After playing in the fall with Hoffenheim's U-19 team, American Charles Renken is returning to MLS where he will join the Portland Timbers of MLS.

The international transfer window close a couple days ago. This doesn't mean too much, but it is a milestone in that MLS teams can no longer actively seek in-contract trades with other teams outside MLS. Still, the roster freeze date isn't until March 1st so we may yet still see more moves made, even if it isn't Juan David Duque (Franck Songo'o?

When I started this site back in 2009, I had expected the site to devote a significant amount of ink to the transfer market and the finances involved in buying and selling players. Over time the focus has shifted to marketing, promotions, broadcast and other business issues facing soccer in the United States.

Finally under a month to go until the Timbers kick off the 2012 season! Currently Portland has 8 players who are not signed to contracts that are fighting for 4 spots. The break down of the 26(27 with Valencia) spots is as follows:

Keepers: 2 - Troy Perkins and Jake Gleeson

Defenders: 10 - Eric Brunner, Futty Danso, Lovel Palmer, Mike Chabala, David Horst, Rodney Wallace, Steve Purdy, Christ Taylor, Andrew Jean-Baptiste and Hanyer Mosquera.

The Portland Timbers beat the Chicago Fire 2-0 over the course of 120 minutes of play today in the Timbers' final preseason game before returning to Portland. Franck Songo'o continued his impressive preseason form, assisting on goals by Eric Alexander and Jorge Perlaza.

In the first half, the Timbers fielded what looked like a reserve side backstopped by Troy Perkins.

The Portland Timbers were welcomed home to the Rose City by a slight drizzle and some short field, 9v9 scrimmaging. New signing Franck Songo'o was on display, looking dangerous as a left midfielder and sporting bright orange shoe laces that could probably be seen from space while Charles Renken got his first taste of training in Portland.

Following Kris Boyd's official introduction, the Portland Timbers held a closed practice beneath cloudy skies at Jeld-Wen Field. Boyd joined the team for his first practice as a Timber and seemed to fit in right away during the team's warm-up sessions. From the moment the team was on the pitch Boyd looked at ease and spent time chatting with Eric Brunner as the team did their early running.

Today's Portland Timbers practice was an open one, meaning we got our first look at Kris Boyd on the field.

The Timbers trialists were all still present and taking part fully in the practice. Darlington Nagbe, Sal Zizzo, and Lovel Palmer worked on their rehabilitation today and both Zizzo and Palmer even touched a ball toward the end of the day.