Moving on to Get Ready for the 'Real' Tournament

When arriving back in Sao Paulo following the Germany match, the US team took a little time off, but soon enough made the transition to preparing for their Round of 16 match with Belgium. Returning to their fabulous training ground, the team got in three good sessions, before departing, Sunday, for Salvador.

While at Sao Paulo FC, the training sessions were open, after selected press conference appearances, for visual capture the first 15 minutes of each session. This is a part of that scene.

One of the prime subjects was the jogging and stretching of Jozy Altidore, returning to action after straining his left hamstring 20 minutes into the first Group Stage match.

The rest of the team worked on specific training, related to how they wanted to prepare for Belgium, but of course, most of those tactical sessions were after practice was closed to the media. What the media is allowed to see is pretty much always the same, jogging and stretching.

We were allowed a glimpse of one session, mostly with the reserve players, of shooting drills that involved shot set-up, shooting, moving from one goal to another, thereby also allowing for some work for both reserve goalkeepers simultaneously, with two goals side-by-side and the player moving from the first to the second for a second ball randomly served him.

That's about all for this post, but did find it amusing the team bus has, naturally, sponsor Continental tires, but a closer look shows the tires imprinted with both soccer balls and the Brazil World Cup logo. You'll probably be able to buy these on eBay soon;)

All contents of this blog, written and photographic, are copyrighted 2014, All Rights Reserved, by Perry McIntyre - Atlanta, GA.