Racing - Barcelona, a quick rundown

By: Isaiah | August 24th, 2007

Gametime: Sunday 1pm EST (live on GolTV, unless the threatened suspension of television rights for the game happens. Let’s hope not! For an explanation of why this is happening, go read this: Spanish / Google Translator English)

It’s the first match of the new season and so it’s the first preview of the season (imagine that). The game is away in Santander, Cantabria at the Estadio el Sardinero, which actually does translate to The Sardine, though it may have some other meaning locally that I’m unaware of. Racing de Santander finished 10th in La Liga last year with 50 points, finishing with 42 goals for and 48 against (13th in both categories). In their two encounters, Barcelona won both 0-3 at Santander (Jornada 3) and 2-0 at home (Jornada 22). Eto’o, Giuly, and Ronaldinho (pen) scored in the first match, while Ronaldinho grabbed a pair in the home match.

Naturally the squads look quite different, so here’s a list of what Racing did in terms of transfers this summer:

IN
Jonatan Valle (Málaga)
Ayoze (C. de Murcia)
Samuel (Sporting)
Trevi
Duscher (Deportivo)
Jorge López (Valencia)
Jordi López (Mallorca)
Sergio Sánchez (Espanyol)
Brian Sarmiento (Estudiantes de la Plata)

OUT
Matabuena
Alfaro (retirado)
Balboa (Real Madrid)
Scaloni (Lazio)
Felipe Melo (Almería)
Antonio Tomás (Deportivo)
Momo (Deportivo)
Rubén (Celta)
Zigic (Valencia)
Vitolo (Celta)

Santander looks like it lost a lot more than it gained; Zigic will start at Valencia or at least get major playing time, while Balboa’s return to RM is also a negative, though not as much of one. Scaloni’s absence shouldn’t be too badly felt, but it’s just an extra player to replace and that’s never a good thing. They won’t match up well with Barcelona’s attack (is that a surprise?) and without Zigic, I’m not sure they’ll match up well at all against Barca’s defense, “makeshift” as it will be. [the rumors that Javier Chevanton had joined Santander seem incorrect, as the player himself has stated that he's not going, but that could change in a moment, of course.]

Now to Barcelona: Though the official list hasn’t been released yet, the starting lineup should look like this:

Valdes
Zambrotta,Thuram,Marquez,Abidal
Xavi, Toure, Iniesta
Messi, Ronaldinho
Eto’o

The only difference between that and what I want to see out there are the injured Puyol and suspended Milito, so it’s the best lineup I can think of with the currently available players. I’ll just go ahead and assume that Eto’o will be fully recovered from any jetlag incurred on his jetsetting adventure to Japan and back (and the same goes for Marquez). Everyone else stuck to Europe so if they’re not okay based on time differences, they shouldn’t be pro athletes. It should be the first test of Henry’s willingness to come off the bench, so that’s something to look forward to as well.

So my official prediction is 0-2, Ronaldinho and Messi scoring. Woohoo for that.

Don’t forget the Madrid derby on Saturday either, though GolTV looks like it’s going to broadcast the game at 6pmEST rather than live at 2pmEST. Is that right or is the GolTV official schedule often wrong?