Over the first couple days in Cancún, each of the four training sessions were very similar. Lots of running and lots of stretching, and an emphasis on fundamentals with the ball. However, Day 4 (Sunday) and Day 5 (Monday) have seen vastly different training methods.
Sunday’s morning session saw the field players and the goalkeepers take different paths. The field players jogged roughly a mile to the gym with head coach Matias Almeyda, assistant coaches Benjamin Galindo and Omar Zarif, strength and conditioning coaches Guido Bonini and Daniel Hicker, and the team’s training staff. Bonini led the players through a series of workouts that included squats, pull-ups, agility ladders, 30-second sprints, dumbbell presses, and more.
Upon finishing, the players and staff walked over to the nearby beach to meet up with the goalkeepers, who had just spent the morning with their own tiring workout in the sand. Every player was then asked to run 75-meter striders under the hot sun, with their reward being a snack and an opportunity to jump into the water.
Later that evening, the team returned to the training field where they spent time working on passing precision and fluidity. Almeyda was clocking the amount of time it took for the players to complete a particular set of passes to get the ball from one side of the field to the other and back again. The tropical weather made this drill especially difficult as much of the field was under an inch of water.
With the sun making its way back into the forecast, the Quakes hit the field on Monday morning for some fun, competitive matches. The squad was divided into four teams of seven and played a round-robin tournament of two-touch, with full-size goals. The red team of Chris Wondolowski, Vako, Harold Cummings, Jackson Yueill, Guram Kashia, Anibal Godoy and JT Marcinkowski were the eventual winners. Vako scored the goal of the day, blasting a shot into the top-left corner with the outside of his right foot.
Almeyda then divided the squad into two teams – offensive players and defensive players – for an exhilarating one-on-one drill. After receiving a pass from the Argentine manager, the offensive player would have to elude their defender in a narrow space before attempting to get their shot past the keeper. They were tasked with scoring 9+ goals in their 36 attempts in order to be deemed the winners. When all was said and done, the offensive team had scored eight, but drew two fouls in the process and were allowed to set up free kicks from distance. Stunningly, Vako and Magnus Eriksson both scored curling efforts and sent their team into frenzy.
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