Eibar will play its first friendly against Mirandés on Friday starting at 6.30 pm at the Atxabalpe facilities, in Mondragón, where the Guipuzcoan First Division team usually trains.
The duel will be behind closed doors due to the coronavirus, which is marking the work agenda of the Catalans, who underwent PCR tests to detect COVID-19 on Wednesday, August 12, before the curtain rose on the 2020 season- 2021. Thus, on Thursday, August 13, an atypical preseason began, since lLast week's trainings were individual to avoid contagion. In fact, a player could not join work because previously, on Monday the 10th, he tested positive in a test that he passed, because his intention was to join the activity earlier.
The results of the tests on Wednesday 12 that passed both the players, as well as members of the coaching staff, and employees of the Eibar club necessary to carry out the training sessions, were negative. Instead, in the tests the campus underwent on Saturday 15, there was a positive. The staff member he is isolated at home, like the other player who had tested positive days before.
Neither of the two players will be in the friendly against Mirandés, since both must pass a quarantine at home. Eibar has not announced the call, nor if there are casualties due to injury (in addition to José Ángel 'Cote', who suffers a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee and a partial tear of the internal meniscus).
The team work of the Catalans began on Monday 17, so the coach, José Luis Mendilibar, has had little time for his men to grasp the concepts of the game. The 18 players in the squad that follow from last season –Pedro León was the only one of the 7 who finished a contract that he renewed and there have been no signings- They have already assimilated the plans of the Zaldibar coach. However, the loaners who returned (one of them, Nano Mesa has signed for Cádiz; while Jordi Calavera is playing the promotion phase to the First Division with Girona), José Antonio Martínez, Asier Benito, Kike Pina, and Roberto Olabe, They know something about Mendilibar's plans from previous summers but they must adapt to what the preparer asks for. The same thing happens with the 6 soccer team players (CD Vitoria, Third Division), Jon Mikel Magunagoitia 'Jonmi', Sergio Cubero, Unai Dufour, Miguel Ángel Atienza, Unai Arietaleanizbeaskoa, and Eñaut Mendia, who they carry out the preseason with the Eibar first team.
Usually, in preseason, Mendilibar usually gives opportunities to all available footballers, lining up two different teams, one for each half. So that is what will probably happen on Friday against Mirandés.
Five friendly matches against Mirandés, Rayo Vallecano, Leganés, Osasuna, and Athletic Club
Due to the coronavirus, Eibar has changed its preseason plans. On other occasions he used to face Second B teams initially, and then make a concentration in Austria, where he faced foreign rivals from the Second and First Division. Now, with COVID-19, there is no travel abroad as a precaution. Also. the protocol of LaLiga (association of clubs), It only allows the First and Second Division teams to face each other, because their players regularly pass PCR controls. On the other hand, they cannot be measured against Second B or Third Division clubs, which, since they are not within the LFP (Professional Soccer League), do not have the financial means for their players to undergo disease detection tests .
Eibar will face their first three friendly matches in August against Second Division rivals, in a preseason in which plans to play six games (There is still a meeting to take place). The first of the preparation matches will be against Mirandés on Friday 21.
Both the second and the third game will be played in Madrid last weekend of this month. He Friday, August 28 (10 am), the Catalans will visit Rayo Vallecano in the sports city of the Vallecano complex. The sSaturday August 29 (10 hours), Mendilibar's men will face Leganés in the sports city of the 'cucumber' club.
The fourth and fifth friendly will be against First Division opponents, and will take place in the first week of September. He Friday, September 4 (7:30 p.m.) Eibar will visit Osasuna in the sports city of Tajonar. A day later, the Saturday 5 will face Athletic Club at 11.30 am at the Lezama facilities.