August 29th was a rest day for the Weifang Cup 2016 U19, and an official program was held.
In the morning, Kashima Youth, along with players from Real Madrid and Shandong, held a soccer school at Yong'an Road Elementary School in Weifang City.
They practiced juggling and simple basic techniques, and played mini-games. The players were all smiles.
They concluded with a shooting drill where the Kashima Youth players lined up in the goal.
The elementary school teachers presented them with kites, a famous specialty of Weifang. It was a meaningful time for the players.
After the school, they had a light training session at the elementary school. The children who participated also watched. As it was a Chinese elementary school, there were table tennis tables on the school grounds.
After lunch back at the hotel, they went shopping at the Good Shopping Mall in the city.
The Shangdong facility where the tournament is held is a very large complex with 30 soccer pitches of various sizes. It is divided into four zones, A, B, C, and D, with signs. The entrance gate is guarded 24 hours a day.
At the school within the facility, in addition to soccer, table tennis is also played. Practice is held in a large gymnasium with over 80 table tennis tables.
Some of the accommodation buildings had murals of Pelé, Maradona, and Ronaldo. The training facilities are also state-of-the-art, and rehabilitation facilities are fully equipped.
The hotel where we are staying is also located within the facility. We walk to our matches. Since the hotel and the pitches are at opposite ends of the facility, it takes about 10 minutes to walk from the hotel to the pitches. The hotel has four floors, and the doors to each of our rooms have the tournament and Kashima logos on them. In addition to meeting rooms, washing machines were also available on the floor. It's been a great help to be able to do our own laundry.
Tomorrow is the final day of the tournament, with the final and classification matches. Kashima Youth will play Wolfsburg again in the 3rd place play-off.
Tournament Homepage
http://www.weifangcup.cn/index_en.aspx
