SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — It’s natural to focus on physical preparation when thinking about a sports team’s preseason. But for groups whose schedules create a regular, predictable flow to their weeks — teams like those in the National Football League, who build for the weekend; or professional soccer teams, whose weekly rhythms can be similar — sinking into, and mastering, a year’s patterns is important, too.
Consider the first week of the Portland Timbers’ preseason through that lens. The team enjoyed their first training sessions of 2020 Monday through Wednesday. The double session on Tuesday may have been a uniquely preseason thing — one that was replicated again on Thursday — but Friday’s day off wasn’t.