La Liga: Barcelona stars to see too much football this summer
The Catalan giants, Barcelona, gave a great number of players to the Spanish national side in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It was a world record: 8 players of the same club were in the football team, and from the eight, seven were part of the starting line-up. It was also seen for the first time that seven Barca players were a part of the final, where La Furia Roja made history by winning the FIFA World Cup for the first time in their footballing history; making them the reigning World and European Champions (they also won the UEFA European Football Championship in 2008).
Even though the players are still recovering from the post World Cup euphoria and exhaustion, many of them still have the passion to play football (or simply have no choice in the matter), as they will be playing much more football this summer. Pep Guardiola revealed that he is going to have more time with his players as most of the matches are going to take place on Tuesdays and Fridays next season.
On the other hand, the Spanish side have a lot of international fixtures lined up, as Vicente del Bosque's side is going to face huge competition while defending the European Championship in 2012. These international fixtures are going to start from Friday, 3rd September 2010; they will face Liechtenstein for their first international friendly match of this season.
Besides this, the Spanish team is going to travel to New York, where they will face the South American side, Argentina, for a friendly encounter, as there are no games in the first week of September for Pep Guardiola's side. This means that Guardiola is going to have one more day to work with his team when they will return on the 8th of September.
The changes that have occurred in the schedule are good for the Barcelona side, as they will have more time to rest. Spain is now going to face Lithuania on October 12th and Scotland the next Tuesday. Therefore, the coaches will have ample time to train with the players; however, the players might be too stressed out with so much travelling and training.
Even though the World Cup is over, many international duties still await for all the Barcelona stars. The Barcelona players already have many international commitments, as they are going to face each other in New York: Lionel Messi is going to be a part of the Argentinean squad that is going to face Spain in the friendly. Moreover, Lionel Messi, Dani Alves and Rafa Marquez are going to be a part of Copa America next summer, and they will have to train for their International side throughout the season. Moreover, as the European Championship is going to take place just after 2 years, the players will have to keep on training for their country, Spain. In 2013, there is going to be the Confederations Cup and for that, the players will have to travel a lot and play for their International side. Just because of this tough routine, many of the Barcelona players are going to see a lot of football during this summer.
The Catalan giants are going to train with two new additions, Adriano Correia and David Villa, and the training session is going to take place on the 27th of July. Soon, they have to face many teams as the pre-seasons are about to start. They will even face their Spanish rivals Sevilla during the pre-season friendly matches, and the return of Ronaldinho is also on the list, as AC Milan is going to face Barcelona in Camp Nou.
With such a tough summer routine, many players might get injured and even stressed out. The only way Barcelona can manage is by using their bench time and time again; with players who came back earlier from the FIFA World Cup and also with the ones who did not actually manage to go there. They include Lionel Messi, as Argentina was knocked out in the quarterfinals by the German side, Bojan, who was not a part of the Spanish side, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose team, Sweden, did not manage to go to the FIFA World Cup, as they were knocked out in the qualifying stage.
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