Just over a month away, a.k.a. “That time already?”

By: Kevin | June 21st, 2009

Ahhh! Remember those glorious scenes. Pre-season begins for our lads on July 24, as they will be spanning the globe to bring the joys of midfield control to the masses. Here’s the schedule, so that you can plan your trips:

July 24, pre-season training tourney against Tottenham (at Wembley Stadium)
July 26, more of the same against Al-Ahly (also at Wembley)
Aug. 1, we go to America to play the Los Angeles Galaxy (bet Beckham’s home for that one, to take place in the Rose Bowl)

Aug. 5, next on the hit parade are the Seattle Sounders (at Qwest Field)
Aug. 9, Chivas de Guadalajara face off against our lads (at Candlestick Park)
Aug. 16 is the first real match, when we face off against our Copa victims, Athletic Bilbao, in the first leg of the Spanish Super Copa. Will it be the first silver of the season?
Aug. 18 is the Gamper Trophy match, against an opponent still to be determined
Aug. 23 is the second leg of the Super Copa, again against Bilbao
Aug. 28 brings the European Super Cup, in which we face off against UEFA Cup (now Europa League) champs Shakhtar Donetsk (as usual in Monaco’s Stade Louis II), against whom we were 1-1 in UEFA competition last season, though the loss was a meaningless match in which I froze my tushy off, watching the second-stringers give it up at the Camp Nou. The upstarts usually do rather well in this one. Zenit took care of United last year, and the last time we were here, after the year of the double in ‘06, we got a 0-3 spanking at the hands of Sevilla.

The Liga season is scheduled to kick off on Aug. 29. Know that the schedule isn’t set in stone yet, but don’t expect the Liga schedulers to make our lads play a day after dispatching Shakhtar Donetsk.

Customarily, we have been able to track the pre-season via BarcaTV, but as some of us know, that entity is no more. So we’re probably going to be scrounging around for choppy Web feeds and the like, excepting matches that we know will be televised, such as when we face off against MLS sides. I can also see the Wembley match(es) being televised.

One bit of resolved uncertainty is that GolTV does have Liga rights for this season, which doesn’t necessarily (as we folks in N. America know) mean that we’ll be getting our week in/week out Barca fix.

Expect to see a great many young faces in the pre-season rosters. Muniesa should get a look, as well as Botia, a.k.a. “Pique Jr.” Henrique will also start the season with the main side, as will (last anyone heard) Gai Assulin, thanks to resolution of the citizenship matters that will allow him to bounce back and forth between A and B.

Yes, it’s a short time off, gobbled up by the Spain Invitational for a lot of our lads, and African World Cup matches for others. That’s the price of success.

Let’s cheer for more of it in 2009-10.