SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica – There are mountains encircling the complex at Proyecto Gol – the facility the Portland Timbers train at throughout their time in Costa Rica – mountains that would be spared the description, but those who define ranges by their mounts. San José’s may not carry the same novelty they did a year ago, when Portland arrived for their first preseason in Central America, but within the players’ ranks, there’s still space to feed something new, even if part of the team’s neophyte ranks were here a year before.
That part is in Ryan Sierakowski, the Timbers 2 forward who, one year after coming to San José as the Timbers’ first-round draft pick in 2019, is back for a second spell in Costa Rica.