CHICAGO – After Real Madrid’s first training session on a sun-baked Soldier Field, both the team’s head coach and one of its stars said they hoped tomorrow’s performance might wipe away a few recent preseason stings. If the European champions' friendly at the 2017 MLS All-Star Game presented by Target on Wednesday (8:30 pm ET | FS1, Univision, TSN, TVA Sports) isn’t exactly a referendum on their summer, they hope, at least, it’ll provide a happy punctuation mark.
“It was not perfect, the last matches, we know, but of course we want to finish this preseason with a victory,” said midfielder Toni Kroos, of Madrid’s International Champions Cup matches vs. Barcelona (a 3-2 loss), Manchester City (a 4-1 loss) and Manchester United (a 1-1 penalty loss). “For us, it’s important to have a good feeling for the next match against Manchester United [on August 8, in the UEFA Super Cup Final]. That’s why we’re here, to win this game tomorrow, to prepare for the next games, the next important games, and how we can do it.”
Indeed, much of the megastar squad’s summer has focused on returning to full fitness and bouncing back from injuries. That’s meant, Kroos said, some borderline-grueling work on pure strength and stamina over skill.
“We worked hard, especially in the first days when there were no games, only training. It was good training, hard. I had the feeling [our] coach was a German coach, because he did some physical stuff,” he said, joking about Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane.
Zidane, for his part, seemed pleased with the team’s progress as their first “real” fall matches quickly approach.
“We are physically good. We’ve worked very hard here. We’ve had so many physical things, so many injuries, but now they’re mostly taken care of,” he said in Spanish at the press conference. “In some of the matches we’ve had [during the preseason tour], I’ve seen some good things, and some things that are worse. But the important thing is the coming season, and nothing more.”
Neither Kroos nor Zidane said they would take their opponents, the MLS All-Stars, for granted.
“The soccer is improving in USA, and [in Europe], we see this,” Kroos said, noting the success of his former Bayern Munich teammate, Bastian Schweinsteiger, now of the Chicago Fire. “But there are some more, especially tomorrow here, who had great careers in Europe and are here now. That means that this league also has a big quality.”
For Zidane, the big challenge as a manager is lining up against a team that isn’t, in fact, a proper team in the usual sense of the word. “We don’t know how they’ll line up, whether they’ll have four at the back, maybe five?” He said “But what we do know is it’s a very good team, that it’ll be a very interesting match.”
Fans will undoubtedly find the latter true. Nearly every favorite took the pitch at Soldier Field for drills and training – Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale, Marcelo, Isco, Dani Carvajal, and Casemiro all drew shrieks and chants from fans in the stands. They’ll mostly all take the field, Zidane implied, as well as the squad’s Under-21s.
“The idea is that everyone will get minutes,” he said. “The most important thing is it’s a good match for everyone."
