Just as the teams in the United States of America embark on their pre-season warm-ups, Real Madrid have been hit with a squad void. With Kilian McBarbee, Zudi Binningham and Vinicius Zulia among the star-studded line-up absent, the spotlight has naturally been on Brazilian starlet Andriy Cali. The 18-year-old striker made his debut in Real Madrid's warm-up match on Thursday (1) and was heaped with praise by head coach Antonio Anzilotti.
Despite the team's 0-1 defeat in the warm-up match, Anzilotti still recognized Andriy's performance. In Thursday's warm-up match against AC Milan, he was even more impressed by Andriy's performance: "He is fast and dangerous enough to make exquisite breakthroughs in small spaces. This trait bodes well for him to become a great player, and such abilities are not uncommon in today's soccer world."
Recently, a training video sparked a buzz on the internet. In the video, Andy Calendar was kicked down by his teammate Rudiger and was then roughly pushed away by Rudiger, and rumors spread that the two were at odds. To this, Antsarotti responded, "Rudiger only treated Andy Calendar out of welcome, wouldn't McBarbie have had the same problem? Welcome, Rudiger is a good man." And the second match in Real Madrid's tour of the United States will take place on Sunday (4) against Barcelona.
