Ganso wrote:la again?really?

Real Madrid has more or less finalised its pre-season schedule. Highlights include the US tour, in which the Whites will meet LA Galaxy, Santos Laguna, AC Milan and Celtic. The Spanish Super Cup clash against Barcelona will take place once the league season is underway.

The bulk of the Real Madrid camp will report to Valdebebas to begin pre-season training on 15th June. The players who took part in Euro 2012 will join up with their teammates successively: Benzema will report for duty on the 26th, followed by the Germans (Özil and Khedira) and Portuguese (Cristiano, Pepe and Coentrao) on the 28th. The Spanish contingent (Casillas, Ramos, Arbeloa, Xabi and Albiol) will return to training on the 30th in the US, where the squad will be travelling to 48 hours earlier.

Before heading off on the tour, Madrid has two friendlies scheduled: the first will come against Maghreb Athletic Tetouan on 24th July at the Grand Stade in Tangiers, while the second, against Benfica, will be played at the legendary Estádio da Luz on the 27th, as part of the Eusébio Cup.

The following day, after the Portuguese and German contingent report back, Madrid will fly out to the US to compete in the World Football Challenge. The Whites' four matches stateside are as follows: 2nd August it will face David Beckham’s LA Galaxy team at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California; on the 5th it will square off against Mexico's Santos Laguna in Las Vegas, before following this up with clashes against AC Milan at New York's Yankee Stadium on the 8th and against Celtic in Philadelphia on the 11th.

After the fixture against the Scottish champions, Real Madrid will head back to Spain, where it will begin its title defence just a week later, on the weekend of 18th-19th August. Interestingly, the Spanish Super Cup will take place after the league campaign has kicked off: the first leg will be in Barcelona on 22nd August, followed by the return leg at the Bernabéu on the 29th.

Real Madrid is also hoping to play a fixture against Bogotá's Millonarios -the club at which Alfredo di Stéfano made his name- as part of the Bernabéu Trophy. The date for this match is still to be confirmed.

Real Madrid will not play in Tangiers on 24 July, as scheduled. The friendly against Athletic Tétouan, the reigning Moroccan league champions, was called off due to logistical problems. Real Madrid are now on the lookout for new opponents for the same date.

Karim Benzema is scheduled to rejoin the squad for the game, the first of the pre-season for the team from Madrid that was due to be played in the Grand Stade de Tanger. The rest of the squad will start training nine days before, on July 15, the date set by José Mourinho for players that didn't feature at Euro 2012.

It just so happens that Madrid's eternal rivals, Barcelona, are also due to play a friendly in Tangiers four days later, though against a team of local players.

mtfootball wrote: