Day 5 blog: Team event and football tennis| Training camp in the Weimarer Land

+++ 21:04: Great atmosphere at the team event 🏹🎯 +++

In the afternoon, the whole group headed off to the team event in the grounds of the team hotel. There, the players and coaches competed against each other in archery and football golf, amongst other things. Naturally, the lads were immediately fired up! In the end, Jonas Hofmann, Marcel Daum, Edmond Tapsoba, Miguel Gutiérrez, Igor Labaien, Montrell Culbreath and Dr Malte Krüger were crowned the winning team. Congratulations!

+++ 15:42: “Talent without discipline means nothing” – interview with Moreira +++

During the training camp, Afonso Moreira spoke to bayer04.de about, amongst other things, his daily mindset, his family and his goals for the new season. The full interview with the 21-year-old Portuguese player is now online – have a read.

THE INTERVIEW

+++ 13:03: Media session with the coach 💬🎤 +++

After training, head coach Carles Martínez spoke to the media, saying, amongst other things: “I want to pass on the energy I have to the players. To make them realise that every detail of our work is important. That a team has to be a bit like a family. That is particularly important during periods when things get a bit tougher.”

The Spaniard also praised the conditions at the training camp: “Not only do we have excellent facilities for intensive training, but off the pitch too we have the ideal environment to continue growing together as a team.” Speaking about new signing Miguel Gutiérrez, Martínez said: “We’re delighted to have him with us. He’s a good, intelligent player with a strong mentality. He has exactly the profile we were looking for in this position.”

+++ 12:11: Football tennis and set-piece drills ⚽🎾🎯 +++

Today’s training session here in the Weimarer Land was a bit different: After a warm-up in the gym, the squad split into two large groups and headed out onto the pitch. While one half practised set-pieces, focusing in particular on corner kicks, the other half got stuck into a game of football tennis. The group split into four teams of three (Edmond Tapsoba, Victor Boniface and Ibrahim Maza; Jonas Hofmann, Robert Andrich and Janis Blaswich; Montrell Culbreath, Jeanuel Belocian and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht; Ezequiel Fernández, Simeon Rapsch and Arthur). The groups then swapped roles: Tapsoba and his teammates practised corner-kick tactics, whilst the other half of the squad, split into teams of three, had a game of football tennis (Aleix Garcia, Lucas Vázquez and Miguel Gutiérrez; Afonso Moreira, Malik Tillman, Ernest Poku; Loïc Badé, Martin Terrier, Christian Kofane; Niklas Lomb, Tim Oermann, Janis Blaswich).

Mark Flekken organised the training session to focus on the goalkeeper’s positioning during corner kicks. The session ended after just over an hour – but not, of course, before the fans in attendance were treated to autographs and selfies, as usual.

+++ 09:53: Another day at the training camp 👋☀️ +++

Good morning from Blankenhain! Day five of the training camp in the Weimarer Land is about to get underway. After breakfast, the players hop into the golf buggies and head to the training ground. Warm-up exercises are first up there, and then it’s straight out onto the pitch for the next session. As usual, you’ll find updates from training right here!