Friday

So today we woke up late and went to the training grounds next to Camp Nou. Jordi and Arnau took us thru tactical movements and drills the whole afternoon. Worked us thru movements and how to coach them thru the defensive, middle and attacking thirds. From there we went downtown and went to lunch and a futbol store. After that we had a scheduled friendly for the boys in Valldoreix. Spanish futbol in general is amazing to watch. FC Barcelona is the peak of that sport in this world, but to watch these smaller clubs that feed into the top clubs is equally impressive. We watched San Cugat and Club Esportiu Valldoreix tonight and it was flawless Spanish futbol. Skills and movement are all consistent with 99% of Spanish futbol. Inspiring and impressive to watch. I can only hope to bring back as much of this as possible to implement.

Ciutat Esportiva

Tonight we made it back out to the training facility to watch our LA acadmey 11 year old boys who are the current Surf Cup champs play Barca's same age boys. LA academy pressured them for the first 10 minutes and Barca sat back and knocked the ball around. Finally they turned it up on LA. The final result wasn't pretty. I lost count. These world class Barca boys were a treat to watch. They truly are a machine. We also watched futsal and their basketball operations as we waited for the friendly to begin. After the match we hung out and watched a few other training sessions. I know one of the goal keeper trainers and I spoke with him and watched his keeper sessions. They were awesome. Also watched Oscar (our coach 08) and his team train. So many teams to watch and so little time.

morning session

We just wrapped up our morning coaches session and stadium and museum tour. Stadium and museum shockingly haven't gotten old yet. Coaches session was great. Jordi and Arnau ran it. Got some really good points to stress and new drills to develop. Miguel is an assistant coach at Sabadell (suburb of Barcelona and a 2nd div. team.) has asked if I would like to come watch their training tomorrow and thursday for their coaches session. Trying to work that it. Greg and I will now grab a late lunch and then head over the ciutat for the rest of the eve to watch all of Barca academy train. Ciao

1st day of 2012 trip

So we flew over here and got off the plane and it was Sunday morning. Greg and I made it to the hotel and checked in and then took the tram to the ciutat esportiva (Barca's training facility) and watched a few academy games. From there we came back to hotel and took a power nap. Arnau has a good friend that trains for Espanyol (another La Liga 1st division team from Barcelona) and he got Greg , Arnau and I into the VIP level to watch their match against Malaga ( a newly purchased team by a middle eastern billionaire that is trying to buy/build a powerhouse team). Espanyol fans are younger and full of energy. Stadium was singing and chanting the entire match. Ton of fun. From there we drove straight over to the miniestadi (wilipedia it if you want more info). Barca played Alcoryon (sp?) and won 2-1 and recently fired Chelsea boss, AVB, was sitting down in front of us. Jordi, Arnau and Miguel (goalkeeper coach) sat with us and enjoyed ourselves. Going to get some sleep now. Waking up and heading off to first day of training at same complex as last year. After that is lunch and heading back out to the ciutat to film some of Barca's academy teams. Bon nit!