a full first day in the United States

In today’s post: the training session, the press conferences, the Huecco presentation, the latest on La Rojita and why Joan Capdevila was held up by airport security!

The players had time to take a walk around Providence and go shopping throughout the day (they were super easy to spot, as they all wore their La Roja shirts and shorts.  On the left we have Álvaro Negredo, Santi Cazorla, Joan Capdevila and Borja Valero taking a morning walk).

In the early afternoon, VDB, Pepe Reina, David Villa and Sergio Ramos attended the presentation of charity project Dame Vida-Soccket with singer Huecco.  In the late afternoon, they had a video session, and Vicente del Bosque spoke to the press, as did Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso.  Then it was onto the training session.

Today, the team will sign autographs and pose for pictures at an event organized by Adidas at WeGotSoccer in Foxborough, and the World Cup trophy will be available for fans to pose with.  They will also hold a training session at Gillette Stadium.  Hopefully some of you who are there will get to see our boys in various sites throughout the day!

Vicente del Bosque will also speak to the press from the Hotel Westin, and after the training session, the coach, Iker and David Villa will attend an awards ceremony to receive the awards for best team in 2010 and best athlete.

The training session

Spain held their first training session on American soil yesterday afternoon, at a field near Gillette Stadium (though the players used the locker room of the stadium), where Spain will play the United States on Saturday.  The team did their normal warm-up, jogging, rondos, ball exercises, mini-games…

The press conferences

During the press conference, Xabi talked about how it’s “great news” that football has been able to attract Americans, as the majority of the tickets for the game have been sold: “it’s great news that football has this pulling power, that people want to see their national team as well as us.  It’s also great news that football is becoming more popular in this country.”  He also said that the team would take this friendly and the next one seriously and with professionalism, and that history (the 2009 Confederations Cup) wouldn’t be repeated, although it was a “good lesson” for them.  And of course, the media couldn’t resist from asking Xabi about his relationship with Barcelona’s players, to which Xabi responded, “it’s more of a media issue than our issue.”  Very classy, and very Xabi.

Fernando has serious hair issues.

Meanwhile, Fernando Torres expressed confidence in himself, saying that he didn’t even think that he would not be chosen: “I’ve been coming to the national team for years and that wasn’t something that went through my mind.”

At one point, Paloma Antoranz had to reprimand the journalists, because they kept asking club-related questions, despite it being a national team press conference.

And Vicente del Bosque described the atmosphere between the players as “good, and with a lot of desire to play two good games.”  He also emphasized that the players don’t have problems with each other, since all that is history: “after the storm comes the calm.  The wounds left by the clásicos are healing with the national team.  They’re cured.”

He also spoke about the light “makeover” of the team in face of the upcoming Eurocopa, with the addition of Manu del Moral and the re-incorporation of Bruno, Borja Valero and Álvaro Negredo: “Spain doesn’t need a revolution, but it does need a bit of retouching.  We’re keeping an eye on those that come from the U-21 team, and how they’ll do in their Euro.  Those who have joined us have done well, such as Busquets, Mata and Javi Martínez.  Our young players are the best we have.”

The next question was about why Busquets isn’t on the U-21 team, to which VDB responded, “the reason is because Busquets is a senior team player, who will be at the Eurocopa next summer, and not at the Olympics, if the U-21 qualifies.  Sergio told me in Lithuania that he wanted to go with the U-21 team, that he wanted to play in London.  He did that on the field, with Casillas as a witness.  I told him then that I was grateful for his offer, but his place is on the senior team and that he was going to continue with us.  Something similar happened with Casillas in his day and now he’s our captain.”

VDB also had kind words for Fernando Hierro: “he’s been a great collaborator and a stupendous boss.  His departure hurts me and we’re going to miss him.  I did everything possible to convince him to stay, but his decision was affected by some personal issues, so it was out of my hands.  Personally, I’m going to suffer his loss in my daily work, but I have to adapt.”

Dame vida

As mentioned previously, Spanish singer Huecco (real name: Iván Sevillano Pérez) presented the “Dame vida-Soccket” project yesterday at the Hotel Westin, which included the music video for the song.  The purpose of the project is to unite music and sports to help those who are disadvantaged, and to promote clean energy.  Huecco provided the song “Dame vida,” which he wrote, and several Harvard engineers (the women in the picture) provided the “Soccket” side: the Soccket is a soccer ball (notice the play on words) that captures energy whenever it is kicked around.  Afterward, a child can connect an LED lamp to the ball to read, study or illuminate their house.  Fifteen minutes of play can provide three hours of light.  Huecco’s royalties from the song will be used to manufacture the balls.

Vicente del Bosque was present (he appears at the end of the video, asking for your collaboration, as well as heading the ball – in a suit!), as well as the three players that sang and showed off their athletic skills in the video, David Villa, Pepe Reina and Sergio Ramos.

During the press conference, VDB revealed that Iván wanted to be a Real Madrid player, but didn’t make it.  He also said all of them were happy to help: Sergio, Pepe and… (he had to look down the table to remember who the third player was – David Villa).  Huecco said David actually sang in the video, and David said the project is (of course) “maravilloso” and impressive, and that they had a great time filming the video.  Then Huecco spoke about Pepe Reina, the “inventor” of the flamenquito part in the song that goes “lo, lo, lo, lo…”  Pepe echoed El Guaje in saying that they were happy to collaborate, and that they feel privileged to provide this power to those who need it.  As for Sergio, Huecco said he can do some musical things that even he himself can’t.  Sergio said the experience was great and that “they can count on us whenever they want.”  Huecco ended with an impromptu performance, but despite his encouragement, the players didn’t sing.  Watch a video of their press conference here.

The song is extremely catchy, no?  Part of it reminds me of another song, but I can’t figure out which one… And everyone looks great in it!  Plus, what a fantastic, innovative idea this ball is!

Social networking

Iker continues to please with his Facebook posts.

Yesterday, his gift to us was a picture of Fernando Llorente (what a person I have in front of me!  Fernando Llorente, or as Pepe Reina says, “el camión de la Roja,” sends you all a hug) and another of Zipi and Zape (I spend hours with these two characters and I never get tired of watching them.  At least they’re good people!  They tell me to send a hug to all of you, especially to Villamarchante and Zaragoza) on the bus.  He also found time to share these profound thoughts with us:

on the U.S.: I like American patriotism. Do not go into political issues, I do not care. If I come in and claim to be from here. I like it.

on the 11th anniversary of his debut:  11 years ago today debut for Spain. I am very proud of being in on this computer. Thanks for making me Camacho debut, thanks to the other coaches.

(here’s what he meant to say, translated from the Spanish: 11 years ago, I had the luck of debuting with the national team.  It’s not easy to maintain a spot for so much time on the national team, but luckily I have.  I’m very proud.  It doesn’t seem possible that so many years and so many games have gone by.  As of today, I have played 119 games, and this was the first (referring to the picture he posted).  I want to thank Camacho for debuting me, and also to Sáez, Aragonés and Del Bosque for continuing to play me.)

La Rojita

The U-21 team continued training at Las Rozas yesterday, while Fernando Hierro hinted that if the team does indeed qualify for the Olympic Games, they’ll take along those players who helped them get there, meaning they won’t be bringing the three overage players that each team is allowed.  The federation is also looking to the U-21 team to reinforce the senior team in the future, emulating clubs with their canteras, in order to send a positive message to those younger players.  I had a training session photo prepared to use in this post, but I prefer these pictures tweeted by Álvaro Domínguez, so here they are: Álvaro (who is pretty cute himself), adorable Ander and of course, my beloved Javi Martínez (!!!).  Look at that smile!!!  It’s so !!!

This morning, during the team’s training session, (por favor) Juan Mata suffered a sprain to his left ankle after a collision with Thiago, leading him to abandon the game accompanied by one of the fisios.  Mata was then taken to the Clínica Cemtro, where he was diagnosed with a grade 1 sprain, meaning he’ll be out for three days and will miss the friendly against Russia.  However, he will be completely recovered by the time the Euro starts.

Meanwhile, the future U-21ers beat Montenegro 3-0 yesterday in the Elite Round, behind two goals from Juanmi and one from MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín.

To represent the team, a tweeted picture from Álex Fernández and his roommate Isco Alarcón.  Be sure to check out their twitters to see them tease each other – Álex joked that Isco had signed for a team from Uzbekistan and later on that he was going to play for Bolivia’s national team, while Isco claimed that Álex (the nicest guy on La Roja, a great player and a better person) was headed for Russia’s ninth division.

And a cute video from reader Heike about the adorable friendship between MFC (Real Madrid) and Sergi Gómez (Barcelona).  In his lovely mumbly voice, MFC says Sergi is “very, very, very, very annoying on the field” which provokes the laughter of Sergi himself.  They keep laughing throughout the video and end with a hug.

Joan Capdevila Méndez = Juan Méndez?

Want to know why Joan was detained by immigration upon arrival in the United States?  Here’s the story.  When his passport was scanned by the computer, an alert came up, because his second last name is Méndez, and there is a person named “Juan Méndez” who is on the U.S.’ black list.  Thus, Joan was detained and forced to spend half an hour in a room with security agents to clear up his name.  During that time, he was also reprimanded for using his mobile phone.  When he finally came out, he got an ovation from those of his teammates who were waiting around.  Fernando Torres and one of the equipment managers also had to pass by that room to clear things up.  That’s why it took about two hours for the team to pass through airport immigration.