Zidane approves at Di Stéfano

The past May 28 Zinedine Zidane communicated to his players that that day the training session would not be in the usual fields 1 and 2 of Valdebebas, but would move to the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium. The coach wanted his players to get used to a field that they only know of doing the open house training there at Christmas, and that It will host their six remaining home games to finish the season in both the League and the Champions (if Manchester City is eliminated in August), in order to speed up the renovation work at the Bernabéu. That contact was to check first hand how the grass responded after the months of inactivity and for the players to become familiar with what will be their stage (Castilla and Juvenil A usually play their matches there in Youth League matches).

But For Zizou, Di Stéfano is not a mere stranger: he was one of the players who participated in the 2006 debut match against Stade Reims … and where he also made his first weapons as a coach on his benches in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons, before replacing Rafa Benítez at the head of the first white squad in early 2016. Until then He had led Castilla in 28 games at home at Di Stéfano (out of 57), with an acceptable balance: 17 wins (60.71% of the total), seven draws (25%) and only four defeats ( 14.29%: curiously it was released losing to Getafe B: 1-2). Also, in those 28 meetings his pupils scored 61 goals (an average of 2.17 goals per game) and conceded 30 (1.07 average). Castilla did not score in four games, while they did not fit in six. Of course, his first rival in this return to the league competition will be Eibar: two of the four defeats (all in his first campaign as coach of the subsidiary) that he had were previously Basque teams: Amorebieta and the Real Unión de Irún. Precisely, before the first, the white cubs suffered their hardest win at home (0-3). It was the third meeting of Zidane in Vadebebas …

However, He obtained his best data at home in his second campaign: before replacing Benítez, he had not lost any of his nine home games. He had six wins and three draws in those nine games. They had served him to add 21 points (as a visitor he had achieved 16 for a total of 37) and leave Castilla in second place in the classification table, four points from the then leader, Barakaldo, in Group II of Second B. When On December 19, 2015, A Coruña referee Óscar Martínez Santos signaled the end of the meeting between Castilla and Talavera (1-1), few ventured the future of the current Madrid coach. The goal of the tie had been scored by Marcos Llorente, who equaled an auction by Agudo with a shoe from outside the area. Even Mariano could have given the three points with a shot that repelled the post. Almost five years later, only the Spanish-Dominican is included in the Madrid squad of that Castilla …

Kroos. A week and a half after returning to the competition, Kroos highlighted the importance of each training session with a view to the match against Eibar on the 14th (7:30 p.m.): “We are training well, with intensity, trying to reach the first match of the best possible way. We can't do more. This situation is the same for everyone. You have to train your physique well and recover the sensation with the ball. We have not touched it much being these weeks at home, but we have been able to work the physique. Now the most important thing is to touch the ball a lot so that we don't forget how it is done, “he said. He added:” For me, for example, it is much better to train with the group, it seems more normal. We prepare for the first game and for that you have to train with the whole group, make matches in training … Everything seems more normal and we like it moreAnd he appreciated the current situation: “For what is lacking, we will win if we adapt well to the situation. It is the first time that we have to play the games without the fans, to see how it is. The team that best adapts to this situation is the one that will win“