Quiet morning and samba on Friday

FC Barcelona's Ciutat Esportiva training complex has been a quiet place after coach Pep Guardiola gave the first team squad a holiday until next Tuesday, but the youth players were joined by the Brazil national team. And this means SAMBA!



Dani Alves and the Brazil squad began their training get together at FC Barcelona's Ciutat Esportiva on Friday afternoon as the national team arrived and will be joined by Adriano Correia on Saturday. Yes, you read correctly, Adriano is in national team! Dani Alves and Adriano will spend next days together. Let's celebrate with this cute photo:



Blaugrana training complex has been taken over by a new tenant as A Seleção moved in to work for four days. Coach Mano Menezes will oversee his squad as he continues to build after returning to action following the World Cup Finals. On Tuesday Brazil will round off their stay in the city with a friendly against the Barça B side.

One more great news, our striker David Villa scored for Spain in game with Liechtensstein (Spain won 4:0). In starting eleven were also Busquets, Pique, Xavi and Iniesta.



And do you recognize this man?

If yes, you're right, it's Tito Vilanova;) If not, you should get to know him. Recently I wrote some about him as he conducted our team’s training session. He is VERY important memeber of our coaching team, and there is great article about him here (click). No matter if you know this guy or no I really recomend reading it! I promise to post Tito's profile in future, but righ now some great photos, I just couldn't resist... When I was looking for nice photo of Tito I discovered that is almost imposible to find photo with Tito only, he usually has photos with Pep, I've read that they're joking about being an old married couple.






It's back-to-school time! How to survive in school/university/office? It's easy! Just take some blaugrana love with you!




Do you remeber my post about some changes at Miniestadi? (click to read more), well, now it's looks so much better (but still not finished):

Other news

FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola will be without 14 first-team players for the next ten days as international games take centre stage after only one game of the new Primera season.
Along with players from the club’s B team, Guardiola will José Manuel Pinto, Maxwell, Adriano, Éric Abidal and Seydou Keita to work with.
There will be a training session on Tuesday at 10:00 at the club’s Ciutat Esportiva complex and the players will also practice on Wednesday and Thursday morning. The squad will then be given a break and not return to training until next Monday. (read more here)

FC Barcelona will not be buying or selling any more players this summer after the club’s Sporting Vice President Josep Maria Bartomeu stated that the squad was complete.(read more-click)



Martin Cáceres will spend the 2010-11 campaign on loan at Sevilla having returned to FC Barcelona at the end of last term following a year with Juventus in Serie A.

/>

Zubi: "I’m just speechless"

Andoni Zubizarreta expressed his surprise at the call up of seven Barça players for Spain’s friendly game against Mexico later this month and he reckons: "they are just not in the right condition to play just yet”.

Reacting to Vicente del Bosque’s decision to call up the seven Barça players, Zubi explained:“this has to be the first time ever that players who are still on holiday have been called up for an international game. I’m just speechless, it’s an extraordinarily negative situation, but in every sport you just have to try and get over these things”.

Zubizarreta: “the Federation knows what Barca’s situation and the situation of our players is, there’s no need to explain that to anybody. They have the right to call them up and they are important as World Cup winners, but it’s obvious what kind of state they will be in when they arrive. It’s not logical to ask them to make such a trip and such a big effort"

After game FCB-Valerenga

Pep Guardiola was pleased with his team's first game of the pre-season campaign against Valerenga and explained that he felt fortunate to be able to call upon the services of such good youth players.

"We played everyone, we showed a good level and they showed that they were ready to play against us," Guardiola said. "The game was a very interesting chance to evaluate things."He added also that "it is very lucky that we have such a good youth system."


Guardiola also spoke about Adriano: "He will do well for us. I am delighted by the way he has settled in. He looks great going forward and will help us." Pep also praised Jonathan dos Santos': "He is attentive, disciplined and very intelligent."



Adriano Correia spoke about his debut game in Blaugrana shirt: "We have played well. It is important to start with a win and now we have to keep working.I felt comfortable out there because my team-mates and the coach have been great. He asks us to do things and we do them.I am calm and at the coach's disposal and I will fight for my place.The young players are very good. It is no coincidence that they have been promoted to Segunda A. I hope that they can stay in the team."

Rubén Miño: "I am delighted to have played with the first team. I have been at Barça since I was very young and today I fulfilled a dream. I felt calm on the pitch. Out of the three youth team goalkeepers it was my turn to step forward. I am working hard and I have to take advantage of any opportunities. We are preparing for the new season and it is great to train with the first team and to learn from them."

Seydou Keita: "The feeling is good. It is not easy to play after two weeks of training, but we have done well. We travelled for three hours and the pitch was heavy, but we won the game and it is a good way to start things off. The youngsters are like first team players as there is no difference when you play out there with them."

Sergi Roberto: "I am very pleased because this was my first game with the first team. The coach told us to play how we know how and that everything would turn out well. Now I must continue working hard and see if I have another chance to play for the first team."

Players are super motivated to play

Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova called many young players for preseason training and paid special attention to talents from Barca B. 17 players from B team, Oier, Miño, Masip, Dalmau, Sergi Gomez, Armando, Muniesa, Riverola, Ilie, Sergi Roberto, Tello, Benja, Jonathan Soriano, Nolito, Cuenca, Jonathan dos Santos and Edu Oriol trained with first team boys.



As Vilanova explained, usually in preseason there was a selection of eight or ten players who trained with the first team, but this year the circumstances are different: 'The B team could not start with four or five players, and as we need to complete training, we've called everyone.'



He also added that coaching staff saw them training and playing matches in the B, but it's always good to have direct contact with them and teach them about the first team tactics. As we can imagine young talents are supermotivated, especially that players like Pedro or Busquets succeed.