Real Sociedad named a 27-player squad on Friday and traveled to Germany for a double friendly against Colonia, with Take Kubo set to make his first minutes of pre-season in one of the two matches. The trip puts almost the entire pre-season group into two very different tests in the space of 24 hours.
The first meeting is scheduled for Friday at 18.00 hours and will be played behind closed doors, so it will not be seen live. The second comes on Saturday at 15.30 hours at RheinEnergieStadion, where the German public will be allowed in. For Kubo, who has already logged plenty of training sessions without a match appearance in this phase, the trip offers the first real chance to turn work on the training ground into minutes against an opponent.
The squad list also shows how the club has managed the last stretch of pre-season. Nine of the 27 players are potrillos, Dani Díaz has been included after several sessions with the reserve team, and Sergio Gómez is already over the physical discomfort that had limited him. Fraga stayed in Donostia to remain with the Sanse dynamic, while Guedes did not travel after an operation for personal reasons.
There is still a clear line between those making the trip and those left behind. Odriozola, Marín, Karrikaburu, Goti and Gorrotxategi did not travel, and Oyarzabal remains the only player still missing before returning to work with Pellegrino Matarazzo. That leaves Real Sociedad with a group big enough to cover both friendlies, but the two games will not look the same: one is private, the other open, and the second may tell more about where the squad really stands.
The only unresolved point is how much Kubo will actually play once the whistle goes. After so many training sessions without minutes, even a short appearance would mark the start of his pre-season on the pitch, and the Saturday test should make the first real read on where he fits in when the matches begin to matter.
