the news to know from Wednesday

Real Madrid was back in training not even 12 hours after their win over Espanyol, to start preparing for Saturday’s game against Levante.  Cris didn’t train with the rest of his teammates, and stayed inside.  I hope he’s ok!

If you were wondering why the players were wearing their game jerseys and shorts during the training session, it’s because they shot the official team photo right before the training session.  I hope we get to see it soon!

An observation: was this really the best day to take photos?  I mean, the players probably didn’t get very much sleep, since the game ended at midnight, then they had to change, talk to the press, eat dinner, go home… and then be back in training at 11:30h.  I hope the lighting at least was much better this time, to avoid a repeat of this.

On Wednesday, the RFEF also held the sorteo for the Copa del Rey pairings in the round of 32.  Real Madrid will face Murcia, with the first leg on Oct. 27 and the second leg on Nov. 10.  Murcia currently plays in the Segunda B.  These games will pit the Albiol brothers against each other, since Miguel Albiol plays for Murcia.

And Sami Khedira held his first press conference after the session (not including the one on the day of his presentation) and said the victory against Espanyol was well “deserved”, and that Cristiano is an “excellent” team player.  He also recognized that the game wasn’t the prettiest one.  Sami also revealed that he’s taking Spanish classes just like Mesut, and each day understands a bit more.  I’m sure he will be giving press conferences in Spanish in no time!  If the past is to give any clues, it will be soon, because generally speaking the German players, along with the Dutch, seem to pick up castellano much faster than players from other countries.

Meanwhile, the Bernabéu continued getting a face lift, which will take a total of 30 hours after things got started right after the Espanyol game ended.  This means the stadium will be ready to host Depor on Oct. 3.  In the end, the new field was purchased from Slovakia.