BRADENTON, Florida — The conditions were less than ideal as FC Cincinnati started its two-week preseason sojourn at IMG Academy in a cold, wind-driven rain on Sunday morning.

Aerial passes were lost to strong gusts and pushed out of play. Sharply-hit balls on the ground skidded wildly in all directions.

However, the club had no choice but to carry on in the conditions. There's no time to spare and no sessions to cut loose with the newly-formed FC Cincinnati team, whose first regular-season Major League Soccer match is 35 days away.

The first of seven scheduled preseason matches is Wednesday.

What was promising, and perhaps unexpected given the conditions on Sunday, was that Cincinnati's players found a way to master the elements late in the session after losing the battle to Mother Nature for most of the morning.

From rain-soaked chaos emerged quick combination passing and long, enjoyable spells of possession.

"One hundred percent, the guys were calm and composed on the ball," Cincinnati head coach Alan Koch said. "Maintaining possession and as they went through that last activity, they became more and more comfortable. It's almost like you want to allow them to play longer in those conditions, but we've got to manage workloads."

The day's accomplishments could be called modest first steps forward, but they were forward steps nonetheless. Koch said afterward he was happy with the session.

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The next two weeks are designed to be a more transformative experience than last week's opening sessions on the University of Cincinnati campus.

What will unfurl during FC Cincinnati's forthcoming two-a-day practices and matches through Feb. 9 in Florida was described by the club's fourth-year midfield stalwart Corben Bone as the "preparation stage" of the preseason.

"We're in an isolated area where you build things on and off the field," Bone said. "You build chemistry off the field, you build relationships and then you bleed that on to the field and kind of create an identity as a team. Individually, you see players start to flourish inside the team component you're trying to create."

This preseason marks Bone's fourth with FC Cincinnati and third under Koch, so he's plenty familiar with the formula the club uses at IMG Academy.

FC Cincinnati is a long way from where it needs to be on March 2. On that night, it will be staring across the field at Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field with three points on the line.

The path to get there has been clearly articulated and arranged by Koch, his staff, and team President and General Manager Jeff Berding. How quickly the players can adapt to the challenges they'll face in Florida – some of which are purposefully designed to frustrate and force them to reason on the field – will decide much of the club's early-season successes and failures.

"We're at the place you'd kind of expect us to be at right now. Guys are getting together. You can see there's a good, fun spirit in the group. They want to learn. They're willing to work," Koch said. "Now, it's really going to be about giving them as much information as they can absorb over the next few weeks. We're going to overload them (with tactics) a lot. The games are going to be exercises and the results of the games have no bearing on anything because we're really going to overload them. When you overload, sometimes, that makes things a little more complicated in the short term but we have a long-term goal for where we want to be."

Sunday concluded with a weight lifting session and a video review of the full-field portion of the morning practice. FC Cincinnati has access to facilities for all these activities along with its lodging as part of its stay at the expansive sporting factory that is IMG Academy.

Other MLS clubs are also based at IMG's designated soccer complex this month. On Sunday, FC Cincinnati practically trained next to the Colorado Rapids. The two clubs were separated by the width of a few natural grass fields.

This preseason is Cincinnati's fourth at IMG, and in coming back the club is sticking with a known commodity that's delivered success for it in the past.

IMG was where the foundation was laid for FC Cincinnati's three United Soccer League campaigns. The club posted a combined record of 51 wins, 21 draws, and 19 losses during those years and didn't miss the playoffs.

Injury updates

FC Cincinnati's in good health to begin its stay in Florida. The team's collective health will ebb and flow as the days roll, but for now, there's a lot to feel good about on this front.

Three players – defender Greg Garza, midfielder Eric Alexander, and second-year FC Cincinnati goalkeeper Spencer Richey – are currently pushing toward 100 percent fitness. Meanwhile, Jimmy McLaughlin is out of sight in Philadelphia treating the offseason knee injury that's expected to keep him out for an extended period.

Koch said the plan for Garza was to do "quite a lot" on Sunday, and he did.

"While the session was going on, I actually saw him running on the other field," Koch said. "That's very positive. We'll get him doing some ball work at some stage very soon."

Alexander had a hamstring issue late last season while he was with the Houston Dynamo, so the approach with him is a conservative one, although Alexander participated in full-speed training activities Sunday. Koch estimated Alexander played in about 70 percent of the session.

Richey, who had an offseason abdominal surgery, is at about 80 percent, Koch estimated.