Tuesday

Tuesday we started off in the morning at 9:30 in the FCB offices. We listened to a presentation on the FCB philosophy. Very interesting. The head of the Academy program spoke about the entire training program philosophy of FCB. The lesson was en espanol as was the ppt presentation. We should be getting a copy which we will share with our club back in AZ. 

In the afternoon we drove over to the John Gamper campus about 6 miles from Camp Nou to watch the 15-16 year old player, both the "a" and "b" squads. What an impression. The teams were doing a "recover practice" since they had a game last weekend and it was intense. I drew maps of the entire practice session which I will document when I get home. The practice flow was this:

warm-up

agility drill

passing/juggling

7v7 w/ keepers on half field

I was very impressed with the speed of play and the intensity that the kids played with. Every touch on the all had a meaning and no one ever stopped. The newer group (the a team) was paying on the next field. Oscar (our guide) said that if one of the b players wasn't making it then a b player could take his place. The competition is very, very strong.

As we were leaving we met a few superstars from the past: Cicinho and Macinho. We also met Cicinho's younger son, Jonathon who plays for the 17's (Giovanni de Santos little brother).

After a ride back to Camp Nou we watched the FCB vs Shakter match. FCB lost 2-3 and only played a few of their regular players. Alexander Hleb played a very nice match as well as #27. Even though they lost they played nice football. They had 63% possession and had incredible touches throughout.