Before we get to the status entry below, a touch of background: Brian has been traveling to Barcelona every year for the last 5 years to learn and have his teams compete. This year is no different. On Wednesday his 2001’s will open group play in the Mediterranean International Cup against the 800 pound gorilla, […]
Barcelona
The American Soccer Community Hates Spain
Maybe not the individuals … or maybe so (think of all the shit that’s said about Busquets). But moreso, it’s what they represent. They have been exposing all of American soccer shortcomings and fallacies in a way that’s unprecedented. What they’ve been doing has gone against what the American rhetoric has been for decades. They […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 13 Notes
Woke up nice and early to eat some breakfast and prepare the boys with a tactical walk through. We centered on how we wanted to attack in possession and defend against Soccer Stars USA’s 3-4-3 formation. Boys looked ready and anxious. Got them prepped in our locker room and around 10:15 we took to the […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 12 Notes [Video]
After a good nights sleep it was breakfast with the team at 9am to kickstart an important day. Two more group-play matches awaited us at 1pm and 5pm. Danny and I had individual meetings with several players to show them some of the good and bad things we did in our first game. Matches are […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 11 Notes [Video]
By mandate the day began waaaaaay too early for us. We had arrived back in L’estartit at 2 am after our Champions League adventure and had to get up at 8 am, eat breakfast on the fly to depart to Palamos for the MIC Cup 2012 opening ceremony. Every team is present and it was […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 10 Notes
Barca Day 10 Let the boys sleep in so they could acclimate as much as possible. Team breakfast was at 10am at at the Panorama Hotel (2 blocks from our apartment-like hotel). We then had a light recovery session at a dirt-like field a few blocks away. Light jogging and stretching to relax the muscles […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 9 Notes
Barca Day 9 Monday saw the entire U10 expedition depart in the early hours of the morning to return home. Danny and I had a free day to relax and recharge our batteries before meeting the U11 group that was arriving at 7:15 pm. A labor strike in France delayed them for over an hour […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 8 Notes
Barca Day 8 Woke up to a pleasant surprise on Sunday morning. We were able to have photos taken with the replica of the Champions League trophy. After the Champs League photos, there was some last minute shopping, lunch, and then off to Almeda to play in our final game. Almeda has a beautiful facility […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 7 Notes
Barca Day 7 No need or urgency to wake up early as there were no planned activities in the morning. Ben Lederman First thing on the agenda was attending Cuitat Esportiva to watch Academy games. We arrived at 4pm to watch the FC Barcelona Alevin A (2000’s) team vs Sant Andreu. The highlight for our […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 6 Notes
We began the day at the training field doing the coaching course for our partner clubs from Nor Cal, New York, and Arizona at the field adjacent to the Camp Nou and Mini Stadi. Coach Jordi Vinyals and Arnau Navarro were running a little late after their L’Hospitalet training session so the coaches took the […]