all set for Sevilla!!

Madrid trained this morning in their last session before tomorrow’s Copa del Rey semifinal ida game against Sevilla.  The session, in which 23 players participated, was held in the Alfredo Di Stéfano rather than one of the usual training fields.  Sami Khedira was back with the group, and was able to train normally.  There was one new face, Castilla keeper Tomás “Tomy” Mejías, who had returned from a shoulder injury last week that had kept him out for months (he was operated on on Sept. 1).  The absences were Dudek, Pepe and Pipita.

During the session, Cris made hip circles; the Basques stood next to each other and the Di Stéfano nearly self-combusted out of hotness; Marcelo was disguised as a ninja; and Iker got intimate with the ground.

José Mourinho called up all of the available players on the first team, as well as Tomy (Fernando Pacheco is on duty with the Spanish U-19 team).

Goalkeepers: Iker, Adán, Mejías.

Defenders: Carvalho, Sergio Ramos, Mateos, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Albiol, Garay.

Midfielders: Gago, Lass, Diarra, Khedira, Granero, Xabi Alonso, Pedro León, Di María, Canales, Kaká, Özil.

Forwards: Cristiano, Benzema.

Meanwhile, it came as a surprise to everyone that it was Aitor Karanka who gave the habitual post-training press conference, rather than José Mourinho.  The reason was that our coach wanted to cool things down, after Sevilla had made several attempts to stir things up (which just shows who has class, no?).  Anyway, that and not the game was the main topic at the press conference.  Aitor said, “whenever he (referring to Mourinho) comes out to defend his club, he’s cautioned or sanctioned.  He’s not upset, but he doesn’t want to add to the heated atmosphere that Sevilla is creating.  Right now, anything he does can be the basis for disciplinary actions, even when his statements are objective.  That’s why he doesn’t want to talk, so that he won’t be sanctioned.”  He went on to say, “the team is united.  We know who the boss is and we’re with him to the death.  The only obsession we have is to win titles.  I’m with him every day and he’s more and more at home in the club with each day.

And when the journalists finally got over this topic and remembered that there was a game tomorrow and asked Aitor about it, he said, “we want to be finalists, but we’re not going to war.  At least on our part.”  I love him!!  That was the perfect thing to say.