FIRST TEAM
01/08/2011

La Manga Day 6: A very mysterious bet

Time just seems to fly by. 1899 Hoffenheim only have two more days in La Manga, before flying back to Kraichgau to get ready for the second half of the Bundesliga season. However, before they get back there was one last training session for Pezzaiuoli's protégés that had a little more riding on it for 11 of the 1899 players.

Happy Birthday, Yannick

First and foremost we want to wish fitness coach Yannick Obernauer a Happy Birthday, Josip Simunic was given the honour of saying a few words at the training camp stating "if I look that good when I turn 40 I'll count myself as lucky!"

The birthday celebrations were just one of the reasons the atmosphere within the team was at a high. The team have been working hard, but having fun at the same time and the team spirit is noticeable. "It was important that we we're able to get away from everything that was being said in the press and come to La Manga", explained Andreas Ibertsberger. "We were able to concentrate on our training and have worked incredibly hard", added the Austrian.

Stepping up

It was nose to the grindstone type stuff early on for the Hoffenheim men as Christof Elser and birthday boy Yannick Obenauer were taking no pity on the players. The task at hand was inside a stadium, but the team weren't on the grass as they were set about running up the stairs in the stadium to really get their blood pumping. Staright after that the boots were on, but not a ball in sight as they took part in a speed orientated training session going backwards, forwards, side-to-side and all over the place before the ball was introduced after roughly 45 minutes.

Making things interesting at the training camp

The players took in some more tactics before it was time for a one final kick about, 11 vs. 11 and to add a little excitement the teams put a little wager on the match. What the bet entails is still unknown as they player have been bound to secrecy. "That's for us to know", was the answer given whenever the question came up. Three session lasting 5 minutes were played at high speed and with a lot of commitment, every goal scored was celebrated a little bit more as well.

In the end "Team Simunic" came out on top of "Team Salihovic" running down the click in the final 30 seconds. However, "Team Salihovic" felt most aggrieved by some of the refereeing decisions and felt favour had been shown to their opponents, but the atmosphere remained positive, Salihovic does not like losing and tried to slide into the winning teams photo at the end causing a few more chuckles in the team. By the time they were in the ice baths again all bitterness was forgotten.

 

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