Bitterly cold temperatures and wintry precipitation often limit how or when the New England Revolution can train outdoors during preseason.
But snow and sleet won't impact the team over the next week, as the team will travel to Bermuda on Wednesday to continue its preparation for the 2008 season.
"It'll be great," Revs midfielder Wells Thompson said. "Being from North Carolina, I'm looking forward to some warm weather. It gets kind of mundane being indoors all the time."
The team has spent the past two weeks inside at a local indoor training facility working on strength and conditioning with little emphasis on team shape and on-the-ball training.
"We don't like to be on this [indoor surface] too much," Revolution assistant coach Paul Mariner said. "The weather's going to be pretty helpful. We want to get outside and get some fresh air."
The team will train and play two games on the island, one against the Bermuda national team (Feb. 16) and one against a Bermudan select team (Feb. 20), before returning to the U.S. on Feb. 21.
Mariner said his side needs to find its game legs without incurring injuries.
"We're just trying to get some flow from these games," Mariner said. "Training fitness and match fitness are so different. When you step out onto a 120 by 80 yard field for the first time, your lungs are burning a bit. We'll try to get guys out there for 60 to 65 minutes and rotate players through."
Thompson wants to see how the team lines up in those friendlies.
"You can see how things develop," Thompson said. "We'll get a lot of our questions answered."
The Revolution technical staff continues to try to answer those questions with new personnel acquisitions. The team remains significantly under the salary budget limit and holds five open senior roster slots.
Mariner took training on Monday morning as Revolution head coach Steve Nicol spent the weekend scouting in Central America. The team wouldn't confirm Nicol's specific location, but local newspaper reports in Boston and Central America have placed Nicol in Costa Rica.
"He's on his travels," Mariner said. "We're trying to add to the squad. Steve went down there to confirm a few things that I had seen last weekend. You don't know which way these things will turn out. You just can't be sure."
Newspaper reports out of Costa Rica have linked the Revolution with moves for LD Alajuelense striker Victor Nunez, who scored the only goal for the ticos in a 1-1 friendly draw in Jamaica last week, and Deportivo Saprissa defender Gabriel Badilla.
Mariner said he came back with a list including "numerous players located in all areas of the field" and confirmed Nicol was watching games and evaluating talent while in Central America.
The team hopes to assess other players in Bermuda. Mariner said the team talked about bringing in one player on trial and said it was possible that the player would link up with the team if the logistics could be arranged.
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
