The VfB first team are in the final stretch of their winter training programme. With exactly a week to go until the opening competitive match of 2020 against 1. FC Heidenheim at the Mercedes-Benz Arena (29 January, 18:30 CET), head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo’s team were out on the training ground on Wednesday for the first time since returning from their camp in Marbella.
“We’re going into the crucial week now. Everyone’s buzzing to get started again,” Marc Oliver Kempf told VfB TV after Wednesday morning’s session. The VfB skipper and his teammates have already had two and half weeks of preparation, and they have six more days of training before league business resumes.
They will also play a final warm-up match against SG Dynamo Dresden on Friday (kick-off 13:30 CET), with the game taking place behind closed doors at the VfB club campus. “We want to use that game to further play ourselves in, so that we can go into the game against Heidenheim with confidence,” added Kempf.
For the defender and the rest of the VfB squad, the past weeks have primarily been about taking in the ideas of new coach Matarazzo: “We’re on the right track and I hope that we can show some of the things the coach wants from us against Heidenheim on Wednesday.”