Sevilla - Barcelona: Copa del Rey preview + randomness

By: Isaiah | January 8th, 2008

It’s January and a soccer blogger of even my stature would be remiss if he or she didn’t cover a couple of the rumblings in the press about who is going where and when. There are a handful of keepers to keep an eye on, really, as Barcelona look for both a long term replacement for “Hope n Pray” Jorquera, but it doesn’t seem likely that anyone will be brought in. Jaaskelainen is the latest name to pop up, but I’m not sure how serious that is. I’ve personally always thought Jussi was a pretty good keeps, but he’s 32 and we don’t need to increase the age of our starters. The other name I’ve seen recently is Celta’s Jose Manuel Pinto, who is also 32. Barca should be considering up-and-coming keepers and deciding whether or not Oier is worth the time it would take to turn him into a true first-teamer.

No real transfers have been made so far (Banega to Valencia is the only one of note) and I don’t expect much, especially with the likes of Didier Drogba coming up for auction in May, but we could see a flurry of action late in the month as teams come to grips with their needs to make true runs at the various titles.

Several factors will be involved for Spanish clubs in general and Barcelona specifically: The games coming up against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey round of 16, the fact that both Toure and Eto’o are set to miss between 5 and 9 games due to the African Nations Cup,* and the league is not, in any real way, lost. Yes, Madrid are up by 7 points, they won at Camp Nou, and they’re not looking too shabby, if not particularly sparkling either, but they’re not bulletproof if Barca’s failed 2nd half campaign is any indication. Espanyol is on the up-and-up, Atletico are seeming like they’re shedding a bit of their European chokejob liability, and Sevilla are suddenly looking as dangerous as ever. So it’s a tight race despite the gap at the top and if anyone in the top 4 wins out against the other top 3, they’ll win the league, be they pericos or colchoneros.

Now to the actual game at hand: Sevilla - Barcelona at the Sanchez Pizjuan. Both teams need this competition to keep their fanbases happy, especially Sevilla, who are 8 points out of a Champions League spot (though only 3 out of a UEFA Cup spot). They’re one point behind Valencia, and 11 points behind Barcelona, so their league title hopes are over, but they’ve got a lot going for them at the moment. Three wins in a row, 11 goals in those games, and playing at home = tough test for Barcelona. It is, however, a two-legged affair and an away draw to start the process off would certainly be satisfactory from my point of view, especially without Ronaldinho, Messi, Deco, and Toure. Will we start Bojan-Henry-Eto’o? That would be a scary attack to have to face, but does it provide enough defense, especially without Toure?

The all-attacking lineup would be: Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Abidal, Xavi, Iniesta, Gudjohnsen, Bojan, Henry, Eto’o
The probable lineup, however, would be to swap Gio and Bojan so that Henry could sweep in from the left, especially considering how well Gio has played. Will Oier get the call or, because of our “plight” in the league, will we start our most powerful lineup? Certainly Eto’o will start since he’ll be gone for so long, but will Rijkaard prize the round of 16 more than the game against Murcia or will he stick to last year’s concept of the Copa being a good way to get the young guns 1st team action? It’s hard to tell from the Alcoyano games because so many people were coming back from injuries, but we’ve got enough of a squad to make a concerted effort at a major trophy (and yes, the Copa del Rey is a major trophy) in the middle of our league and Champions League campaigns. I say go for it with everything we’ve got; if we’re going to lose the league, let’s lose it while trying to win all around. Eggs in multiple baskets, please. There are at least 8 and possibly 10 games before the first leg at Celtic Park on February 20, which is quite a few games packed in. If we beat Sevilla, we’ll play games on Jan 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, 20, 23, 27, 30, and Feb 3. That’s 10 games in a month and there’s no doubt that can hurt a squad over time, especially when the Copa del Rey semifinal takes place on February 27 (meaning that Barcelona would play 16 games over 2 months, one of which is 28 days long).

It’s really the make or break moment for Barcelona, but the La Liga schedule is very easy and should provide a bunch of wins: Murcia, Racing Santander, @Athletic, @Osasuna, before meeting up once again @Sevilla, and then Zaragoza. That’s a potential 18 points before the February 20 CL game and could be suggestive of the more longterm fortunes of a lot of teams. If Barca can narrow the gap at the top of the lead to a more manageable 3 or 4 points, get into the semis of the Copa del Rey, and then progress to the quarters of the CL, who could say they aren’t capable of going the distance in all 3? While a treble is very, very, very unlikely, the fact that in our dismal season of failure we’re actually capable of winning one means that we’re actually having a great year.**

Back to Sevilla: Everyone has their eye on this team and they’ve underperformed for much of the year in Spain, but have done very well in the CL (with the exception of their loss at Arsenal) and certainly have the talent to do damage against any team in the world. Kanoute and Luis Fabiano have combined for 20 goals and there’s no doubt that Barca’s back line will have to show up if the team wants to get out of there with anything resembling their first encounter (2-1 at the Camp Nou). Dani Alves will cause issues, but Abidal is capable of shutting him down if Iniesta and Henry can create enough havoc on the right side of Sevilla’s defense to keep Alves at home a large portion of the game. I’m somewhat unfamiliar with Sevilla’s midfield, having seen only two of their games this year, but Keita has impressed me, as has Jesus Navas. Up front the team is unreal scary: Kerzhakov, Luis Fabiano, Kanoute, Kone, Renato, and Chevanton. Did I miss anyone? Probably. It’s just that only Luis Fabiano and Kanoute have scored more than 3 goals (Kerzhakov and Navas are the only others who have scored more than 1, actually)…

Their defense is suspect, having given up 23 goals in the league, as compared to the 13 allowed by Barca. A quick stats comparison shows this:

Goals scored: Sevilla 35 - 34 Barcelona
Goals allowed: Sevilla 23 - 13 Barcelona
Sevilla’s home record: 7W-0D-3L
Barca’s away record: 3W-4D-2L

That is suggestive of a Sevilla win, but let’s not forget that Barca has been going through an away-day revival of late, so it could turn out to be a pretty great victory. And besides that, cup form has very little to do with league form…Anyway, enjoy the game tomorrow, I’ll attempt to stream it online from the house and write up a decent match report.

Footnotes:
*I haven’t ever really had it satisfactorily explained why, exactly, the ANC is held during January/February, but I have to assume it has to do with weather conditions across the continent (Ghana is on the horn of Africa, so it’s north of the equator, but I’m not sure if that means it’s in the dry season or not — in fact, I don’t know if it even has dry and rainy seasons like central Africa); regardless, I dislike the scheduling. It certainly gives Bojan and Henry a chance to grow into a formidable strike partnership, especially with Ronaldinho sidelined, but I prefer Eto’o to either of those two…

**I know I harp on that a lot, but it seems like it needs to be brought up now and again to bring it into context. Yeah, we’re Barcelona, yeah, we’re going to be in the top 4 of the league at all times, we’re going to be in the CL knockout stage most of the time, and we’re going to make a good run at the Copa del Rey basically every year; to keep it within the city, look at Espanyol. There’s a team that has never won the league title and have won the Copa del Rey 4 times. They’re currently third and that’s probably just swell for the pericos out there. Or look at any of the other mid-level clubs who just sort of stick around and don’t go up or down and don’t really go to Europe either. Real Sociedad comes to mind as a good example of the highs and lows available to the less “stable” of the clubs in Spain. One moment they’re poised to win the league, they fail that, and end up being relegated a few years later. So who are we to complain when we finish 2nd, even if it’s to those jerkoffs from the capital that we dislike so much? (And why do I, an American who has been to Spain but once, call them jerkoffs as if I know what’s going on?) Shouldn’t we be happy to be in 2nd rather than in 18th, 19th, or 20th? Can’t we just enjoy the coming 35 games in 4 days or whatever the total was? We need to enjoy the fact that we have a beautiful squad that plays with skill rather than bone-crunching tackles a la Dick Butkus, a man whose name I am extremely fond of saying. Butkus. Even our hard man, Toure, is a slick dribbler and prefers the mind-warping giraffe-on-figure-skates look to the Gattuso Method of dealing with opponents. Perhaps it’s just me growing up on Kansas basketball in the Roy Williams era — “Just wait till next year!” — that has caused me to accept losses with shrugs and resignation. Except for last year’s 2nd place finish which I still say was a title; I find it hard to accept that, but it is the past, so let it go, Isaiah, let it go. I enjoy the high points and ignore the low ones as best as possible.