Real-ly here: Beckham and Madrid
Real Madrid and its cast of global superstars arrived at Salt Lake City International Airport late Monday night in preparation for its U.S. Tour, which is based in Salt Lake City.
During the next five days, Real Madrid will call Grand America Hotel home as it prepares for its season-opening La Liga match on Aug. 27. Its much-publicized visit to the States will be capped by an international friendly with Real Salt Lake on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium at 7:30 p.m.
There were two notable absences from Madrid's 24-man roster as it was welcomed at the airport — Ronaldo and Guti.
Both are recovering from injuries, and new coach Fabio Capello opted to leave the pair back home in Spain. Despite the absence of Brazilian striker Ronaldo, the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, there's still no shortage of superstars. David Beckham, Fabio Cannavaro, Roberto Carlos, Emerson, Raul, Robinho, Ruud Van Nistelrooy have all made the trek.
This is the second straight year Real Madrid is spending time in the United States. Last year, it trained in Los Angeles for several days before beating the L.A. Galaxy 2-0 in a spirited match at the Home Depot Center.
Inasmuch as Real Madrid's visit to Utah is about marketing itself in the United States, it's also about getting fit in preparation for a grueling La Liga and Champions League season, neither of which underachieving Madrid has come close to winning the past couple of years.
To get his team ready, Capello is prepared to put his players through two training sessions per day, in addition to a pair of games this week. The busy week begins today with practices in the morning and the evening and a press conference sandwiched in between.
On Wednesday, the team embarks on a day trip to Seattle to take on D.C. United at Qwest Field. Nearly 60,000 seats have already been sold for the match.
The team will likely take Thursday morning off before attending a Governor's Mansion reception in the evening followed by another practice at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Things don't let up Friday, as Capello puts his team through two more training sessions the day before its match with Real Salt Lake. The match will be played on a temporary 94,000-square-foot grass playing surface that was installed over the weekend and finalized on Monday when the lines were painted.
More than 40,000 tickets have been sold to the "Xango Cup," but RSL's front office says good seats are still available starting at $49. Tickets can be purchased by calling 581-UTIX or visiting any Smith'sTix locations.
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