Real Madrid's PreSeason Plans

[Robinho4Ever]

Real Madrid have announced their PreSeason plans:

Los Blancos will be bidding to secure their third La Liga title in a row next season and plan to prepare with a vigorous schedule that will include a training camp and an array of high-profile friendly matches, while the Spanish Super Cup will also be contested in pre-season.

Eight Madrid players, including Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos of Spain will represent their nations at Euro 2008, while the majority of their Madridista team-mates recently kicked off a hard-earned holiday.

Training Camp

Players will be asked to report for pre-season on July 14, where the squad will meet up for five days of team-building in Portugal's Algarve. Then, for the fifth year in succession Madrid will return to Irdning in Austria for the most strenuous part of their pre-season campaign, which will see ten days (21-31 July) of a strict training regime.

High-Profile Friendlies

Following their return from Austria, the team will fly straight to London for the Emirates Cup event held by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. This year's event is expected to excite due to high-profile participants such Juventus and Hamburg.

Los Merengues will then return to the Spanish capital before flying to Colombia to play Independiente Santa Fe on August 7 in Bogota. Following that clash the players return home until 10 August, when they again leave Madrid for Germany.

Before the Spanish Super Cup, Madrid are scheduled to visit Eintracht Frankfurt on August 12 at the Commerzbank-Arena in what will be a rematch of the fifth European Cup title won by the Madridistas in 1960. During the last two weeks leading up to the start of La Liga, Real face Copa Del Rey winners Valencia for the first title of the season in the Supercopa.

The final test of the pre-season will be battled out for Santiago Bernabéu Trophy played at the Bernabéu August 27. This year's tribute to the great Real Madrid President will be played against Sporting Lisbon, who celebrated their centenary last season.

Good Luck & Hala Madrid !!

[Pennywise]

I'm glad those Asian trips are over. After they quitted that circus, they started to win.

Barca continued, and they failed.

To travel is hard. You get tired and all this circus in Asia is not a good thing at all. Thank God that Madrid have learned.

[Pat Murphy]

Madrid Start Pre-Season With A Twist

Real Madrid's first team squad will travel to the Algarve, Portugal, on Monday in order to undertake a "Pre-pre-season" gathering...

The Bernabéu hierarchy are keen for the players to enter the new campaign in the best possible state, and to this end they will carry out a pre-season tour of Austria this year, as last.

But prior to their heading to central Europe, the squad will first of all spend a week in the Algarve for some prior preparation.

It is an unusual setup. The players are welcome (and indeed encouraged) to bring their families with them to the training base. This is in order to ease the transition back into the working season.

Whether or not such a gamble wil pay off remains to be seen, but the Madrid coaching staff seem confident that the familial atmosphere will motivate the players.

Training will be fitness-based but light in Portugal, with players encouraged to play tennis, try some basketball, or swim during their time off.

After one week in the Algarve the squad will bid farewell to their loved ones before flying out for Austria, where the real pre-season work begins

Steve Michaels, Goal.com

[lionel]

30' Linz 1 - 1 Real Madrid

Julio Baptista scored the equalizer for real madrid.

the line up is something like:

dudek
salgado -- javi garcia -- heinze -- torres
diarra
robben -- guti -- baptista
raul - higuain

[lionel]

FT::Linz 2 - 3 Real Madrid

Robben was the best player of real, with 2 assists. Baptista and raul scored headers and Saviola scored the last goal.