FC Barcelona to begin practice at UCLA tonight
By Farzad Mashhood
July 29, 2009 7:31 a.m.
Soccer fans at UCLA are getting another taste of world-class play on campus after Inter Milan’s week of practices earlier this month.
In preparation of its highly anticipated match against the LA Galaxy, Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona will be practicing at North Athletic Field for the rest of this week, said Rudy Figueroa, the assistant director of student recreation venues for UCLA Recreation, this morning.
The practices will begin tonight at 7 but are closed to the public except for the media.
Barcelona will return for another practice Thursday at 9 a.m. and another practice at 7 p.m.
The team will only have a practice Friday at 9 a.m. because it will be practicing at the Rose Bowl at night. Barcelona will return to campus Saturday for a 9 a.m. practice in preparation for its match later that night at the Rose Bowl.
The 8 p.m. match will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel.
Finally, before its Sunday evening departure from Los Angeles, Barcelona will have its last practice at North Athletic Field at 10 a.m.
Figueroa added that the practice times are subject to change at the discretion of Barcelona’s coaching staff. Team officials are scheduled for a walk-through of the facilities later today.
With early morning and late evening practice times, the team’s schedule is much tighter than Inter Milan’s schedule when it was at UCLA two weeks ago. The Spanish squad is scheduled for a number of film shoots and commercial filming.
“They have a lot of commitments,” Figueroa said.
