Stefan Frei rested Friday, still traveling with team to Salt Lake City

When Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei walked out to the training pitch about halfway through the Sounders' morning training, it seemed at first to be cause for some alarm. Frei wasn't wearing normal training gear, and just sat down on the bench and chatted with injured captain Brad Evans. Nothing had happened in the previous days of training, nor had the Sounders noted anything unusual.

Luckily Sigi Schmid said that "he's got a little bit of soreness, we just wanted to hold him out today. He'll travel with us." While that's not a resounding endorsement for Frei's health, it certainly seems like Frei's absence was only a precaution and not a significant issue for the goalkeeper or the team.

Otherwise both Erik Friberg and Tyrone Mears were again full participants in the training session, and are expected to be available for Saturday's road match at Real Salt Lake. It's worth noting that Friberg and Mears were with the rest of the usual starters in the session's game scenario activities.

In terms of being ready for Real Salt Lake, Schmid said his squad are ready to bounce back from the hard opening day loss to Sporting KC. "I thought we had a good week of training. I think the team's ready. So we'll get after it." Schmid doesn't think that last week's late-game meltdown by RSL's defense is an indication of how they'll play against the Sounders. "It's tough to really say, because they were playing 10 against 10 at that point. Orlando was at home and fresh, they were going to be aggressive." He doesn't "put a lot of stock" into how Real played, as the scenario on Saturday will be quite different.