Sounders FC training camp glance, Day 3

Today's Sounders FC Q&A is with Nate Jaqua, who discusses his excitement about coming back to the Northwest.

Kickin' it with ... Nate Jaqua

Position: Forward

Age: 27

Height: 6-4

Weight: 205

Hometown: Eugene, Ore.

Last club: Houston (MLS)

Question: Do you have a nickname?

Nate Jaqua: "I guess Nate's a nickname. My real name's Jonathan."

Q: How much did you want to come to Seattle once you saw there was going to be a team here?

NJ: "I was excited about it and I'd always kind of kept an eye because there were always rumors floating around that Seattle might get a team even when I first got in the league. As it progressed I started thinking that might be a good option. Might be pretty cool to be back close to home and be playing in a cool city. So I was pretty excited about it when it actually came to fruition."

Q: Today you were out there playing center forward [in practice]. Is that where you see your role on this team?

NJ: "I'm willing to go wherever. I want this organization to succeed. I want the team to win. That's what it comes down to, and wherever I fit on the field ... but I think right now they have me slated as a target forward, a guy that kind of holds the ball up a little bit, other people run off me. I'm a big body, so somebody has to be able to hold the ball, and coaches look at me like, 'You're 6-4, you've got to be able to keep balls for us, you've got to be able to win balls up there for us.' "

Q: Give me a sample of three things in your iPod.

NJ: "I like some bluegrass, so maybe some Old Crow Medicine Show. Some reggae, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, something like that ... Some classic rock, maybe. Some Bob Dylan."

Q: What's the first job you ever had?

NJ: "I grew up on a ranch, so the first job was just working out there at the ranch."

Q: Are you a huge Oregon Ducks fan?

NJ: "I am. I'm not as crazy as a lot of the people down there, but I think as I went away, I became more of a Duck fan just because it kind of gave me something to look back and connect me to home a little bit more."

**

Day 3 highlights:

• The first 11-on-11 scrimmage of camp took place. It was two 25-minute halves, and the lineups were interesting. The first-half roster was as follows: Orange team — Evan Brown (right back), Tyson Wahl (center back), Adam West (left back), Nathan Sturgis (defensive midfield), Kenji Treschuk (left midfield), Leighton O'Brien (midfield), Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar (right midfield), Steve Zakuani (left wing), Sebastien Le Toux, (center forward), Roger Levesque (right wing) and Chris Eylander (goalkeeper). Blue team — Kevin Sakuda (right back), Taylor Graham (center back), James Riley (left back), Stephen King (left midfield), Zach Scott (defensive midfield), Brad Evans (center midfield), Khano Smith (right midfield), Fredy Montero (left wing), Sanna Nyassi (right wing), Nate Jaqua (center forward) and Kasey Keller (goalkeeper). In the second half Craig Tomlinson, Nik Besagno and Danny Jackson came on for the blue team and Youssouf Kante, Andre Schmid and John Fishbaugher rotated in for the orange squad.

• Jaqua and Le Toux scored goals in the first half, Zakuani, Jaqua and Montero scored in the second half. Here's coach Sigi Schmid's take on what he saw: "I thought some guys had some good moments. It's nice to be able to score goals right away ... Zakuani, I thought, had some good moments on the wing. Showed that wide left is definitely an option for him."

• Schmid was asked if the lineups are indicative of who could be in the starting 11. "You can pay attention to it, but at this stage we were trying to mix it a little bit and didn't want to say this is first or second team. It wasn't anywhere close to that. And obviously we still have some players missing, at this stage, and we're adding players as we move forward. We're always going to keep our eyes and ears open so we're probably looking at a couple of things here soon, as well."

• Two players who were at practice the first two days were not on Friday. They were forward Jarrod Smith, who has a hip flexor injury, and forward Jason Cascio, who went to Portland for an open tryout. "He was trying to push through it and train through it," Schmid said of Smith, an expansion draft choice. "I just told him he could try and train through it, but it would mean that he would probably not make our team. So it's a matter of him getting healthy right now and being able to be the Jarrod Smith that he can be on the field. Right now we need to back off on him and get him healthy." As for Cascio, a former USL Sounder, Schmid said he felt the opportunity in Portland was a better situation for him.

• The team gets Saturday and Sunday off, then will use Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to do fitness testing on the players. "It will be a combination of testing and training in the early part of the week, and then we'll push into training full-on at the end of the week," Schmid said.