day 35 – preparations and a paseo

June 27, 2010.

Some of the players took a walk in the morning.  These included Cesc, Mata, Navas, Pedro, Xabi, Puyol, and Torres, and that was basically all we saw of the players yesterday, since the training session was a closed one.  We do know that the most probable starters against Portugal – Iker, Sergio, Puyol, Piqué, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Villa and Fernando Torres – had a lighter training session than the others, to preserve their strength.

Juan Mata and Javi Martínez (the two JMs) spoke to the press.  Javi revealed that if he has to play – he’s the number one candidate to replace Xabi Alonso in the starting lineup -, he’s completely prepared and will do everything to play well, but he’s hoping that Xabi recovers soon.  Juan said that he hadn’t talked – unlike Sergio and Cristiano – to Valencia teammate Miguel, who plays for Portugal, but if he did he would wish him luck (but not too much).

Looking ahead to Tuesday’s game, Raúl Albiol is definitely out after hurting his leg in the training session on Saturday.  After being checked over by the team’s doctors, it was found that he has a light injury to his right ankle.  And everyone believes that Xabi Alonso will make it to the game, although he didn’t train yesterday – he just came out onto the field in regular sneakers to hear the coach’s talk.  Today, the team will travel to Cape Town at 10h, and arrive at 12:30h.  They’ll train in the Green Point Stadium at 18h.

Since there’s not much team news from yesterday, here are some other news, interviews and videos:

– remember how I remarked that Sergio was wearing two Balance Xtreme bracelets?  Well it turns out that everyone on the team, from the players to the staff, is wearing them, because Sergio has been giving them out as gifts!

– Fernando Torres was on El Larguero last night.  He also talked to AS, which gave us this great photo.

– interview/video of Xavi with RTVE.  Fashion note: Xavi’s very layered, while the reporters blend into the field.  Xavi says he respects Cristiano Ronaldo and that the team has a lot of hope going into the Portugal game.

– interview with Javi Martínez, in the spotlight because he’s the one to replace Xabi if he can’t play.  We find out the names of the friends he was going to travel in a caravan up and down the U.S. west coast with: Omar, Ruper (from Osasuna), Sergio, Iván, and who cried when he found out that Javi was going to the World Cup (in the past, he just said a teammate): Yeste.  Javi says that all his teammates on the national team are “supermajos” (supernice).

And a cute anecdote from his childhood: he and his friends used to play football in the plaza of his hometown, and one of the goals was the door of the town church.  And so more than once, mass had to be stopped so that the priest could come out and tell the boys to go away.

– article about “the wall of Spain,” aka Puyol and Piqué.  It’s a great article about the relationship that they have, and you can tell it’s a good one.

They’ve played 75 games together (both Barcelona and selección) and have only lost three of those.  Teammates say Carles has become more relaxed since he’s had Piqué by his side on the field.

But more interestingly, we find out that the day Geri met Puyi (in 2006, when the former was still at Manchester), he thought Puyol was a basically an idiot.  (Puyol says that the meeting came the day after he had celebrated the doblete of Barça and he was exhausted because he had gone to sleep at 03h).

And how things have changed, because now Piqué says Puyol is like his older brother and that he will be eternally grateful to him for all the help he’s given him.  He adds that Puyol is really annoying on the field, because he’s always shouting at him even when the ball is on the other half, something that Busquets corroborates.  Cesc says they’re also annoying off the field, because they never let him sleep.

Piqué says they’ve agreed that both will retire from the national team when he is 30 years old (at that point, Puyol will be about 40).