Sculptures of soccer players lined the entrance to Marbella Football Center in San Pedro de Alcantara, Spain.”
ESTEPONA, Spain — F.C. Basel, the best soccer team in Switzerland, went to work one recent day on a glistening grass field set among chunky dirt mounds, overgrown vegetation and the construction site for what appeared to be a new Burger King.
The circumstances seemed a bit incongruous: Basel, which leads the Swiss Super League standings, was preparing for a UEFA Champions League match, yet it was about 1,000 miles from home. On this particular afternoon, the team’s training consisted of a casual exhibition match on an unlikely field against a second-division team from Germany.
“When you say it this way, O.K., it sounds strange,” Basel goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik said, laughing.
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Vaclik described “a feeling in your stomach that is there for all of the holidays,” but he said he was proud that Sparta lost to Chelsea by only 1-0.
“It was a long wait,” he said. “But what choice did we have? It is the same now. We wait. We train. And then we play.”
A version of this article appears in print on January 25, 2015, on page SP1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Winter, It’s Time for a Stoppage . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
