessions on the books for Wednesday, players and coach spent the day on a rigid schedule. The day kicked off with a morning session on the campus of Oxnard College.
Strength and conditioning coach Karim Darqauoi led off things this morning with various warm-up activities and stretching before the session moved into passing drills, ball work and small-sided possession. Goalkeeper coach Adam Smith pulled the goalkeepers aside and ran them through a workout which included agility-focused exercises. Click here for photos.
After a break for lunch and a couple hours of down time, it was back to the training field for Wednesday’s afternoon session. Look for this type of daily schedule to continue this week, as head coach John Spencer has two-a-day training sessions lined up leading up to the Timbers’ first preseason match on Friday against Ventura County Fusion.
New faces in the crowd: The camp in Ventura has seen a flux of new faces inserted into the training group. In addition to the group of roster and non-roster players in attendance for Week 1 of preseason back in the Rose City, several players have joined the mix in So-Cal, including forwards Andres Florés, Brian Umony and Ryan Guy, midfielders Ian Sarachan and Rodrigo Lopez, defender Alo Bärengrub and recent draft selections Chris Taylor, Spencer Thompson, Raymundo Reza and Robby Lynch.
Take a number: With the final countdown on until the Timbers open their preseason exhibition schedule, the team released jersey numbers today. Some player’s numbers will be familiar to Timbers fans, especially those who have followed the team over the past two seasons. Click here to see which numbers players will be wearing in 2011.
