In the calendar of FIFA activities during the World Cup in Qatar, the fear of heat can be easily appreciated. Except for a few brave ones, among whom we find the Spain of Luis Enrique, most of the teams have their training sessions scheduled starting at two or three in the afternoon, when the thermometer begins its slow descent without ever giving a truce. total. In the desert, the heat rules and everyone was aware of it before playing the World Cup.
Wales is the best example of what is happening in the first days of World Cup concentration. His coach, Rob Page, had scheduled all training sessions at 1:30 p.m. and, after checking what awaited his men, he delayed all of them a minimum of two and a half hours. Belgium or Canada, for example, have chosen to start with sessions almost at night, with artificial light, and avoid the worst hours.
Within the Spanish coaching staff, for its part, the temperature at work time was also an open folder before landing in Qatar and, after a first contact, it has not been completely closed but has come to occupy a secondary place.
Luis Enrique has always liked working with planning. At each selection stop, the RFEF communication department sends a detailed agenda with all the planned activities, including all the training sessions. This has not happened in Qatar, where at the moment decisions are made on a day-to-day basis.
The coach's idea from the beginning was to work in the mornings with his men in Doha and have a more free schedule in the afternoons to have room for manoeuvre. If you have to fit in a video session or a second training session, exercising first thing in the morning makes everything easier. Also to the footballers, who can relax the rest of the day and release tension. But until the Qatari soil was stepped on and the internationals worked under the heat of the desert, it was not possible to plan in the medium or long term.
The Spanish team completed its second training session this Saturday at Qatar University, the first in the morning under a sun that scorches anyone. The thermometer reached 30 degrees although the feeling was much worse, with humidity also touching 60%. Despite everything, the result was very satisfactory and the first unknowns began to be cleared up. “Yes, it's sunny and a bit hot, but I come from London and I can't complain. We have worked very well, then I took a cold water bath and I was like new”, joked César Azpilicueta, one of the veterans, summarizing the general feeling of the locker room.
The reaction of the players was very good, as confirmed by a source from the Spanish expedition, and the concern has quickly subsided. In anticipation of what could happen, the physical trainers had instructed the players, who did not stop hydrating during the session to combat the high temperatures. But things did not go from there and Luis Enrique has decided to keep the morning time slot at least until the debut against Costa Rica, adjusting it just half an hour sooner. Spain has accepted the challenge.
