Sounders open with soggy training session

The Sounders’ first training session of the new season is in the book.

Wow, it was wet.

Without question, the No. 1 takeaway was the large number of supporters who turned out on a rainy Saturday morning to welcome the team.

Beyond that, here’s some of what coach Sigi Schmid had to say about this first session.

“It was good. I thought the guys came out and showed a lot of energy. We accomplished what we wanted to get accomplished in terms of getting a good workdays in. They’re off (Sunday) and then Monday we’ll start with our testing and so forth. I never like to do testing the first day. I always like them to have a day of just touching the ball again because that’s what you want to do. And it was good. It was good to see obviously the draft choices and see those guys as well.”

Schmid declined to comment on what he saw from those rookies, seeing that as unfair for a first session.

He also said some key players might get entra work or specific work to get ready for CONCACAF Champions League play next month ahead of the MLS season in March.

Former Sounder Nate Sturgis was among those training today. “He’s in a situation where he has an interes in coming back here, and we said, ‘Yeah, we want to definitely take a look at you and we’ll decide.”

Also on the pitch was 35-year-old defender Zach Scott, whose re-signing was announced the day before camp opened.

“It’s a situation that as we go into the Champions League that experience was important to us,” Schmid said. “We really have Roman Torres is still injured at this point, we have Evans, we have Marshall, but then we’re really looking at playing young centerbacks and it was important for us to have cover, especially in the early season.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Sounders open with soggy training session."