El Clasico Preview: Sunday, December 23, 1pm EST

By: Isaiah | December 22nd, 2007

I’ve written one El Clasico preview before and I titled it “Mucho Morbo: Barcelona-Real Madrid”. I don’t think there’s ever a moment that the word morbo is an inappropriate description for El Clasico Español. Check out that previous post for a definition of morbo, if you don’t already know what it means.

Ever since I began watching the beautiful game (back in high school), I’ve been strucky by how amazing the games between Barca and Real Madrid are when they’re played at the Camp Nou. There’s just something about them that doesn’t exist even in the Bernabeu. Maybe it’s the crowd size and my personal bias &bnsp; there are 18,000 more seats in the Camp Nou and I love Barca &bnsp; but somehow the games have always seemed better and the atmosphere that much more festive and nervous. Regardless, it’s not a good time to die. Despite all that, despite the fact that almost all of Latin America, Spain, and probably the rest of Europe too is going to be glued to TV sets during the game, Soccernet makes no mention of the game in its headlines. Not on the front page nor on the European section. Wow. Nice way to respect two of the greatest clubs on earth, you jackasses. Soccernet Press Pass at least discussed it, if only in the retarded fashion we’ve come to know and love.

And now that we are all acutely aware of how much the head-to-head scores are, it behooves Barcelona to take it to Real Madrid, score a couple of goals, and not allow RM to get any precious away goals. That, of course, is the whole question. How to stop the leading offense in La Liga? Well, it doesn’t hurt to have the leading defense, which Barcelona just happens to have. So you want your best players on the field right? Well, let’s look at the probable starting lineups:

Barcelona: Valdes, Puyol, Marquez, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Gudjohnsen, Gio, Eto’o
Real Madrid: Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Marcelo, Diarra, Sneijder, Baptista, Robinho, van Nistelrooy, Raul

How different this game would look if Messi were on the field, right? How could you ever dare put Marcelo out there and allow Barca to run rampant on you? Well, Gio has the skills to do the same, so if Schuster wants to play run-and-gun, I’m all for it. Let’s see who comes out on top…But why no Ronaldinho? He is usually fantastic in Clasicos, so why not play him? All the reports coming out of Spain’s “journalist” rags (Marca, Sport, EMD) suggest he’ll be on the bench. El Pais, which I generally trust as it’s an actual newspaper, has him on the bench too. Seriously, Rijkaard? If Ronaldinho doesn’t start against Real Madrid, I think that means we’re going to sell him in January. Deco starting on the bench might make sense, seeing as how Guddie has been playing so well recently (Wow, who saw that coming? Not me!)

The missing part for Real Madrid seems to be Guti, but he’s apparently fit enough to start on the bench. Robben too should be available, but I don’t think they’ll start. Drenthe and Higuain have been left at home in Madrid, but Saviola makes the trip.

So how does all of this stack up? This whole thing has been discussed virtually to death in a previous post’s comments, but since it’s El Clasico, let’s do it again.

I’d first like to handle the question of an Henry-Eto’o forward line because it seems to be the popular choice for many cule faithful. I don’t believe that playing a pair of forwards who have never played together in a match before is a good idea when you’re talking about taking on a very good team. Were this Levante, I’d be all for it, but this is Real Madrid, not a team you can experiment on. I wouldn’t mind seeing Henry come on in the middle of the second half as a replacement for Gio or Ronaldinho (if they start) and swing out a little wide on the left, but that’s running right into Sergio Ramos and not taking advantage of Marcelo/Heinze in the proper fashion. Gio should get 90 minutes, assuming he can handle it, and we should try that weaker left side of defense all night. I trust Gio, but I don’t trust Eto’o-Henry since I’ve never seen them play together before, much less score mightily. Naturally it’s tempting to say that Abidal would handle Sneijder, Toure would handle Baptista, Milito would handle Ruud, Marquez would handle Raul, and Puyol would handle Robinho, and Henry would occupy Sergio Ramos out wide, allowing for a midfield lineup of Iniesta and Xavi to provide lethal balls beyond Diarra and to the feet of Gio and Eto’o, who can take on any defender one-on-one. However, I do not think Barcelona should open themselves up to the counterattack quite so readily. Henry won’t track back enough on Sergio Ramos to really stop that overlapping run that is so dangerous. I don’t see it as a viable starting option; wait until Sergio Ramos is too tired to make several full-field sprints in a row and then you put Henry on and let him work some magic on the flanks.

The matchup to watch, defensively, is Milito-Ruud. I think that Milito can lock Ruud down for most of the game, but will rely heavily on Abidal and Marquez to come to his rescue when Ruud pulls that half-chance laserbeam brilliant nonsense shooting out of his ass. You can’t give him a moment’s rest or he’ll make you pay and I see Milito and Marquez getting yellow cards for fouling the crap out of him. Also, Puyol will definitely get a yellow when Robinho dives, but I won’t complain too much because Puyol will somehow avoid getting a yellow on several of the previous tackle; Robinho can be such a little bitch when he gets frustrated and he’ll start diving when he finds himself locked down tightly. He just happens to be good at it, with those fast stepovers, and then the little arm wave as he crashes down. Not that certain Barca players haven’t ever dived before, but you know, Robinho makes a habit of it. And I’d have to say he’ll be the only one out there with that habit. The rest of RM seems to be some quality, hard-nosed players who like to push you and foul the bejesus out of you rather than flop. The same is true for Barcelona, I think. RM fans may disagree, but who listens to them anyway? Oh, right, the refs.

I’d prefer to see Heinze start for RM because I think that Gio can take advantage of Heinze’s desire to go forward, lack of positioning, and inability not to foul. He’d pick up a yellow card early, that’s seems certain. Marcelo may bring less defensive capability to the side, but Gio isn’t going to track back to cover him, meaning Xavi or Gudjohnsen will have to cover him rather routinely. This does open an avenue to put balls into the corner at Gio’s feet, but can Gio really beat Canna on a regular basis off the dribble? I’m not convinced, really. And that’s where Heinze is truly a suicidal player: Canna will know that Marcelo is out and will make position adjustments to make that work, but with Heinze, he’ll know that he’s got an extra defender on the wing, but the reality is that Heinze will be out of position most of the game, thus causing Canna to lose a step getting over and that, in a game against a quality side like Barca, can kill you very rapidly. Schuster is probably too smart to start Heinze, but may feel pressured into it because of Barca’s powerful forward line. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

There were lots of holes in the Madrid armor last weekend during the Osasuna game, but they weren’t exploited, obviously. Barca have a stronger defense and thus can commit extra players to the attack, something that could prove instrumental in taking down the Spanish Evil Empire. Still, you have to watch the buildup from RM and I don’t think there’s any way that Barca get out of this game without conceding at least one. Note that Oleguer is not on the field, so no red card from him this time just when the team is getting into its rhythm. Damn he killed the last game and only the brilliance of Messi and Ronaldinho brought us back. So start him!

Official prediction: 2-1 Barca. Goals by Eto’o, Iniesta, and Ruud.

Where to watch: GolTV, GolTV on TVU Player (download required), Live-Footy (download required). If anyone knows where else to watch, please post it in the comments and I’ll add it here. I only know where I can watch it, here in the US, so if you’re in England, Spain, Latin America, the Pacific, or anywhere else, let us all know what channels will be airing the game, just in case someone does know.