Portland Timbers plane

The Portland Timbers chartered this plane in December for their trip to Ohio to play the Columbus Crew in the MLS Cup Final. The league allows clubs to charter planes for no more than four legs of travel to MLS competitions throughout the season, with some exceptions for short turnarounds in the playoffs.

(Stephanie Yao Long/Staff)

After falling 2-1 to the San Jose Earthquakes at Avaya Stadium on March 13, the Portland Timbers took a short bus ride over to the San Jose International Airport, excited for what was supposed to be a quick trip back to Portland.

But they soon learned that their commercial flight was delayed. They didn't board the plane until nearly four hours after they were expected to take off and didn't make it back to the Rose City until after 3 a.m.

"It's challenging," Timbers coach Caleb Porter said. "But, ultimately, you can't make it in this league as a player or a coach if you can't deal with all these factors that are very unique to MLS."

Players in Major League Soccer deal with distinct challenges surrounding travel that other elite professional players throughout the world do not face.

In other professional soccer leagues, teams generally have to travel shorter distances for league matches and don't have to deal with significant changes in field conditions, climate and altitude from game-to-game.

Dealing with these issues can be difficult, especially for international players that have never dealt with these struggles before coming to MLS. When Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri played in Argentina, his club would only need to fly to two or three games during the entire season. He said it was a huge adjustment to get used to traveling to road games when he arrived in MLS in 2013.

"It's just hard," Valeri said. "It's like a day of heavy training that day of flying. When you have that kind of travel, it's a very different week. It's a week where you have to rest much better than other weeks."

The unique geography and size of the United States makes traveling to away games challenging for all professional athletes in America, but the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB have sought to ease the difficulties by using charter planes during their seasons.

Unlike those leagues, MLS requires its players to regularly fly coach on commercial airlines. As stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement between MLS and the MLS Players Union, the league will allow clubs to charter planes for no more than four legs of travel to MLS competitions throughout the season, with some exceptions for short turnarounds in the playoffs.

When asked about something that they would change if they were MLS Commissioner for a day, five percent of MLS players told ESPN that the No. 1 thing they would change is the rules around charter flights.

But when the MLS Players Union and the league renegotiated the CBA last year, Timbers defender Nat Borchers said that there were too many other important issues, including increased salaries and free agency, to make adding charter flights a priority.

"We looked at that issue, that factor of charter flights and as much as we wanted to push for charter flights, I don't think ownership was on board with that cost," Borchers said. "I don't think it was high on the priority list."

While long flights, cramped leg room and delays at airports are normal inconveniences for most people, they can be particularly challenging for professional athletes, who need to carefully care for their bodies to ensure that they can perform at their optimal level.

By not using charter planes, MLS teams have to deal with more delays and connections. In his 12 years in MLS, Borchers can recall numerous occasions where he and his team were stuck on runways or inside airports for hours on end.

"I think the worst part about it is the quality of food you get in some of these airports, especially when you get delayed," Borchers said. "You get delayed for four or five hours somewhere and you got to eat and there is not a whole lot of availability of good quality, nutritious food."

A long delay can also force teams to readjust their training schedules and change their plans for preparing for upcoming games.

"Let's say you want to do a regeneration session the next day, but you get in at 3 a.m.," Timbers defender Zarek Valentin said. "The coach isn't going to make players come in at 8 a.m. to train."

Still, players and coaches have to quickly learn to adapt to travel in MLS if they want to succeed in the league.

Porter said he works especially closely with his training and medical staff during weeks where the team is traveling to ensure that the players are exerting the right amount of energy and not overtraining.

This week, the Timbers are leaving for Chicago Thursday morning to have enough time to recover from the flight and adjust to the time zone and field conditions before Saturday's critical game against the Fire.

"It's a challenge, but you just deal with it," Porter said. "Everybody else deals with it and we've dealt with it well the last three years. But it's never easy."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg