Communal breakfast and departure – the day's events
The Bender twins and Co. were up and about at seven in the morning. After a communal breakfast at the BayArena, the squad headed off to Cologne/Bonn Airport at 07.41 CET. The charter flight landed in Salzburg with a slight delay at 10.28 CET where the journey continued by coach to the Tauern Spa Hotel – this is the seventh time the Werkself have visited Salzburger Land. After lunch, the first training session at the Alois Latini Stadium was at 16.30 CET with the evening rounded off with a lecture on the subject of the "Prevention of betting manipulation."
Five youngsters on board – Tah, Aránguiz and Bailey missing
Peter Bosz took 22 Werkself pros and the five youth players Cem Türkmen, Marcel Lotka, Yannik Schlößer, Ayman Azhil and Samed Onur to Zell am See-Kaprun. The only players missing from the senior squad were internationals Jonathan Tah, Charles Aránguiz and Leon Bailey who are all still on extended leave after playing for their respective countries in the U21 European Championships, the Copa América and the Gold Cup. Everybody who travelled – with the exception of Julian Baumgartlinger – were on the training ground as planned this afternoon. Jan Boller did work separately with fitness coach Daniel 'Giga' Jouvin due to a groin problem.
Baumgartlinger makes progress
Baumgartlinger also worked on his own. He remained in the hotel. "I sat down with the docs, physios and Julian today. Julian feels it's getting better every day. The wound on his foot is healing well. As he rested his leg for a few weeks, he now has to build up his muscles," explained Peter Bosz. "The next step will be for him to work on the pitch with Giga (fitness coach Daniel Jouvin, ed.) – First without and then with the ball. After that, if he doesn't suffer a setback, he should be back for parts of full training next week."
Bayer 04 Soccer School guard of honour
The afternoon session at the Alois Latini Stadium not only saw a large number of fans waiting for the Bayer 04 squad but also participants from the Bayer 04 Soccer School provided a guard of honour for Lars Bender and Co. A total of 41 children will spend a week training locally and completing a range of recreational activities. 18 participants are from in and around Leverkusen; the rest are from Austria and even some children have come from Hungary to Salzburger Land to play in Black and Red and chase after the ball up to Friday.
The first training session
The session in the afternoon started with a warm-up and was followed primarily by passing and positional drills. Again and again, head coach Peter Bosz urged his players to be more accurate in laying off the ball. The ball was not to bobble but instead reach the relevant team-mate along the ground and as quickly as possible. The practice matches at the end took account of that with three teams, made up of seven outfield players, facing each other in a tournament on small-sized pitches. "Today is still a travel day. Nevertheless, we trained well for 90 minutes. Tonight I will speak to the team – we will hold a meeting like that for 10 to 15 minutes every evening up to Saturday to discuss things such as the principles of our game," said Bosz. The fact that there will only be one instead of two sessions per day up to Thursday at the training camp in contrast to last year was explained by the head coach as follows: "I'm sure that sessions where the players put in 100 per cent is better than two at 50 or 60 per cent. We had a short but very intense session – there was pressure on the ball all the time. That is very intense physically but also mentally," said the Dutchman.
Reasons to raise a glass
Once the work was done, it was time to raise a toast – not just to completing the first day of the training camp but also for two birthday boys. Paulinho received congratulations from his team-mates on his 19th birthday while youth player Samed Onur celebrated his 17th birthday. The chef Alexander Wagner made a small chocolate cake for each of them, which they shared with their team-mates. Happy birthday to both!
Tour de Bayer 04
The Tour de France is in full swing and Bayer 04 also put in work on the pedals. While the team travelled by bus to the Alois Latini Stadium in Zell am See, the members of management present were on their bikes. CEO Fernando Carro was joined by Dr Bernd Schröder, marketing director, and media director Holger Tromp for the nine kilometre ride to Zell am See. They were met by Simon Rolfes. The sporting director did leave after the trio but he took a shortcut through an industrial estate and therefore arrived earlier at the training ground.
