Some of you had asked about the Sounders' roster for the California part of thier training, and the club provided that today:

The following players participated: Osvaldo Alonso, Nicola Andelic*, Evan Brown, Ryan Caugherty*, Jeff Clark*, Ben Dragavon, Brad Evans, Chris Eylander, Taylor Graham, Patrick Ianni^, Danny Jackson, Nate Jaqua, Jared Karkas*, Kasey Keller, Stephen King, Quavas Kirk*, Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque, Fredy Montero, Sanna Nyassi, Leighton O’Brien, Vini Oliviera*, Ryan Pore*, James Riley, Zach Scott, Kyle Schmid*, Khano Smith, Nathan Sturgis, Tyson Wahl, Adam West, Steve Zakuani.

*players who did not practice with team first week in Renton

The following players were not present: Mandou Bojang (will rejoin team in Seattle on Feb. 18), Michael Fucito (hamstring), Peter Vagenas (recovering from arthroscopic surgery – is inactive, but expected to be at practice tomorrow to watch), Freddy Ljungberg (rehabbing in Sweden), and Jarrod Smith (hip flexor, rehabbing in Seattle).

The Sounders also provided a few Sigi Schmid quotes from the first day of training down there:

On the first two-a-days: “Obviously it’s the part of the time that a player probably doesn’t say it’s his favorite time. But it’s a necessity. It’s something you have to do. I thought their work this morning was very good, and the fitness work was good. This afternoon it was a little more tactical work. Slowly and surely we are getting the points across. I thought it was very positive.”

On training in warmer weather: “I don’t mind training when it’s a little bit colder, and I don’t think some of the players don’t mind. But from the standpoint that we’re really trying to work hard on fitness, and build that base, just having a little bit warmer weather is better for the muscles. You can push a little bit harder. That’s one of the main reasons. There’s actually two good reasons for going away. One is that for the weather wise because you can push a little harder. And the second this is when you go away with the team, even though you can train twice a day in Seattle, the guys are together in between practices, so the guys have to talk to each other and learn some things about each other.


On the first practices of Vinicius Oliviera, the Sounders' SuperSearch winner: “For him, it’s a very interesting, unique challenge. He worked very had to get this opportunity. Today he had some moments that were good. He had a really nice one-two with (Sanna) Nyassi in the game this morning. And then there has been some moments where I’m sure he thought to himself, ‘this is a lot different then I thought it would be, and it’s a lot faster.’ Adjusting to the speed of play is certainly going to be the biggest test, because that’s the biggest test for all players as they move up. And the other test is the physical demands. You think you’re in shape and ready to go, and you realize ‘I’m not there yet.’ He’s fit in. He’s done well.”