news from Wednesday plus a lot of fun La Roja stuff!

The team held two training sessions yesterday, with Vicente del Bosque still not revealing who the starting 11 against Lithuania will be, although most of us will probably be able to predict it correctly.

There’s not anything too exciting to report on about the training sessions, but it did leave us with these photos.  Again, it seems a bit of a stretch to call those moments “training,” no?

Carlos Marchena and Fernando Llorente spoke to the press, where Marchena said that Spain didn’t suffer from “Xavidependencia” (dependence on Xavi), despite his importance to the team, because there are other players on this team that can take over for him when needed.

The team will leave for Salamanca this morning via bus, and train this afternoon at El Helmántico, where the game will be played on Friday.

Meanwhile, over on the U-21 side, La Rojita completed their last training session at Las Rozas.  They’ll leave this morning for Burgos, where they’ll face Croatia in the first leg of the Euro 2011 qualifying playoff on Saturday at El Plantío.  Everyone hopes that David de Gea (cold) and Diego Capel (muscle problems) will recover in time to play.

Castilla y León will be the province to be in this weekend!

Now, onto the fun news!

First, the twitter update.

Sergio Ramos tweeted last night about watching “Lost”: “I’m going to watch a bit of the series “Lost,” I only have the last season left to watch.  I send you all a big kiss… And he also tweeted a picture of him and Iniesta, saying, “a promise is a promise… here with the great Iniesta (who is a real phenomenon).”

This was the very cute picture!  Sergio had tweeted on Tuesday that he would send some pictures on Wednesday.

Oh dear, Sergio’s relentless thumbs-up posing has infected Andrés! Someone stop them!

Álvaro Arbeloa also tweeted last night.  On the left: “on Saturday, I’ll be in Zaragoza to proclaim open (the Pilar festival).  I want to thank Vicente del Bosque who allowed me to be present at such a special event for me.”  And on the right, a continuation: “and of course (I would also like to thank) Iker and all my teammates.  I’ll see you there.  Now it’s time to rehearse my speech.  I’m taking suggestions!”

Meanwhile, Correos (the Spanish postal service) will release on Oct. 21 a stamp commemorating Spain’s World Cup victory.  It’ll have a face value of €2 and come in a limited edition of 310,000 sets.

The set comes with a picture of the team on the outside, while the stamp itself features the trophy (but no Iker holding the trophy).  You know what would be a best seller?  Stamps featuring each of the players and the coach!  But perhaps there are regulations against featuring living people, or something like that.  Anyway, this is what the set looks like.

And some videos/audios!  Click on the pictures to get to the video/audio!

Sergio Canales talked to TVE about how how he and the team is feeling ahead of the Croatia game.

It’s worth watching just to see again the two beautiful goals he scored recently with La Rojita, a taconazo against the Netherlands, and the Thiago partnership free kick goal against Poland.

You also get a glimpse of his parents, who accompanied him at Las Rozas yesterday.  It looks like they brought him a book, which is none other than Los Secretos de La Roja!!!

Pepe also spoke with TVE, which introduced him as the “heart” of the national team.  So true!

Pepe commented on the support he received from his teammates after the Argentina game, Mourinho and the rising star that is David de Gea.

It’s also revealed in the video that Pepe’s wife Yolanda is pregnant for the third time!  ¡Felicidades!

TVE also had the very brilliant idea of making Santi Cazorla interview his Villarreal-La Roja teammates (we went from one player at the World Cup to five four months later!).

Santi wasn’t able to get through a single question without cracking up, and most of his teammates couldn’t resist laughing either!  They start smiling as soon as they look Santi in the face.  I don’t think I have to translate this one; just watch!  Adorable is the only word for it.

 

And Aritz Aduriz spoke with “El Larguero” last night.

He reveals that his teammates are “súper normal,” the training clothes the utilleros gave him were too large, and that he loves all kinds of sports (though his favorite is football), and that his parents didn’t particularly like football because they preferred snow and mountains.

Aritz’ father is a chauffeur and his mother works in administration at a newspaper in Donostia.  He has one younger sister.  And he got good grades in school!

Aritz watched bits and pieces of the World Cup in Asia, as he was on vacation in Bali and Bangkok, and the final in Donosti (at first, he wasn’t too sure where he was).

We also find out that during his first day with the national team, he sat with Xabi, Borja and Fernando at dinner.  When he arrived at the dining room, Xabi was already sitting there, and he waved Artiz over to come sit across from him.  They’re old friends who played a lot together and against each other when they were younger, including at Antiguoko (from the age of 14 to 17), and they meet up every time both are in Donosti.