Day 1 in Marbella: The Wolves have set up in their winter-training quarters.
Up and away – Following a training session on Wednesday morning, the VfL Wolfsburg crew headed off to their winter training-camp in Marbella, Spain. In the Andalusian region, VfL head-coach Martin Schmidt and his coaching staff will work with the team until next Monday, January 8th, in preparing for the second half of the season, which begins for the Wolves on January 14th, with an away trip to Borussia Dortmund (kick-off 18:00 CET).
Team-spirit in focus
Not only the reduced period of time in the training-camp, but also the shortened winter break due to the early re-start to the campaign, is a challenge. Martin Schmidt is this time setting the points of focus differently than would usually be the case in a training-camp: "With less than a fortnight to go before the season gets going again, you can’t hold double sessions every day. We are basically already back in competitive mode. One task here will be to work on our team-spirit and also the group dynamic. We will be holding lots of discussions and spending our evenings together. Those are important aspects which we must work on."
Brooks and Camacho join the crew later
Schmidt has almost his complete squad available to him at the training-camp in Marbella. Having worked individually in the gym through yesterday’s training re-start, Jakub Blaszczykowski has now also made the trip to Spain. Merely John Anthony Brooks (toe problems) and Ignacio Camacho (post-surgical exam on his ankle operation) were unable to join the Wolves on Wednesday, but will fly out to join up with their team mates two days later.
Two test-friendlies in Andalusia
During the course of the training camp, the Green-Whites will participate in two test-friendlies: On Friday, January 5th against FC St. Pauli (kick-off 15:00 CET) and on Saturday, January 6th against Dynamo Dresden. Both games will take place at the Marbella Football Center.
