News from training after a day off for the players

It's "Blue Bibs" v. "Orange Bibs" again in Pretoria.

The ref is a little fat legend with a beard a thick AFA black jacket and a whistle.

For the Orange team we see the following lineup:

ROMERO
BURDISSO - OTAMENDI - Clemente RODRIGUEZ
Maxi RODRIGUEZ - VERON - BOLATTI - DI MARIA
TEVEZ - MESSI - HIGUAIN

And these are the players wearing Blue:

ANDUJAR
Jonas GUTIERREZ - DEMICHELIS - SAMUEL - HEINZE
GARCE - MASCHERANO - PASTORE
AGÜERO - MILITO - PALERMO

Of what I was able to watch live on TV, the Blue team went ahead after a high ball found PALERMO unmarked and the Boca Juniors legend hit it with a powerful left-footed volley past Sergio ROMERO.

Soon after that, there was a controversial call near the Blue team area. Indirect free-kick and after a quick touch towards him, Carlos TEVEZ blasted it in. 1-1.

Lionel MESSI made it 2-1 for the Orange team after his long range shot took a slight deflection to fool ANDUJAR.

Gonzalo HIGUAIN then scored his and the Orange team won 3-1.

This was a very recreational exercise.

So much so that after the short match ended, the Blue team had to accept their punishment which consisted in lining up along the goal line and wait for every one of the players from the Orange team to hit the ball full-strength towards the Blue players' rear ends!

The lovely touch about this? Diego MARADONA stood next to the Blue team players to share the pain with them.

Here is a picture (credit to La Nacion newspaper) in which Diego asks the Orange players for some more distance before they fire at them full-strenght:



And here's the result. All Blue players against the wall! Hope we don't see this kind of pictures during the World Cup!

It was a rare scene but one that I really enjoyed because I could see the players were bonding and were visibly happy.

After it was all finished, Gonzalo HIGUAIN and Javier PASTORE stayed a little longer to shoot from midfield and aim for the crossbar together with one of the kitmen. I don't have the result of that little competition because the cameras were not staying with them all the time. And I reckon the result is not as important.

In a few minutes there should be a press conference in which Clemente RODRIGUEZ (number 3) and Nicolas BURDISSO (number 4) will address the media.

On Monday, the players enjoyed a day off. Jonas GUTIERREZ went out and visited a shopping mall together with some of the youngsters that are helping our national team in training. The youngsters made the most of that day out and pretended to be part of the senior national team. So they posed together with Jonas for the many locals that wanted pictures with them. Very cheeky!

Carlos TEVEZ opted to go golfing. He loves that sport and he took his day off to practice his swing at a local golf club.

Most of the players, though, decided to stay in the University of Pretoria High Performance Centre and received the visit of their family members.

As for MARADONA? He was visited by his daughters and also went to the airport to pick up his girlfriend, Verónica.