Sun, wind and goals: Day 1 in Belek | OneFootball

First impressions, a young reinforcement and more

After yesterday's stormy arrival, Belek showed a friendlier, albeit windy, side today. Under bright sunshine and clear skies, our Red Bulls completed their first two intensive training sessions on the hotel's own training ground.

Thomas Letsch and his coaching staff got the team out on the perfectly prepared pitch in the morning. Despite occasional strong gusts of wind, the conditions were ideal, and our lads immediately made use of that for an action-packed first session.

Following the warm-up and various passing drills, the competitive spirit kicked in. In a tournament, several groups competed in short, intense matches with Team Yellow winning:

After a short break and lunch, the second session began at 15:00 local time. In the afternoon, the focus shifted to tactical elements in 11-a-side drills, before the session concluded with an extensive series of shooting exercises. There have also been some personnel changes. Stefan Lainer successfully underwent surgery for the hand fracture he suffered in the Bayern Munich match and has already travelled to Turkey. His schedule here in Belek will primarily consists of therapy sessions, but the 33-year-old was determined to link up with the team and make the most of the training camp. Also following the last-minute injury-enforced withdrawals of Douglas Mendes and Valentin Sulzbacher, 18-year-old centre-back Valentin Zabransky, usually of FC Liefering, will join us tomorrow.

Photo gallery: Sunny start in Turkey

Noch nicht genug? Hautnahe Einblicke gibt es in unserem ersten INSIDE TRAININGSLAGER-Video