Not sure what I think about traveling to Germany right before traveling to the US, especially for such weak rivals…not sure I understand that move. Would a Second tier German team pay a decent amount of money for that preseason match or something like that?
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If that Isco to Ceuta announcement had been more than a Innocents Day joke, it would have been fun to watch that encounter…but otherwise, no real comment on the two Spanish friendlies. Do you all know if Gudelj’s brother is playing again or retired? Would be fun to see those guys play each other.
Speaking of the Isco “announcement” over the Winter break, Isco is still teamless, no?
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7 friendlies sounds about right, especially considering that we’ll have the Supercup match vs. City too - although that is after we play the first match of the season in La Liga vs. Valencia.
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Maybe it’s to give more of the fringe players and Cantera a run out before the main squad take the field in America?
Hansa Rostock are a rather poor choice given their fans association with right-wing hooliganism. Seems like someone at the club didn’t do their homework…
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Another friendly added, this time a ‘finalissima’ vs. Independiente Del Valle on July 19th.
Technically 1 day after the match vs. Ceuta.
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Was here in Ecuador with the in-laws (all from Ecuador) when that was announced yesterday. No one is a fan of Independiente del Valle, per se, but everyone loves to see Ecuadorian teams competing internationally. A few years ago, my own adopted Ecuadorian club, LDU Quito, was giving similar performances, winning the Libertadores (South American Champions League equivalent) and other international competitions like the Supercopa equivalent for South America.
Has been fun to see these two Ecuadorian teams, both from Quito, really standing out in spite of economic headwinds of being a very small league without much financial strength.
I’m gathering this will supplant the Antonio Puerta trophy this year since the article I read on ESPN. Would be cool if somehow we had convinced UEFA and CONMEBOL to name the trophy permanently as the Antonio Puerta trophy or something like that, but to save me some digging maybe one of you already was able to figure out what that reference to Puerta meant in the press. If in fact they were permanently naming this trophy the Antonio Puerta, the downside would be that Sevilla wouldn’t play in it every year, but would still be interesting exposure of the history of Puerta to the world.
Given the timing of the match, I can’t imagine we’ll put full steam into the match, but a trophy is a trophy and playing against a team in Ecuador will naturally give some more attention to SevillaFC among Ecuadorian football fans (again not a huge market, but still good to gain some sliver of market share), although probably not much attention in the rest of South America.
I’ll report back after the match, as I’ll be watching it from here in Ecuador and will be curious to see how much attention it gets.
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TRAVELING GROUP NAMED FOR THE PRE-SEASON CAMP MONTECASTILLO
Marko didn’t travel due to some visa issues and Carmona is almost surely signing contract in Portugal this week. Otherwise, everyone is there, no?
I don’t see Navas listed.
International players were given some extra time off. No Bono, Navas, Acuña, Gudelj, Ocampos & En-Nesyri.
Having said that, Idrissi still came back early. I like seeing that in players. I hope it translates on the pitch.
I’m not up to speed on why Ocampos was late back. Why was that?
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He got an Argentina call up.
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