Barcelona - Inter Milan (The Gamper Trophy) preview

By: Isaiah | August 28th, 2007

The details: FC Barcelona vs Internazionale Milano; Wednesday 4pmEST at the Estadio Camp Nou.

So, it’s another year, another semi-to-completely-meaningless trophy up for grabs. Sure, this is “an extraordinary event” if you listen to Barca’s official site, but does it really mean anything? Not to me, unless you count “gelling our team a little more” as meaningful. It’s Gabi Milito’s second opportunity to get some time with the team in a “competitive” atmosphere (his first being the Beckenbauer Cup win, when he played 30 minutes), which might be very necessary if he’s to step in for Oleguer this weekend against Athletic Bilbao.*

It’s interesting that Oleguer continues his run of being the most played player for FCB this year. Ridiculous, really, but something that should quickly fix itself with Milito’s return from suspension (and for all of you wondering, he was suspended for the Racing game for cards received during the last season). Whether this will help the lack of goal-scoring from the first game is up for debate, but a tough opponent like Inter shouldn’t be used to judge an entire coming season, just as it’s a good idea to assume that RM isn’t going to allow 5 goals every game, a fact they proved against Atlético.

I hope to see Deco start in place of Iniesta, so here is my “once ideal” (ideal 11) for the Gamper:

Valdes
Zambrotta, Thuram, Milito, Abidal
Toure
Xavi Deco
Messi Ronaldinho
Eto’o

I’d like to see how this works out as a 4-1-2-3; I imagine Abidal and Zambrotta somewhat pushed up, making crosses and allowing Messi and Ronnie to really cut in a lot, especially since Xavi will be able to concentrate on protecting against a counter attack a little more with Deco sitting in the attacking middle as a distributor. Iniesta is the sacrifice here, but I think it’s a worthy sacrifice, especially as he could then come on for Toure later (like how Deco did in the Racing game). Marquez would be on the bench, which is also okay, if not the best possible situation. I just don’t see a place for him on the field unless he takes Thuram’s place. Henry on the bench again is fine, naturally, but I’d like to see him go on for someone like Toure** so that Messi, Ronnie, Eto’o, and Henry could all play together. Maybe that media feeding frenzy isn’t want is needed right now, but I still want to see how they play together. Maybe Henry for Deco, with Ronnie dropping a bit more into the center?

The game will be preceded by a tribute to Nicolau Casaus:

The events will take place shortly before the players take to the pitch, and will begin with a parade of seventy children that took part in the International 7-a-side Tournament for Supporters Clubs. The ‘Himno de las Peñas’ will be played as 34 of the children will carry out images of the 34 geographical regions into which the world map of supporters clubs is divided.

The events will take place shortly before the players take to the pitch, and will begin with a parade of seventy children that took part in the International 7-a-side Tournament for Supporters Clubs. The ‘Himno de las Peñas’ will be played as 34 of the children will carry out images of the 34 geographical regions into which the world map of supporters clubs is divided.

Shortly before the game with Inter gets under way, a huge canvas will be unveiled showing a picture of Nicolau Casaus and the message “always in our memories”, while balloons will be unleashed in different parts of the stadium. [From FC Barcelona's official page]

That sounds like a nice tribute to me. Perhaps it will be overshadowed by the raw emotion elicited by Antonio Puerta’s death (and perhaps even justifiably so), but it should remain a very special moment regardless.

The opponents: I’ll admit I don’t know much about Inter this year and I’m not really all that interested in researching them too strongly for this exhibition match. They’ll play well, as they almost always do, and Figo’s every move will be booed throughout the night, but there probably won’t be that much energy in it and the game won’t really be all that scintillating. Both clubs need improvements after their opening weekends (Inter drew 1-1 with Udinese), so this game should provide ample opportunities for tactical experimentation.

*I don’t know about you other Spanish-as-a-Second-Language peeps out there, but I love saying words that end in a hard consonant followed by “ao,” such as Bilbao. Love, I suppose, is a relative term…
**Yeah, I know this would mean that Iniesta can’t come on for Toure…but whatever, I can sub whoever I want in my little fantasy land!