Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese doesn’t always speak before the first questions of his pregame press conferences. When he does, his thoughts usually dive straight into the task ahead: the next opponent; his team’s preparation; what Portland has to do to get three points in the match that approaches.
On Friday, Savarese did the same thing. At least, in one sense he did. Beginning his afternoon press conference, he sat in front of a team laptop, joined a Zoom Webinar, and began talking about the task at hand. Only today, instead of tasks revolving around Saturday against Real Salt Lake, something was far more relevant.