Having been at the Santiago Bernabeu yesterday to see Real Madrid book their ticket to the Champions League final, we spent a full day learning about the Academy behind Europe's most successful club. The first thing that I need to emphasize is how ridiculously extravagant their facility 'Ciudad Real Madrid' is. I'll do my best with photos but they won't do it justice. The Ciudad Real Madrid is located on the outskirts of Madrid in Valdebebas and is a fitting complex for 'Los Galacticos'. Our guide, Borja, said that undoubtedly the Real Madrid complex is the nicest in the world, only rivaled by Manchester City's. The Ciudad was built 11 years ago and is the home for all the teams, from U6 to the First Team. If you look at the photos below, you will notice the tiered structure of the building. It is symbolic and psychological. Everything moves up towards the First Team, the youngest Academy players are nearest the entrance at the very bottom of the slope and as they move through the Academy they move up the hill and closer to the First Team. The First Team training pitch and facilities are at the very top of the complex, they include the '7 star' residence for the players. Obviously, the players have their own homes with their families, but on the day before a game, and whenever else they want to, they stay at the residence. We did not see the residence, but it has everything and more and would probably put MTV Cribs to shame. We walked through the Academy building which included locker rooms, gyms, meeting rooms, technology/video analysis rooms, a turfed warmup room, laundry and equipment desks and much more. There is a residence for the Academy players who are not from the Madrid region, it houses approximately 65 young players who travel to a private school in Madrid for classes early in the day before returning to the 'Ciudad' in the afternoon to train. Here are some quick facts we learned about the complex: - 12 pitches (6 turf, 6 grass) - All pitches are the exact dimensions of the pitch at Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Some have below-pitch heating. - Each pitch has 11 surrounding trees (symbolizing 11 players) - All flowers in the complex are Real Madrid colors - Currently, they have only used 35% of the space that the club owns - leaving ENORMOUS potential for expansion. You can see all the extra land in the 3rd photo above. Jaime Torcal, a U8 Academy coach, gave us a tour of the complex before we sat down to listen to a presentation about the Real Madrid Academy philosophy. The presentation was excellent and included fascinating insight from long-standing U17 coach Tristan Celador who has coached the likes of Juan Mata, Jese, Alvaro Morata, and more. They talked about the club identity and the desire to dominate the game. They emphasized that they are developing players with the Real Madrid style (rather than system) of play in mind - the style is not determined by the current coaches, but more by the tradition/culture/past of the club and the way that Real Madrid teams have played through history. The expectations for players and coaches was also addressed. Sacrifice, tolerance, respect, exemplary behavior, professional image etc. Within the Academy, there are 3 phases of selecting and developing players: 1) Scouting (detection, monitoring, and admission) Players are evaluated on decision making, temperament, and their relationship with the ball. They need to be strong in all areas and exceptional in 1. Up until the age of 14, Madrid can only bring in players from the Madrid region. After that age they can search throughout all of Spain, and eventually internationally using their huge network of scouts. 2) Development Probably the most interesting part of the presentation was when we got down to the old question of the importance of winning vs. development. Real Madrid Academy teams compete from the youngest age, keeping stats and league standings. The kids are playing between 50 - 90 games per season (Sept - May). There is a strong philosophy of winning but it does not affect the learning process. The way the teams are playing is the most important thing for the coaches, but the teams need to be performing well and also winning. All players play, but playing time is not equal, and substitution rules say no re-entry. A coach in our group posed a question about a growing belief among U.S. coaches that training is more important than competition. Jaime responded with "We must compete to know how we train." The game is the reference point for everything, and a team with fantastic players that does not learn how to compete will not be a good team. Brilliant! Their training sessions are designed with clear simple objectives and tasks in mind, never go longer than 90 minutes, and always end with a game. Jaime emphasized maintaining the tempo of training and not punctuating activities with unnecessary stoppages. 3) Promotion The final phase of developing players at Real Madrid is deciding whether they will move up and stay with the club for the next season. They said that on average 2 or 3 players will not make the cut each year and others will be added in their place. Clearly the Academy is doing good work as there are currently 151 Real Madrid Academy products playing in either 1st or 2nd division professional leagues worldwide. After lunch we got to watch the U17s and U18s train. Again, the sessions were more general possession and finishing exercises, rather than tactical or phases of play, but I picked up a few nice activities. Here are 2 of the best: Real Madrid U17 Possession 4 V 4 + 4 (5 minute rounds - each team is neutral once) (VIDEO) 2 teams of 4, plus 4 neutrals. Players are limited to their areas except for brief instances when they are combining. The objective is for players to switch the ball from one side to the other using the 2 neutrals in the central channel. The central players were encouraged to combine with runners like in the diagram below. If the runner was tracked or blocked then the central player could turn with the ball and play to the other side. In the example below, the blue team has possession and switches the play successfully by combining with the central player. Real Madrid U18 1 v 1 Finishing (5 minute round x2) (VIDEO) 1 v 1 in the box. Players can score on either goal. Player 'A' serves the ball to his teammate using a throw-in. His teammate must use good movement to create separation from the opponent to receive or finish 1st time. As soon as the 1st ball is dead, player B passes to his teammate who can finish on either goal. If the defensive player manages to intercept or steal the ball they may score. After each player has attacked, the next 2 players will come in and do the same. In round 2, teams switched sides and the red team got to receive the 1st ball. After watching the training sessions, we watched the first half of the U19s taking on a local team in a friendly. There were plenty of defensive mix-ups, including a few from Zidane's son, who is the goalkeeper for the U19s! Tomorrow we have another incredible day planned: Real Madrid Reserves training, Bernabeu stadium tour, Getafe U16s training, and Atletico de Madrid women's team training. Wow!
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Jeremy HurdleSoccer coach from Philadelphia traveling to Madrid for 10 days with a group of 15 coaches to experience the coaching and soccer culture at some of Spain's finest clubs.
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