Year 18 in Schruns begins

Schruns locals who celebrate reaching adulthood this year won’t know summers any different than having SC Freiburg come to visit. This year marks the club’s 18th pre-season training camp there, with 28 players on board as the team checked into the Alpenhotel Montafon on Wednesday evening.

Personnel-wise, EURO 2024 participants Philipp Lienhart, Michael Gregoritsch and Roland Sallai are still on holiday until after the training camp. Kiliann Sildillia is set to play with France at the Olympic Games, while Berkay Yilmiz is going to the UEFA European U19 Championship with Türkiye. Apart from ill goalkeeper Jannik Huth, everyone else has made their way to the Montafon valley. Huth’s spot has been filled for now by U23s goalkeeper Niklas Sauter, while fellow reserve players Luca Marino and Yann Sturm have also joined the first-team setup for the trip.

“We have a new configuration in the coaching team and this is our first time travelling together, so there’s a real air of excitement and we can’t wait to get going,” said assistant coach Lars Voßler ahead of the ten days in Schruns. The team have already been training together intensively for the last week, but new begins the second phase of pre-season. “We have brought a lot of quality on board and we’ve been putting our brains through a workout too, not just the coaching staff,” reported Voßler. “Now it’s about giving as much input as possible and gathering impressions of the new players.” Two pristine grass pitches are on hand in Schruns to aid that process.

The club’s first friendly awaits on Friday already. SC will make the short trip half an hour north of the valley to meet Austrian Bundesliga side SCR Altach, with kick-off in the Altacher Arena at 18:00 CEST. It will be a dress rehearsal for the side from Voralberg ahead of their first competitive match just over a week later, and they’ve enjoyed a successful pre-season so far, most recently winning 1-0 in a friendly against Grasshopper Club Züruch last Saturday. Friday’s game will be made up of two 60-minute halves.