Marcelo Sunshine!!!!! If only he could trade shirts with Iker…
Training continued on Friday, with a double session. In the morning, 18 footballers from the first team and five from Castilla/RMC (Joselu, Iván González, Pablo Gil, Denis and Fernando Pacheco) worked out on Campo 2 of Valdebebas. Not seen were the injured Karim Benzema, Nuri Sahin, Pepe and Coentrão, who continued with their recovery work, and Rafa Varane, who worked out in the gym.
How much do I love Marcelo Sunshine!!! I’m not the only one! And Gonzalo faking out José Callejón? Precious!!
Madrid has provided an injury report for Karim, saying he has a fibrillar tear near the abductor of his left thigh, but not releasing any information as to recovery time. I don’t expect him to recover within the next two days, so we probably won’t see him against Espanyol, meaning that Gonzalo Higuaín has a good chance to show that he deserves to play. And we can always count on Cris – sporting more hair than usual at the session – to step things up, but not while he’s sitting, of course…
I’ll update this post once the second session takes place.
In other news, you have to watch this video from the mixed zone after the Ajax game. Dutch journalist Sierd de Vos from Sport1 tells Iker, “you’re the number one enemy in the Netherlands,” to which Iker laughs and responds, “not me. I have to defend my interests, those of Spain, no?” His reaction was adorable.
The journalist then asks Iker his opinion of Ajax, even though they were not able to beat him on Tuesday night. Iker was very diplomatic and said they are an interesting and serious team (the rest of the interview is not as amusing).
Xabi Alonso presented the FIFA 12 video game on Thursday, as he appears on the cover of the game, along with Gerard Piqué. While answering questions from the press, he revealed that the players take all the rumors that they don’t get along with José Mourinho with humor, that they joke about them, since “it’s not worth it to get angry or indignant, so we take them as a joke.” He explained that “the relationships are very good, there’s good communication and that’s what we value.” Xabi also said that he feels “very comfortable” with all his teammates, regardless of who is partnering him in the midfield.
And when it was pointed out to Xabi that Piqué is smiling on the cover, Xabi responded, smiling, “I hadn’t noticed. The fact that Barcelona scores many goals in each game doesn’t frighten us. We only care about us.” Xabi might have not been the best spokesperson, as he admitted that he doesn’t spend much of his free time or time during the concentraciones playing video games, although he remembers with affection playing against his brother.
In an interview with Sky Alemania (perhaps the one that was filmed prior to the CL game against Ajax), Nuri Sahin said he still doesn’t know when he will debut with his new team, but that he’s feeling good, that he’s improving bit by bit and the rehab is going as planned, and he’s even a week ahead of schedule. As for his adaptation, Nuri told the TV channel, “my teammates have welcomed me along with Altintop and they help us so that we can integrate… I can’t choose just one… they are all superstars both on and off the field.” Meanwhile, José Mourinho is “for me, simply the best coach in the world.”
As for tweets, Álvaro Arbeloa tweeted this photo of him with Pereza’s Leiva, saying he’s un crack, an idol and that he (Álvaro) admires him a lot. Unfortunately for Álvaro and for all Pereza fans, including me, they just recently announced that they won’t be releasing a new album this year, since they feel it’s a good moment to rest and explore new things. However, they will be releasing solo projects. (By the way, the cover of their album “Animales” always makes me think of Esteban Granero). And Sergio tweeted a photo of himself. I have nothing nice to say about his pose, so I won’t say anything at all. But at least the outfit is acceptable!
