Al-Sadd launch preparations for 2018-19 season

Al-Sadd launched their preparations for the 2018-19 season with the first preseason training session, which was held on Sunday evening at the club’s training facility.

The session took place without the participation of the team’s international players and the Qatar national team members who are currently at a training camp in Austria in preparation for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. Ten Al-Sadd players are away with the Qatar national team – Saad Al-Dosari, Meshaal Barsham, Ibrahim Majid, Pedro Miguel, Abdelkarim Hassan, Salem Al-Hajri, Khoukhi Boualem, Hassan Al-Haydos, Akram Afif and Ali Asad.

In attendance during Sunday’s training session were club general manager Turki Nasser Al-Ali, head of football Mohammed Ghanem Al-Ali and sporting director Mohammed Gholam Al-Baloushi.

The players underwent physical training with and without the ball under the supervision of assistant coach Nuno Almeida, who worked on prepping them for the upcoming training phase with muscle exercises.

The team will now train daily up until the 12th of July, when they will depart for the preseason training camp, which is set to be held in Bad Haring, Austria for the second consecutive year. The camp will last until the 28th of the same month.

During the camp, the team will play three friendly games against opponents that will be confirmed soon. The games will be played on the 19th, the 23rd and the 27th of July.

Meanwhile, Sunday’s training camp was also noteworthy for the first appearance of the team’s new goalkeeping coach Eduardo Perez. The Spaniard will take up the position from the start of this season, replacing Luca Squinzani.