ALOHA, Ore. – The trip wasn’t so long for Marco Farfan. After all, during the Major League Soccer season, he traverses east to west each day, across the width of Portland’s metropolitan footprint, from his home in Gresham to the team’s adidas Timbers Training Center in Beaverton. Extending that trip slightly west from the 217 freeway, to Aloha, was nothing, even if he was still, technically, in his offseason.
Five days before Timbers players end their vacations and report for their preseason medical examinations, Farfan is on the campus of Aloha High School, less than two years removed from time at his own alma mater, Gresham’s Centennial High.