Training Notes: Grabavoy out; Sabo, Wingert in; hard workers

Some training notes and quotes for you today, as with most Fridays. It was a focused but light-hearted (is that a contradiction in terms?) session over at America's First Field, which, if you've not been, is rather stunning. The pitch — essentially the same as over at Rio Tinto — is fantastic. It's like carpet. Beautiful, beautiful carpet.

Right, right. You didn't come to hear me gushing about the field, did you? Let's get on with things.

Grabavoy is set to miss the match — and probably the match against the Galaxy next weekend — which certainly hurts us a little bit. (Here, read what I've written about that over at the Soapbox) But Jason Kreis seemed oddly optimistic: "I'm actually eager to get the one who's going to play tomorrow his opportunity."

I have no idea who he means — but I have my hopes and dreams. Aren't those enough?

In terms of our other injured players, there was some good news to report. Jason Kreis indicated that Alvaro Saborio is in contention — it's just a matter of whether he starts or whether he's on the bench. Talk about an impact sub, eh? Chris Wingert was also involved, and I was a little worried he'd not be after suffering a bout of turf toe (I still don't know what that is) earlier in the week. But he should be good to go, and that was nice to see.

We've got some hard-working players, and it's always nice seeing them doing their thing. Of particular interest: Kenny Mansally, who never stops working; Jonny Steele, who is loud and communicative, and the dude never stops fighting (I mean, in a good way — not, like, fist fighting or anything nasty like that); and Enzo Martinez, who looks better and better every time I see him. Someday, he'll be making huge waves for us, and I can't wait. Jason clearly has a lot of faith in the guy.

Maybe he's the one.

Anyhow, one final note before moving on to other things for a bit — like a feature piece I can't wait to share with you. I'll have a match preview tomorrow and a power rankings from Kreg Asay later today — keep those eyes peeled, eh?

Oh, the note: Jason Kreis is a hoot. When I asked him whether the decision to play in a narrow diamond was influenced by Argentine soccer, his response was essentially "I don't know — a coach may have done some scouting there..." and laughed a little bit, in his particularly Jason Kreis sort of way. What a guy.