The Portland Timbers completed their last scheduled practice in Portland before heading to California on February 5 for 12 days of training and four scrimmages. While the mood was soured a bit by the news of Jose Adolfo Valencia's knee surgery, the team remains upbeat about their prospects for the 2012 season.

The U.S. Under-23 men's national team has just over a month left before Olympic qualifying takes place, and Caleb Porter's side wrapped up its penultimate camp last week in Costa Rica with a pair of friendlies.

Playing without some of its top players, the Americans played to a scoreless draw with the Saprissa reserves.

The United States Under-23 National Team is currently training in Costa Rica, with scrimmages scheduled against Costa Rican clubs Saprissa and Alajuelense.

The U.S. MNT is training in Costa Rica

The U-23 Men's National Team is in Costa Rica for the conclusion of their January training camp, and Saturday they played the first of two scrimmages when they took on the reserves of perennial Costa Rican powerhouse Saprissa.
The teams dueled to a 0-0 draw at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa, which U.

We all have our ghosts. For Steve Zakuani, that ghost is memories of his former self.

As the Seattle Sounders midfielder continues his recovery from a horrific leg injury that cost him the final six months of the 2011 season, the progress he has made is obvious. On Friday, Zakuani was able to participate in full training for the first time since that April 22 tackle broke his right leg.

BY ADAM SERRANO

CARSON, Calif. – In a match that was much closer than the last time these teams met, the U.S. Under-23 national team battled to a hard fought 1-1 draw against the U.S. national team on Tuesday evening at the Home Depot Center Complex.

The Revolution selected four collegians during Tuesday's Supplemental Draft, which was held via conference call.

Foward Dawyne Smith (Bethel University), midfielder Alec Purdie (Indiana), defender Kevin Garcia (Villanova) and forward Mike Roach (St. Louis) all had their names called by the Revolution brain trust.

The 2012 Chicago Fire season is almost here. The 2012 Chicago Fire preseason starts on Wednesday if you count the players reporting for physicals as preseason. The team will start actually training in Ave Maria, Florida on January 20. Preseason scrimmages on the calendar include January 29 vs. D.

Houston Amateur Sports Park via www.houstondynamo.com

You won't have long to wait before you get a chance to see the Houston Dynamo in action. Twelve days from today, to be exact, until the first team has their initial scrimmage, against the Dynamo Academy. Remember that scrimmage dates have a way of being changed, so before you make any plans, remember to check back here or over at HoustonDynamo.

Jared Jeffrey (blue) and Benny Feilhaber (Grey)
On Friday, the full team lined up against the U-23 MNT for the first of two scrimmages while the teams share space at The Home Depot Center. For both groups, it was the first opportunity to play 11 v. 11 since camp began and continue to evaluate players for the upcoming friendlies.

The full team lined up against the U-23 MNT for the first of two scrimmages while the teams share space at The Home Depot Center. For both groups, it was the first opportunity to play 11 v. 11 since camp began and continue to evaluate players for the upcoming friendlies.
"These scrimmages are good for us and the Under-23s, that's why we do it purposely, because it's a big year for U.

The U-23s are back in action to start 2012, holding a training camp at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Head coach Caleb Porter has named a squad of 23 players to train at the HDC, with eye towards Olympic Qualifying in March (just more than two months away!).
In addition to two-a-days in Southern California, the team will also head to Costa Rica for a first trip abroad under Porter.

The December camp for the U-23 Men's National Team came to a close after eight days in Florida that included eight training sessions on the field and two 90-minute intrasquad scrimmages. U-23 head coach Caleb Porter and the coaching staff got a birds eye look at much of the player pool, and spent significant time educating the group
Terence Boyd and Sebastian Lletget (pronounced leh-JET) put in two nice finishes in the game at the IMG Soccer Academy in Bradenton.

Baseball calls it Hot Stove season. The NFL occupies months with draft talk, organized team activities, mini-camps and training camps. Whatever the name, off season events have become an integral part of the modern sports business model. Fans hungry for team and league news flock to websites, mainstream media sources, sports radio and sports television for year round coverage of their favorite sports.

Teal Bunbury, who has two caps with the U.S. Men's National Team, had to withdraw from the Under-23 roster after suffering an ankle injury.

Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury was forced to withdraw from U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team training camp roster after suffering a right ankle contusion in his team's 2-0 loss to Houston in the MLS Western Conference Final.

Teal Bunbury, who has two caps with the U.S. Men's National Team, had to withdraw from the Under-23 roster after suffering an ankle injury.

Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury was forced to withdraw from U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team training camp roster after suffering a right ankle contusion in his team's 2-0 loss to Houston in the MLS Western Conference Final.

One of the things I really like about reffing roller derby is that we have a crew, and we work together all season. And when the players practice, we practice (if not reffing scrimmages, then working on skills, rules knowledge, situations, etc.). Last year when I became the assistant head referee (and I don't want to be the head - been there done that - this lets me pick and choose what I want to do), I decided I wanted to take an active role in new referee training.

The Seattle Sounders returned to practice for the first time since their US Open Cup Semifinal win over FC Dallas. Extraordinary weather welcomed them back to the packed Starfire Sports Complex (Labor Day Youth Cup, as well as Sounders pre-Academy game three). The primary concern of practice were 9 a side scrimmages of a 1st, 2nd and 3rd team with the one not playing doing finishing drills on the far field.

Follow the bouncing ball. It's time for another college soccer, only this one will be without Steven Emory, the two-time RMAC player of the year, who moved up to the MLS. (Photograph by Jessica Taves/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

For The Thursday List, we took a look back at past RMAC soccer champions and a look ahead to the coming season as we considered the top picks to take men's and women's crowns this season.

Even prior to Seattle Sounders practice being opened up to media the emphasis was on defense. There was a full team meeting that emphasized that it isn't an issue for just the backline, but for everyone. Coach Sigi Schmid noted this as the first element from his post-practice conference;

We wanted them to look at the goals that we've taken.

USMNT in Cary, NCLast Saturday I had the opportunity to sit in on USMNT practice as they prepared for their friendly against Spain and the Gold Cup. The MLS players were not yet in camp as many of them had to play that night.
Beyond that the European boys were in, with the exception of Freddy Adu and Carlos Bocanegra.

38 players, all born in 1997 - and yes, that is a year AFTER Major League Soccer began - will gather at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., for a week long training camp that kicks off on May 1. Head coach Manny Schellscheidt and his staff will lead the players through two training sessions per day and a handful of scrimmages against local club teams during the week.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

The Atlanta Silverbacks just can't catch a break.

A 90th-minute penalty kick prevented Atlanta from earning its first point of the season and instead handed the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers their first win of 2011. It was the second time in their first three games that the Silverbacks conceded a winner in the 90th minute.

The Seattle Sounders' U-18 and U-16 Academy players have occasionally been showing up here and there in scrimmages in the last couple of months, but other than that Academy news has pretty much gone dark. When the teams last took the field in an official capacity - in late February - both had a commanding lead in their respective Northwest Divisions, but to some degree that was a quirk of the scheduling.

Winning is fun isn't it? But with healthy being less of a concern, a few reserve games and scrimmages under the belt and five games into the season we have some insight into usage patterns by Sigi Schmid. Now with several Sounders returning to health, others in a solid form, and one plummeting down the depth chart things are different than they were during the last depth chart.

While the New England Revolution added intra-squad scrimmages to their preseason training last week, the true test of where the team is really at begins this week. For the rookies, however, week two of preseason marked their first chance to impress against their new teammates.

Ilija Stolica has been offering encouragement and advice to the Revs' rookies.

U-20 international Cody Cropper received his first start as an Ipswich Town FC reserve team player last Wednesday, February 9th, drawing praise from first team manager Paul Jewell.

Arran Lee-Barrett, the 26-year-old first team backup and regular reserve team keeper, was rested in case he might need to play for Jewell's 1st team.

By AVI CREDITOR

The training wheels have been taken off, and the Philadelphia Union is ready to ride with the big boys.

After an inaugural season that ended well short of a postseason berth, the Union has made a number of personnel moves to shore up what was a shaky defense in 2010 while providing support for its budding attackers as well.

2011 NASL Combine held in Fort Lauderdale, FL this past weekend.

The 2011 NASL combine ended Sunday in Ft. Lauderdale with the opportunity for over 70 players to impress the league's eight coaches, assistant coaches such as the Puerto Rico Islanders' assistant Adrian Whitbread, Traffic USA Director of Soccer Fernando Clavijo and observers from other leagues.

New England Soccer Today's Brian O'Connell caught up with the club for Monday's preseason training session and humbly submits the following observations from said session.

-As opposed to last Monday's teeth-chatteringly cold session, the Field House was noticably warmer and a jacket, mittens, and scarf were happily rendered unnecessary upon arrival.

By JOSE M. ROMERO

PHOENIX -- Closer to the big city, a couple of Major League Soccer teams are getting work done on a complex of soccer fields in frigid Arizona.

Yes, it's been record cold these days in the Valley of the Sun, but that isn't stopping Sporting Kansas City and the Columbus Crew from training at Reach 11 West, about 25 to 30 minutes due north of downtown Phoenix.

Hopefully everyone had a better weekend that your humble Dynamo blogger had thanks to a wonderful cold that kept me basically incapacitated for the better part of the last four days...but enough about me.

The Houston Dynamo completed their first week of pre-season training and resume their schedule today.

Mike Stobe - Getty Images

Jhon Kennedy Hurtado looks to return to his starting role, but who should join him?

View full size photo »

With training camp opening to the general media (that includes us) there will be plenty of interviews with the newer players.

Bob Levey - Getty Images

View full size photo »

The Houston Dynamo began pre-season training this morning at the Carl Lewis track complex on the University of Houston campus.

Kenny Mansally, Shalrie Joseph, and Mike Videira scrimmage during last year's preseason. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Despite the cold, wintry conditions that have recently pummeled the region, the unofficial start of spring is less than two weeks away. For Revolution fans, at least.

The U.S. WNT had two scrimmages tonight as the players had their final chances to impress U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage and her staff in hopes of making the 23-player Four Nations Tournament roster. The U.S. team will have a light training tomorrow during the late morning, then will spend the rest of the day packing and getting ready for the late/early flight out on Friday morning.