#B04inAustria – Day 2: Welcome to the Hakan show

Most of the hotel guests, including the Bayer 04 players, were woken up by the noise. At this point, it has to be said the vehicle in question had a Munich number plate.

Hakan v. Kucz

Some of the players were not unduly concerned by waking up early as they had an appointment with fitness coach Oliver Bartlett before the first session. Shortly after that, the full Werkself squad came together for the first major session of the training camp at the Alois Latini Stadium in Zell am See. During the 90-minute workout the focus was on stamina, passing and some tactical options. Hakan Calhanoglu then put in an extra shift firing in a few unstoppable free kicks at the young keeper Tomasz Kucz.

The next Will Grigg?

Each goal was celebrated by the fans in the stadium. They cheered on the Werkself throughout the session and celebrated every successful move. Again and again a roar of “Volland's on fire” rang out across the training ground – in reference to the hit about the Northern Ireland striker Will Grigg at Euro 2016. It remains to be seen whether the song will be taken up in the North Stand. Kevin Volland, with five goals in the pre-season friendlies to date certainly would have no objections.

Trio sidelined

Stefan Kießling had to watch from the touchline. The striker, still struggling with a hip problem, was unable to train with on Friday but he did turn up at the ground. Stefan was happy to pose for selfies with the fans. In addition to Kießling, Roberto Hilbert and Julian Baumgartlinger also missed out due to injury.

On your bikes!

The second session in the afternoon saw a repeat of the first day with the players getting on mountain bikes again. Eight kilometres separates the team hotel Tauern Spa in Kaprun and the training camp in Zell am See and the done in at the end of the 70-minute training session. In addition to fitness work Roger Schmidt organised the squad into two teams for a practice match. After that they put on their swimming trunks and, led by Kyriakos Papadopoulos, jumped into Lake Zell to cool off.

“No Doping!”

There was more to do after dinner: Evening school awaited. To be more exact, Dr. Karl-Heinrich Dittmar held a talk on “Information on anti-doping guidelines”. The event held by the team doctor is compulsory every year and covers the most important issues and changes introduced by the German Football Association.

#B04inAustria – New platforms

Using the hashtag #B04inAustria you can keep up-to-date with the #Werkself and #Bayer04. There is a log book entry each night from members of the squad, Oliver Bartlett passes on fitness tips and fans of Austria can enjoy a language course from Julian Baumgartlinger and Rambo Özcan.

Just log in to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat – there is something there for everybody.