Pinto back, Ibra and Hleb miss Monday training

Looking ahead to their match-up in the Spanish Super Cup against Sevilla this Saturday at Camp Nou, FC Barcelona returned to training on Monday evening at the Ciudad Esportiva. As Barcelona’s official website describes, the session began on a positive note with the return of José Manuel Pinto to training for the first time since picking up an injury last week. However, both Ibrahimovic and Hleb missed the training session with minor health and injury concerns respectively.

After enjoying a day’s rest on Sunday, the squad was back in training on Monday, preparing for a busy week ahead. For the first time this pre-season, manager Pep Guardiola had a full squad of players to work with as the entire squad prepares to overturn the adverse result suffered against Sevilla last Saturday.

The 28 players who took part in the session were comprised of 20 players from the senior squad plus 8 from Barça B – Oier, Miño, Sergi Gómez, Jonathan, Thiago, Oriol Romeu, Victor Vázquez and Fontàs. The best news of the day was the reappearance of José Manuel Pinto, who worked alongside his team-mates for the first part of the session. Pinto had suffered a muscle injury in training last Wednesday which kept him out of the game this past Saturday.

However, Ibrahimovic was unavailable for training due to a throat infection while Hleb had a problem in his right foot and stayed behind to exercise in the gym.

The next training session will take place on Tuesday morning at 9 o’clock. The first fifteen minutes will be open to reporters and the session will be followed by a press conference with Bojan.

Rest for everyone, except Pep

After the game against Sevilla, FC Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola (39) gave everyone a day and a half off to rest and recharge. But according to an article in Sport, even as they prepared to fly back to Barcelona, it was evident that Pep’s mind was working constantly.

The article in Sport points out that the Saturday match was not easy for the Barça team, who flew to Sevilla for the away leg of the Spanish Super Cup. The players had been on an exhausting schedule that saw them arrive back from the Asian tour that previous Monday and begin double training sessions that week. In addition, Alves, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Bojan, and Jeffren took part in international friendlies midweek; thus on the return flight from Sevilla — where they faced a team that was preparing for its Champions League match in the middle of this week and where temperatures were between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius — all of the faces reflected an accumulated tiredness.

Upon their arrival at the airport in San Pablo, the players looked exhausted, and the only thing on their minds seemed to be getting some rest as they waited to board the plane back to Barcelona. All, that is, except Pep Guardiola, who immediately took a seat near the gate and fell into a discussion with Tito Vilanova. With an intensity and with gestures, Guardiola made his point to his assistant: that he didn’t like that the team lost their identity when they got tired in the second half. He emphasized the necessity of playing out from the back and not resorting the easier way out (kicking long passes).

As the team finally made it back to Barcelona at 02:30 Sunday morning, it is a fair guess that while the players might have rested during their day and a half free, Pep Guardiola did not.

Four Barca players nominated for UEFA Club Football Awards

Víctor Valdés, Gerard Piqué, Xavi Hernández and Lionel Messi are FC Barcelona’s nominees among the 12 players shortlisted for UEFA Club Football Awards for the 2009-10 season, according to UEFA’s website. The four players have been nominated in their respective positional categories (Best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and forward), and one of the 12 will be awarded the overall prize of UEFA Club Footballer of the Year.

The UEFA Club Football Awards will be presented during the UEFA Champions League group stage draw in Monaco on Thursday 26 August, with three players apiece in contention for the best goalkeeper, best defender, best midfielder and best forward awards.

The nominations are decided by the coaches of the 16 teams that reached the knockout stage of the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League. Each coach has the opportunity of voting for the individual positional prizes as well as to name their choice for UEFA Club Footballer of the Year 2010.

One of the following 12 players in line for a positional award will be presented with the main item of silverware during the awards ceremony at the Grimaldi Forum, which begins at 17:45CET next Thursday.

At last year’s ceremony, Xavi was awarded best midfielder and Lionel Messi was named best forward and UEFA Club Footballer of the Year following their contributions to FC Barcelona’s treble winning season.