Day 3- Practice and Visit to Montserrat

Again we held a morning practice session. Today however the session was guest-coached by a professional Spanish coach named Raul. The team completed a number of fast-paced possession drills with Raul really stressing the FC Barcelona style of play, meaning, lots of one and two touch passing, option availability, and as much pressure as possible on the opposing team whenever the ball is turned over. We ended with a larger 8 v. 8 game.
After the practice Raul had nothing but compliments for our level of play, and overall our Moravian coaching staff has been really happy with the level of intensity and the focus we have shown so far in the first couple of training sessions.
Tomorrow is our first match against Spanish professional first-division side, CE Sant Gabriel, and we couldn't be more excited to get into action.

Team Crest of CE Sant Gabriel, Tomorrow's Opponent

After practice and a restaurant lunch we left for an afternoon visit to Montserrat.
Montserrat is a very impressive, jagged, mountain range that is home to a series of catholic religious sites including an early catholic monastery and cathedral, which houses the famous, "Virgin of Montserrat" which is a very well-known statue of Mary and Jesus that was supposedly carved in Jerusalem at the very beginning of Christianity. When we visited, hundreds of visitors waited in line to climb up to it's resting place above the alter in the cathedral just to say a quick prayer in front of it.
The building complex on top of Montserrat also has an art museum which holds some very famous artwork by artists such as Caravaggio, Picasso, and Salvador Dali. The reason for this art museum being built atop this mountain is due to the fact that during the Spanish Civil War, the mountain was a place of refuge for many of Spain's artists and musicians in order for them to continue their work away from the troubles going on throughout the rest of Spain.
There are also a large number of hiking trails weaving throughout the mountain-range, which I can imagine would hold some spectacular views of the surrounding area.
It is possible to hike up a steep trail to reach the monastery area, but with our team needing to keep our leg strength for tomorrow's game, we stuck to riding in the overly-packed cable car which makes the trip up the 4,000 foot mountain in about 5 minutes...

The Girls at the Base of the Montserrat Mountain Range

On the Top of Montserrat

The Team may be a Little Bit Exhausted