Training camps aren’t for late risers. Freiburg’s travelling party met at the Europa-Park Stadion at 5.45am on Wednesday morning ahead of their flight to Sotogrande via Zurich. 27 SC players made the journey, all aiming to get themselves in the best possible shape come late January in order to continue Freiburg’s strong start to the 2022/23 season. Goalkeeper Noah Atubolu wasn’t on board due to illness, but is expected to join up later.

After two years away due to the pandemic, SC are spending their winter training camp in Sotogrande for the sixth time. The grounds of Santa Maria Polo Club offer plenty of beautiful green grass for the team to train hard on, with a polo field usually measuring 300 by 200 yards. “We will work on the basics to make sure that we’re well equipped for the busy schedule at the restart,” said assistant coach Lars Voßler. “The focus is on working with and without the ball, compactness, positional play, counterattacking and protecting against counters – all your typical fundamentals.”

The training sessions won’t be as intense on Thursday and Friday, as a first test of the year awaits on Saturday. Freiburg will take on FC Basel at 15:00 CET at the Estadio Municipal de La Línea, a stone’s throw away from the Rock of Gibraltar. The coaches have agreed to four 30-minute periods for the friendly, a well-versed format for SC during preparation work and one that is growing in popularity among clubs. “It’s something we also picked up from somewhere else,” admits Lars Voßler. “But we have big squad and we can make five changes in league games – we want to give game time to as many players as we can.”

Christian Streich’s side will spend a total of eleven days in Andalusia. They will round off the training camp on Friday, 13th January with a second friendly against Hamburger SV (15:00 CET). Both clubs will be guests at same hotel from next Wednesday, so the match will be played out on the shared facilities in Sotogrande. Both friendly games will be livestreamed for free on our website.