We finally broke for breakfast, got all of our stuff for the day, and headed to the field where the National Team was training. It was so awesome seeing such a high level of talent. We only got to watch about 30-40 minutes of the session, unfortunately.
Adama, number 17 plays for Barca. He was playing forward today. You can see how physical this game is.
Hector, number 2 plays for Arsenal. He was their right back.
Number 10 on blue made the starting team during training. It was pretty cool to see the process. He was wearing red (the blue team are the starters, and I'm sure some of the red as they were playing 8v8), and in between drills, one of the trainers ran to the locker room to bring him a blue jersey. It goes to show you, it's not what you do in games that's the most important. It's the effort you put into training.
After watching the National Team, we boarded the bus for downtown Madrid. It was nice to get out and see the city a little bit. We saw a few sites, the first being the Don Quixote Statue.
Next, the Plaza de Toros where they have the bullfights.
Then we were dropped off at the Plaza Mayor, which was pretty fun. Don't ask me why, but the boys couldn't get enough of this goofy street performer. It was someone doing a little dance to weird music. According to Alex, it "made his day."
We broke into 3 groups, for lunch and free time. All the Utah boys, Jake, Darius, Will, and Sam and his mom were with me. While Will had to exchange money, we got to witness the police chase down a bootlegger. It must have been a sting operation, because an undercover cop pulled out his stick. It was pretty awesome. I was too slow to get my camera out, though, so sorry. No pics or video.
We ate at a little cafe that had the best lemonade ever, and I ordered pasta and tapas. *We're all in for lunch.
More street performers. Alex was so excited he got to wear street performer's gear that it made James and Marshall want to join in the fun.
You know it's a good day when you can find a Nike store! This is one happy Sly. :)
After shopping, we loaded the bus once again to head to the Real Madrid Training Facilities for training. When we were entering the facilities, there were people lined up with cameras. Apparently the first team was there training and people wait for them to leave to get pictures. Unfortunately we didn't see anyone while we there.
The boys did some awesome possession drills that I can't wait to do with my teams back home. This was just the stuff I came for. Most of it was all two touch soccer. Actually all of today was 2-3 touch soccer and keeping the ball on the ground. Go figure...
They ended with a scrimmage, and a little wrap up session with the coaches. I loved everything they had to say. They called out Gianni for his style of play, it being "very American," meaning he just turns and goes towards the goal. They Real Madrid way is to pass and drop the ball back to your midfield, not turn every time. They really reinforce two touch soccer. Passing and moving, and always communicating. Just... playing the easy simple pass.
After training, we headed back to the hotel for dinner, where they had hamburgers and pasta prepared for us. Again, after dinner we had a long discussion with the boys on discipline and professionalism. We talked about our coaching courses and how there will always be some coaches that won't pass. This experience is really no different. Some will pass, some will not, in terms of retaining and applying the knowledge they are gaining from this experience. We want the boys to really appreciate this opportunity and use it to change the way the play, the way they think, and gain more responsibility not only for them, but their peers. It's really amazing how much one year makes. The 15's are fairly easy to manage. The 14's, on the other hand, most are clueless and are amongst those who would fail this experience. The 15's definitely have room to grow, and one kid (I won't name names) forgot his training jersey to training tonight, and was unable to train. Eventually, one of the injured players swapped out his jersey so he could join the training session. Tomorrow the boys have room inspection, and probably fingernail inspection again. I hope over the next 5 days we can have an impact on them that will change them for the better long term.
"Change is the end result of all true learning."
-Leo Buscaglia
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