Brighton & Hove Albion’s under-18s are on a pre-season tour in Portugal this week with matches against Guimaraes tomorrow and FC Porto on Saturday.Under-18 coach, Simon Rusk, believes the trip will be hugely beneficial for his players as they take on two of the country’s top youth teams.
He told seagulls.co.uk, “We’re working on the boys’ fitness, but it’s also a good social and cultural trip for them to grow as footballers.
“I believe Guimaraes won the national league here last year, so that will be a difficult test and Porto have got a very strong youth system.
“We’ve set the bar high with who we’re playing against and it’s an exciting challenge for the players, one which they can only benefit from.
“It’s nice to have the under-18 group together because in pre-season a number of them have been up with the under-21s.
“That has been brilliant for them as they’ve gone away and been around some of the more senior players, but it will be good to get the group together where we can do some tactical and technical work on some great facilities in a different country.”
Rusk stressed that his squad will have to cope with a heavy training schedule in warm conditions and revealed what he will be assessing from the players in the upcoming week.“There is going to be a heavy training programme with two, sometimes three, training sessions a day. The intensity of the sessions will vary as the climate is very hot out here.
“It’s a similar schedule to what the under-21s and first-team went through, as you are going away to unite as a team but also form a way of playing and develop relationships on and off the pitch.”**
Albion Squad: Brown, Cadman, Cox, Maguire-Drew, Meyers, Tilley, Vose, White, Barclay, Barnett, Collar, Courtney, Horncastle, Hutchinson, Mar-Larusson, Pring, Rowe-Hurst, Tighe, Sanchez, Sanders, Garcia.
Original article
He told seagulls.co.uk, “We’re working on the boys’ fitness, but it’s also a good social and cultural trip for them to grow as footballers.
“I believe Guimaraes won the national league here last year, so that will be a difficult test and Porto have got a very strong youth system.
“We’ve set the bar high with who we’re playing against and it’s an exciting challenge for the players, one which they can only benefit from.
“It’s nice to have the under-18 group together because in pre-season a number of them have been up with the under-21s.
“That has been brilliant for them as they’ve gone away and been around some of the more senior players, but it will be good to get the group together where we can do some tactical and technical work on some great facilities in a different country.”
Rusk stressed that his squad will have to cope with a heavy training schedule in warm conditions and revealed what he will be assessing from the players in the upcoming week.“There is going to be a heavy training programme with two, sometimes three, training sessions a day. The intensity of the sessions will vary as the climate is very hot out here.
“It’s a similar schedule to what the under-21s and first-team went through, as you are going away to unite as a team but also form a way of playing and develop relationships on and off the pitch.”**
Albion Squad: Brown, Cadman, Cox, Maguire-Drew, Meyers, Tilley, Vose, White, Barclay, Barnett, Collar, Courtney, Horncastle, Hutchinson, Mar-Larusson, Pring, Rowe-Hurst, Tighe, Sanchez, Sanders, Garcia.
Original article