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.

Sacre bleu! And that's enough stereotypical French speak for now... In any case, it appears that today's pre-season friendly against the Montreal Impact was not quite as fruitful as their previous game against the LA Galaxy earlier this week when they won 4-1 against the former MLS Champs.
In any case, as with the previous game we don't have too much information to go on for this match since we weren't there to actually cover it.

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 Jorge Perlaza first joined the Portland Timbers, he was very much alone. Being the only member of the team who did not have a basic understanding of English, it was an intimidating experience. If you take language out of the equation, he says, you can adapt to just about anything anywhere. But not being able to understand what people are saying makes every aspect of life more difficult.

First week's training has finally concluded. It was a good week and I hope you guys enjoyed our coverage of it. We really tried to get to as many trainings as possible and, I believe, we only missed one so we were able to cover most bases. Heading into next week we'll try something similar, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep up the same pace.

A close up of the Timbers youngest Colombian striker in his new Timbers training kit: Jose Adolfo Valencia.

I've got some pictures of Hanyer Mosquera as well that I'll show off later.

Now that the Timbers have a compliment of 30 players total we can sort of assume that the team is going to settle down a bit and look towards building for their starting 11 in March. I know, I know the hot rumor is that a third DP will be coming soon as a true #9 striker. But even without him we can sort of piece together how the squad will look in this upcoming season as compared to last year.

Today has been an exciting day to be a Portland Timbers fan. First, earlier this morning, we received confirmation that Colombian central defender Hanyer Mosquera has joined the squad. As a big center back with experience he'll be invaluable in helping the Timbers shore up some of those defensive gaffes that were far too prevalent last season.

Timbers sign Colombian defender Hanyer Mosquera

Mosquera, 24, joins the Timbers after playing the past six seasons in Colombia, including the last two with first-division side Club Deportivo La Equidad Seguros. Last season, he helped lead La Equidad to the finals of the Liga Postobón's Apertura campaign and competed in the 2011 Copa Sudamericana.

Rumor: Offer for Hanyer Mosquera from Colombia as a central defender?

"The central defender had already arranged their relationship with the Blues, but an offer from Portland to the MLS made ​​him change his mind." [Google translates]

Video of said player: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

17.12.2011 - 13 veces campeón colombiano (junto a Millonarios el más campeón) y 4 veces finalista de la Copa Libertadores, América de Cali descendió hoy, por primera vez en su historia, a la segunda división del fútbol colombiano.
Con un promedio de 1.76 quedó (anteúltimo) en definición de Promoción para dirimir la permanencia vs el subcampeón de la Segunda, Patriotas de Tunja.

Uno de los pilares del ascenso de Xolos a la primera división, fué su fortaleza ganando en casa, y esa se pensaba que sería también ya en Primera División, que al igual que Chivas cuentan con pasto sintético en sus canchas, cosa que pareciera les da ventaja sobre sus rivales.
Este fin de semana en la Jornada 13 al fin ganaron de local, por marcador de 3 a 2 sobre el Pachuca y con esto lograr apenas su segunda victoria en el máximo circuito lllegando a 12 puntos y quedándose aun en la penúltima posición y último en la porcentual.

Tras la derrota del América por 5 a 3 en casa de los Jaguares de Chiapas, "El Maestro" Carlos Reinoso, anunció su renuncia a la directiva azulcrema, tras la goleada y la pésima campaña que se esta teniendo, la directiva aceptó la renuncia del Chileno.
Ubicado en la posición 15 y con 2 victorias, 3 empates y 4 derrotas, 16 goles anotas por 18 recibidos, América es el equipo mas goleado del torneo, tiene un cuadro de lujo con Vuoso, Benítez, Molina, Mosquera, Vicente Sanchez.

Argentina ha sido una gran dececpción y no solo por sus resultados de empate a 1 con Bolivia y a 0 con Colombia, sino por su desempeño en el terreno de juego, un Messi que por mas es notorio que el equipo no lo quiere, un Tevez luchando por su cuenta y el Kun entrando de relevo tambien peleando lo que puede, inoperante el funcionar de la albiceleste.

En el Polideportivo Municipal de 3 de febrero, los jugadores libres que practican en el Parque Sarmiento enfrentaron a otro combinado de jugadores libres que realizan trabajos en el citado Polideportivo ubicado en Caseros, bajo las órdenes de "Pipa" Romero.

Chicago-Fire.com announced the release of 6 more trialists (10 total) and added 8. Let's take a look at the players making their way to Florida for Phase 2 of preseason training:

Trialists from Phase 1 remaining:

Paraskevas Pantazopoulos - 22 year old forward, winner of the open tryout.

Por Gastón del Torto
En la última fecha del hexagonal final del Sudamericano de Perú 2011, la Selección Argentina venció a Colombia 2-0 y selló su participación para el Mundial Sub 20 que comenzará el 29 de julio en tierra cafetera.
Más allá de las dificultades, Argentina comenzó el encuentro predispuesta a convertir la mayor cantidad de goles para luego esperar una ayuda uruguaya.

Internacional and Brazil's Oscar

Brazil take on Colombia tonight for the second time in the South America Under20 competition in Peru. In a hard fought battle, Brazil came away 3-1 winners from the first meeting last month. Coach Ney Franco is torn between using a 4-2-3-1 formation that has served his side well or reverting to 4-4-2.

Here's the complete list of trialists at training today:

Yoximar Granados Mosquera

Mike Videira

Leonardo

Nate Weiss

Alec Duffy

Barry Rice

Pedro Chicarelli

Ashley McInnes

Pari Pantazopoulos

Martin Rivas

Hunter Jarrett

Michael Muniz

Eric Ustruck

Matt Glaeser

Fabian Burbano Castillo

Amadou Sanyang

Graham Dugoni

Mike Banner and Stephen Kinney did not participate in practice due to injury recovery and Deris Umanzor was not in attendance as the club "explores other options" for his services in El Salvador.

How will Neymar perform vs Colombia?

Brazil's Under 20s take on Colombia in their second game in Peru tonight. Following their 4-1 win over Paraguay, Brazil coach Ney Franco is forced to make changes. Zé Eduardo and Henrique are suspended. Oscar drops to the bench. Fernando, Diego Maurício and Willian José come in.