While the Sounders are away from their fans — and local media — they are providing updates on their training at Casa Grande, Ariz.

Here’s today’s report:

Thirty-four Sounders FC players arrived at Grande Sports World early Sunday afternoon for the two-week preseason training session. Midfielder Kerry Baptiste met the team in Arizona. Baptiste, an invitee, is a 29-year-old striker who most recently played for Joe Public in Trinidad & Tobago.

Forward Nate Jaqua stayed in Seattle to rehab his injury. Jaqua will go through one-on-one training for the next two weeks with a member of the Sounders FC

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Here is the Sounders’ schedule of preseason games:

Sounders FC 2011 Preseason Schedule
Date–Opponent (Site/time)
Feb. 8–Real Salt Lake* (Casa Grande, Ariz./10:30 a.m.)
Feb. 10–at Columbus* (Phoenix, Ariz./11:00 a.m.)
Feb. 12–Chivas USA* (Casa Grande, Ariz./10:00 a.m.)
Feb. 21–FC Dallas* (Orlando, Fla./3:30 p.m.)
Feb. 22–Houston* (Orlando, Fla./11:00 a.m.)
Feb. 26–Chicago* (Bradenton, Fla./2:00 p.m.)
Mar. 4–Portland (Tukwila, Wash./7:30 p.m.)
Mar. 6–Vancouver (Tukwila, Wash./3:00 p.m.)
Mar. 9–Colorado (Seattle, Wash./7:00 p.m.)

All times are local
*training game

And here are details from the club on the local games:

Second Annual Community Shield

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Seattle Sounders FC flies today to Arizona, where the club will open two weeks of training tomorrow at Casa Grande.

“There’s always just a team-building aspect to it,” defender James Riley said last week. “We want to go down there and do out bit to get fit. It’s the second phase of our preseason training camp. It’s definitely secluded, so it puts it on you to entertain yourself. Obviously on the field there’s practice and the training, but you have so much down time. I think it’s good. We’re going to try to get an Xbox down there, just card …

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The Sounders concluded their four days of Seattle-area work today with a day mostly devoted to fitness testing. However, they ended with some 11-on-11 work, and one of the teams looks a whole lot like a starting lineup:

Nkufo….Montero
Zakuani…Alonzo…Evans…Fernandez
Gonzalez…Ianni…Parke….Riley
Keller

Here’s some of what coach Sigi Schmid had to say about some of the 11-v-11 work.

It’s a little bit of a reward always, when you can play 11-v-11,” he said. “But we also wanted to play a little bit big. We’ve got some decision here coming up, pare the roster down a little bit …

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Northwest rivals Seattle, Portland and Vancouver will be kept together in the new MLS Western Conference, while the Houston Dynamo will move East to give the league two nine-team divisions in 2011.

Here’s the plan.

The news broke while the Sounders were training this morning, but once told, coach Sigi Schmid had this reaction:

“It makes no difference on your schedule,” he said. “In the old days, certainly when the schedules were unbalanced it made a difference. So it’s no difference as to who you play and who you’re playing against. Obviously, the standings and how many points you …

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Here is some of what coach Sigi Schmid had to say about today’s work:

We’ve got to be sure that they’re all faster than I am, because if they’re not faster than I am it’s going to be a long, long season. On the sprint test we can measure guys’ explosion, their speed over distance – it basically gives us three times: A 10-yard sprint time, it gives us a 30-yard string time from a dead stop, and it give up a flying 20. So it gives us an idea who’s quick, who’s got speed over distance, who can maintain

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This just in from the club:

The Seattle Sounders FC announced plans for the club’s second annual “Community Shield” match which will take place on Wednesday, March 9 at 7 p.m. on the Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field. The reigning U.S. Open Cup champion Sounders FC will face the MLS Cup champion Colorado Rapids for the pre-season match.

General Admission tickets for the event will go on sale Monday, February 14. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for youth (6-17). Children under the age of six are free. Tickets will be available at www.SoundersFC.com, by calling 877-MLS-GOAL, all Ticketmaster

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The Sounders moved to the Seahawks indoor training facility in Renton today for the first of two fitness-measuring days.

Coach Sigi Schmid seemed pleased with the results.

“What we were most happy with was the overall level from the team,” he said. “As I told the team at the end, last year we had 24 guys go through the fitness test and nine were below the minimum mark that we sort of set. This year I think that we had 31 guys go through the fitness, and five of them were minimum mark and of those five were rookies.

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