The team bus arrived at the city of cantabria, for the game against RC Santander the board members together with the players lodged into the hotel ahead of the nights game, scheduled for 4:30pm. Alex is on call with Mary who's in Barcelona arranging the players documentations for the scheduled journey to America for the preseason, Alex was informing Mary to schedule a meeting with Jeremie Frimpong and Ashraf Hakimi's agents for the potential replacement of Sergi Roberto or Dest, which Alex just knew RDZ would request at the end of the preseason.
Alex has left a breathing room in the budget for potential replacement of the teams Right back pending the request from RDZ. Marotta and Edwards are debating the changes to be done for the Barca b team and the female first teams, alex and the board has mandated the changes for the Female team to be concisely done with Asisat Oshoala, Mediema and Caroline Graham Hansen being the primary targets of the female teams restructuring in the attack and for the midfield there's Keira Walsh, Rose Lavelle and Lina oberdorf with the defensive reinforcements being Hanna Glas, Katie McCabe and Lyons Ellie Carpenter.
The restructuring has been approved by the board in the recent meeting and has already been in effect immediately with Marotta and Edwards being the ones heading the committee to restructure the teams. The B team coaching job is up for grabs with the board agreeing on a coach with progressive coaching of players, not one for promotion purposes and the committee has two names in the list Paolo Morganti of Juventus and Frank Vogel of Hertha Berlin, paolo would be the best fit for the job but Frank Vogel has the technical knowledge that Barca values when looking for youth team coaches.
The team has already took their lunch and is on its way to the stadium for the 1st official preseason game, with the players in the list being Stegen, Tenas, Kochen for the goalkeeping and Alba, Dest, Roberto, Pique, Christensen, Gvardiol and Araujo in defence.
While in the midfield the players are Busi, Locatelli, Dejong, Pedri,Gavi and Moriba while for the attack are Goncalves, Dembele, Mitoma, Ansu and Alvarez, Gimenez.
The team isn't full stacked due to some of the players not being match fit and some joining the preseason late due to international engagements, players like Messi, Grimaldo and Pjanic are out of the match day squad. The team bus pull up into the stadium and players selected to start were preparing for warmups and conditioning on the pitch with Fitness coaches were preparing in the dressing room, the coaches were busy organizing the two lineups that'll play the first half and the second half respectively, stegen, Alba, Roberto, Pique and Gvardiol in defence while Locatelli, Dejong and Moriba in midfield with Goncalves and Mitoma on the wings with Alvarez in attack.
The first half formation is 4-3-3 but a hybrid of 4-2-3-1 with Moriba playing behind the striker and being the link between defence and attack, the first half started with Alvarez threatening the opponent's post with 3 quick fire chances but non ending up in the goal. The first Goal came in the 15th minute from a quick counter by Dejong and Moriba which was scored from a Goncalves cross by Mitoma.
It took until the 29th minute before another goal entered by Alvarez from a corner kick by Mitoma, the first half ended with Barca leading 2-0 with the goals by Mitoma and Alvrez. The second half formation was a 3-2-4-1 with Tenas, Dest, Araujo and Christensen with the midfield being Busi, Gavi, Pedri, Dembele, Ansu, Estanis Pedrola with Gimenez in attack.
The second half saw Barca increasing the score line by 2 goals from Pedri and Gavi each assisted by Gimenez. The game was preparation and warmup game ahead of the American tour which starts in another 48hrs, when the squads documentations are completed at the American embassy in Madrid.
Alex and the board were delighted with all they've been seeing from RDZ and his coaching team and the optimism and desire to keep growing in the players of both the First team and academy, Alex also knows the job and responsibilities of coaching Barca are not and would not be easy for RDZ despite him starting off great because the Barcelona media can drive even Mourinho or Kaka crazy.