Our boys (and a few men) held the last training session before tomorrow’s Copa del Rey round of 16 second leg game against Levante. Five canteranos (the as-of-late habitual Pacheco, Juanfran and MFC, as well as old favorite Juan Carlos and new face Castilla goalkeeper Jesús) were invited to the session to join 21 footballers from the first team. Absent were the injured Dudek and Higuaín, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo, who had a cold, and Mahamadou Diarra who is still out dealing with personal problems.
The very layered Iker kept his eye on Marcelo, while Xabi posed discretely in the background.
Under Pepe’s watchful eye, Sergio made friends with the canteranos. It’s my favorite two!
And as always, it’s great to see the boys smiling, joking around and hugging each other.
José Mourinho called up 20 players for the game against Levante, including the five canteranos who trained with the team this morning. Iker, Marcelo, Xabi, Albiol, Di María and Ozi will be rested for this game, along with the ill Cristiano. So, the group that will travel to Valencia tomorrow at 11:15 in the morning (the first time the team is traveling to an away game on the day of the game – Mou explained after the first leg that it was not a lack of respect towards Levante, but so that his players could spend Jan. 5-6 with their families) looks like this:
Goalkeepers: Adán, Jesús, Pacheco.
Defenders: Carvalho, Pepe, Ramos, Mateos, Arbeloa, Garay.
Midfielders: Gago, Kaká, Lass, Granero, Canales, Pedro León, Khedira, Juan Carlos, Juanfran.
Forwards: Benzema, Morata.
It looks like Antonio Adán and MFC will get the first starts of their career!
Every time I see this picture of Juanfran, I think it’s Fernando Verdasco. I don’t think they look alike in real life, just in this picture.
The team will resume training on Friday for this Sunday’s game against El Submarino Amarillo.