PRESEASON CONTINUES IN SAN DIEGO

CHULA VISTA –Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente continued its preseason training camp with another double session Friday June 28 with the second practice ending with a special group of visitors.

The Xoloitzcuintles finished an intense afternoon practice session that included some ball skills work and an intersquad scrimmage under the guidance of coach Jorge Almiron. Club Tijuana trained for about two hours before members of the United States Paralympic Soccer National Team visited the Xoloitzcuintles.  

The Paralympic athletes met Club Tijuana players and posed for pictures with them, marking a special meeting between two soccer entities. The Paralympic athletes watched Club Tijuana’s practice from an adjacent field before meeting the Xoloitzcuintles.

Those same athletes got to see a Club Tijuana squad that spent the afternoon completing an intense working phase. It was the second practice of the day. Club Tijuana trained in the morning where it worked on agility, speed and tactical drill, focusing on conditioning.

But it was in the second practice in which U.S. Jay Hoffman’s Paralympic team soaked in the action. 

“This is a great opportunity for our guys to see these players right now,” said Hoffman who is coaching the Paralympic team ahead of the intercontinental cup in Barcelona, Spain as the team tries to qualify for the 2016 Paralympic games in Brazil.

The Paralympic team is made up of athletes who have suffer from a disability such as rain trauma, cerebral palsy, stroke survivors and those who have endured a head injury through an accident or military injury.

“We are always looking to get players and get the word out,” Hoffman said. “I’m sure there are a lot more potential players out there that we don’t know about.”

And what most people might not know is that the Paralympic team plays against typical soccer teams with no physical limitations. Its players don’t hold back.

Moises Morales is one of them. Morales is a San Diego native who was born with cerebral palsy. But that hasn’t kept him off the soccer field. He has been part of the national team for four years.

“I can be myself on this team,” Morales said. “It’s a way to play soccer and adapt to a different style and be able to play.”

Some players on the Paralympic team will watch Club Tijuana play in its first preseason match heading into the LIGA MX-2013 Apertura season. The Xoloitzcuintles are slated to face Club Tijuana July 6 at Petco Park in San Diego as part of the San Diego Clasico. Coach Almiron’s team will then play Correcaminos UAT (July 10) and Dorados de Sinaloa (July 13) at Estadio Caliente before the season opener July 19 against Atlas de Guadalajara.

The Xoloitzcuintles will continue preseason training in San Diego leading up to the match at Petco Park, including an afternoon session Saturday in Chula Vista.