June 11 Training Update

How to Make James Riley Smile and Two Unique Pictures

June 11

Sounders looked relaxed at training today but no-one is under any illusions as to the importance of Saturday’s game. San Jose were the last team Sounders beat and that started a horrendous run of six straight defeats for the Californians.

Much has changed since then and with Darren Huckerby now back in the team and in form, San Jose has not bean beaten in their last two, and Sounders haven’t won since Kasey Keller had hair, Steve Zakuani lost his temper and Sigi Schmid was nutmegging defenders.

On that score, Sigi decided to do a slice of keepy-uppy but was caught in the act by our ever vigilant cameraman. So just because we know you like that sort of thing, here they are without any spurious attempt to tie them to a news story.

If you think that’s rare, we caught Sounders fearsome centre half “El Presidente” Jhon Kennedy Hurtado smiling from ear to ear. We can’t say for sure but it seemed very closely related to hearing Peter Vagenas’ Spanish. But Peter maintains he’s fluent and he’s certainly better than anyone here. ‘Sprechen-Sie deutsch, Peter?” If you do ask Brian Schmetzer a question in it. He hates that!

Lastly, we managed to corner the increasingly popular James Riley and talk to him about the similarities between ballroom dancing and football. He smiled when asked, and also told us who are the best and the lousiest dancers in MLS, but you’re going to have to wait for the full interview for that.

On a more serious note, James also talked of his community work, his gratitude to the families of Colorado, without whom he’d never have had a chance to make it, and playing with the mercurial Swede ahead of him on the right.

All this is our way of reporting back from training on a day when the cameraman had a better day than the newshound in us. None of the players brought their pets. We’re still working on that request. The news does look promising about Alonso’s fitness but we’ll confirm that later today when the club releases its injury bulletin.

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