BEAVERTON, Ore. — For most of its existence, the rhythms of the Portland Timbers’ Beaverton, Oregon, training center have been the same. Players arrive in the morning, prepare inside, and by the time they take the field, they’re joined by a collection of onlookers and support. Groundskeeping staff are preparing the grass. Staff and trainers guide their drills. Media is assembled to take in the sessions’ opening moments.
On Thursday, Timbers training took a step back toward that normal. After 16 months of media conducting weekly press conferences via Zoom meetings, reporters and videographers were back at the training center in person, covering the team’s media availability as they did before 2020’s COVID-19 shutdown.
“It’s like I blinked and two years passed,” head coach Giovanni Savarese said upon seeing the crowd. Seven people who otherwise wouldn’t have been in Beaverton were there for the occasion.
Savarese wasn’t the only member of the team pulled into the scrums. Midfielder Diego Chara and goalkeeper Steve Clark were also doing in-person media for the first time since March 2020. Back then, the team went through a typical preseason and two games at home before the world hit pause. Seeing press in person was normal. Since, the world’s been taking small steps to recapture what was.
That process has also been happening at the Timbers’ home in downtown Portland. Saturday’s game against FC Dallas will mark the first time since the pandemic response that the Timbers will be allowed to sell to capacity at Providence Park. Throughout the course of the last year-plus, the team played in front of empty stands, then limited capacity, and now a potentially full house. The Timbers’ sister team, Thorns FC, began welcoming their fans back in full on four days ago.
“I think it’s the right time to get back to normal,” Chara explained. “I’m happy that the stadium is going to be full. It’s great for us.”
Thursday in Beaverton was another part of that return. Since players began returning to the training center last spring, the environment has taken small steps forward. Initially players had to train alone, then in small groups. In time, the center’s full personnel were allowed to return. For most of 2021, the only missing pieces were the one on the periphery – things like media members who would come and conduct their interviews in person.
It’s a small thing. The Timbers have been able to conduct their core business without that part. Games have gone on and, as of the beginning of the 2021 seasons, fans began coming back to Providence Park. Those are two huge boxes that have been checked. But as is the case with the rest of the world, artifacts of our shutdown linger. In Beaverton, the absence of in-person media was one of them.
“I do miss you guys,” Savarese told the media at one point of today’s interviews. “In the facility? Definitely. You are a very important part of the game, and having you guys here, it’s a good feeling to see you all back again.”
All of Savarese, Chara and Clark were asked how it felt to have reporters. According to Clark, players “all pretty tired of Zoom.” Though the media scrums are unlikely to be the favorite part of any players’ lives, it is something that we routine, as well as a sign of what’s normal. There’s progress in speaking into new microphones.
“To see [the media] back in person,” Clark said, “it feels like life is getting back to normal, which is great.”
During Chara’s session, defender Bill Tuiloma snuck into the scrum. He asked a question, extending his water bottle as if it were a microphone. “How was training, today,” Tuiloma asked, once Chara’s laughing stopped. Chara got through his answer before laughing, with Tuiloma off to the locker room.
Maybe having media back in Beaverton isn’t a big thing, but it is a thing, and there’s value in reclaiming some of the things we lost. As Savarese said, this part of the process is “important.” At a minimum, it brought a moment of laughter into the players’ world.
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