early week bits & pieces

The team is almost set for tomorrow’s pivotal Champions League match against CSKA Moscow (one more training session to go today), and they want the fans to be prepared as well!

The team began preparing for Wedneday’s very important Champions League game on Sunday, just about 12 hours after they finished beating  Betis.  Twenty one first team players, plus Tomás Mejías, partook in the session, with the starters of that game doing recovery work while the rest of the players worked out at a higher intensity.  That’s the official story, but they seemed to spend most of their time jumping around.

On Sunday night, several of the players were seen heading to the El Trasgu restaurant in Torrelodones, which specially opened up that night (as it’s normally closed on Sunday nights) for Fábio Coentrão’s birthday celebration.  Cristiano, Marcelo and Pepe, accompanied by their families, were in attendance.  The Lamborghini appears to have been fixed, because Cris showed up driving it, with his family in another car (I guess since a baby seat doesn’t really go with that car).  Marcelo Sunshine drives a Mini.  That fits, no?  Pictures from Marca.

Other Sunday activities: Sergio spent some time with his horse Novillero, tweeting us these photos, while Iker enjoyed the beautiful Sunday to have lunch with friends and family.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Sergio bought some horses just to have the opportunity to dress like that.  He’s probably very jealous that Charlotte Casiraghi gets to be outfitted by Gucci when she competes, and is trying to find some way to get his hands on Gucci’s equestrian clothing.

The team returned to training on Monday.  The starters from Saturday’s game once again worked out at a lesser intensity, while the rest of the players were joined by Castilla’s Lucas and RMC’s Dani Suárez, Bruno and Edu as they trained.

Here are more photos from the “Play your part” starring Iker, Xabi, Marcelo, Pepe and Pipita.  I like that Gonzalo was able to use his Argentine Spanish!  Whoever produced this video has improved a lot from last year.

As for Castilla, those boys have been giving us even more things to smile about via twitter.  Our three U-19 European champions – Carva, Álex and MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín – headed to Lleida on Monday to attend the Spanish Sports Press Association’s Gala Nacional del Deporte and to pick up an award for winning that championship.  Their mode of transport was the AVE, and in the waiting area, they ran into moto racer Nico Terol (who was also honored at the gala), and Álex and Álvaro continued where they left off at the Premios Alma by getting a picture with Nico.

Then on the AVE, ABMM tweeted this photo, saying, “please, Álex is looking for someone to sit next to on the AVE…  jajajajja.”  Then he tweeted a photo of Dani sleeping (and topless), writing “Dani has fallen asleep on the train.”  He followed that up by clarifying (I guess because some people were horrified that Dani took his shirt off), “it was a joke with an old photo taken on Castilla’s bus!  That’s what the boredom on the AVE does to you…”  Dani got his revenge shortly after, tweeting a photo of Álvaro asleep (I love that he just has photos like that on his phone, I’d love to see what else is on there!).  They did get serious later on, as they donned suits for the gala.

At the gala, ABMM said, “we are very content with how the first team and coach treat us, with the advice they give us… we have the feeling that each time we are called up, we’ll be warmly welcomed, and the players from the first team try to transmit to us the values of the club.”

And reader Mouah points us towards these photos of Karim Benzema at the Les Enfoirés gala.  I’m hoping the all white suit was a costume rather than an outfit.  And Karim loves vests, doesn’t he?  Mouah also tells us that the blond is a singer named Jenifer (who’s really a brunette and wearing a wig) that Karim has been linked to.

You can also watch a backstage video here.