박주영의 레알마드리드전에 대한 청신호 - 풀 레포트

Chu-Young Park and Celta will be flying to Madrid this afternoon for their match against Real Madrid. Nobody could think at this moment Varas was going to be ready for this weekend, because yesterday he could not train with his team mates due to a gastroenteritis, but he is among the players that Paco Herrera has called up for this weekend match. Herrera made it clear that it is going to be Sergio the one starting on Saturday and Varas will be on the bench. He gas complete confidence in Sergio, who will have his second game in La Liga, after being Celta’s hero against Sevilla.

On the other hand, Park trained with the rest of the squad without any problem, but wearing a bandage in his abductor. He was not a jubilee as other days, but there was no sign of injury. Herrera again confirmed Park will be ready to play this weekend, and he checked with the doctors, and he got the green light, stating that the Korean star is fit and ready to play ninety minutes if necessary, despite having some pain in his abductor.

During the training session the team completed a very intensive physical routine, with the players very intensive specially Park who probably knows he is not going to give away his starter spot that easily. He shined during the physical part. Before the teams were separated into two groups, they play the usual round passing game where Park showed not only that he is completely recovered from his injury, but that the predator is hungry. Despite being a friendly training routine, Park sensed his starter spot was being disputed, and he fought every single ball, physically and verbally, showing that never give up spirit he talked about during his presentation.

After that routine, Celta’s coach divided the group between defenders and strikers, and the strikers practiced their shooting and dribbles. But again Celta has the main goal still out of service, so they did this part of the training in the goal on the other end. The strikers exercise was conducted by Herrera’s first assistant Angel Rodriguez, while Celta’s coach was focusing on the defensive training. The players were instructed on the way to play the ball from the back, showing Celta’s intention to play the ball on the ground rather than raffle it. Herrera insisted that in order to do that, both wingers and side defenders must cooperate to be able to get the ball cleared and into attacking positions.

To end the session, Celta’s coach prepared a half field practice game, where Park was pairing with De Lucas, showing probably who is going to be his main rival for the game, as Bermejo seems ruled out because Herrera does not expect a physical battle in this game, and neither the air game seems to be crucial. During the short practice game, we could observe how Park nearly scored a goal with his heel, in a beautiful effort. As the ball seemed to be lost, and Park on his way to the ground, he connected with his heel, but not strong enough to put the ball in the back of the net. Again, during this last part of the session, the level of concentration Park showed was very high never giving a ball for lost.

Herrera was very happy at the end of the session, and gathered his players for a last talk. Long claps from the players, who will meet again at the center this afternoon to flight to Madrid for tomorrow´s game with their spirits higher than ever.