Copa Preview: Athletic Bilbao – Barcelona, 4pmEST

By: Isaiah | May 12th, 2009

First, some important information: it appears that GolTV will not be broadcasting the game live thanks to the 2:30pmEST kickoff time of the Coppa Italia final between Lazio and Sampdoria. It is possible that the game will be aired on tape delay (of 30 minutes) after the Lazio-Sampdoria game, but the GolTV schedule says nothing of the sort and neither does my DVR, but that’s what happened last time, too, with the semifinal. If you have anything more to add to this (like if you have a different cable/satellite provider and the game is listed), please do so in the comments.

So, to the match, to Athletic Bilbao taking on FC Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey. We know a couple of things for sure: Athletic are going to be physical, aggressive, and fairly desperate to win a title. Without even the possibility of starting Abidal, Iniesta, or Henry the responsibility falls on younger shoulders (unless Sylvinho starts) to put some balls in the back of the net and bring home part 1 of the triplete.

The historical significance of this matchup isn’t being overlooked by many, but perhaps it’s worth going over for a few seconds before getting back to the nuts and bolts of the game tomorrow. Throughout the entirety of the Spanish first division, Athletic Bilbao has maintained a good record, winning 8 times, their most recent being in 1983/84. While they won 4 of those titles in the the 1930s, they’ve been steadfast members of the top flight and have actually won the second most number of Copa del Rey titles, behind only Barcelona (23 to 24, though I would support both teams as having 24 thanks to the controversy surrounding the 1902 win). So this is, for many, a battle to be the first to 25, to lead the Copa standings. The last time Athletic won the cup — 1984, when they won the double — they beat Barcelona 1-0.

The last time Barcelona won the Copa (1998), the game took place in, of course, Valencia. Yay for historical convergences that mean nothing, really, but which are fun to point out anyway! For Athletic, this is a game of games, a testament to their club as a whole, from past to present. For Barça, I think it’s a little less important, but no less interesting. Being the first to 25 probably has some measure of importance and no doubt Laporta would like to adorn himself in the glory that has so far escaped them in the Copa. A triple would ensure Joan wins the next election, even if it doesn’t take place until 2054.

By the way, if you care what the players were doing the last time Barça won the trophy, check out the official site’s look at just that. It’s interesting to think that Milito rooted against Barça, but why shouldn’t he have?

Back to the game at hand, though. This is not a contest between what happened several years before Messi, Bojan, Busquets, Pique, and Caceres were born (and 6 days prior to Iniesta’s birth), but rather between two canteras. Athletic is known for bringing up home grown players and they boast a pretty serious squad of Basque talent, to which I must doff my cap, but which I also must insist our team defeats.

In league play, Barça won both encounters 0-1 away on October 19 and 2-0 at the Camp Nou on March 7 with goals by Eto’o and Busi as well as a Messi penalty. The reviews of these games are here and here. Kevin’s man of the match in the away game was Victor Valdes and for the home game, Carles Puyol. We’ll probably be without Valdes because the Copa is Pinto thing, but Puyol will be there and he won’t get injured oh god cross your fingers right now. RIGHT NOW!

The squad lineup for Barça this time around is: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Cáceres, Sylvinho, VícSán, The Yaya, Busi, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Hleb, Bojan, Eto’o, Pedro!, Messi.

[updated lineup, de-Hlebified] Now, I’m going to advocate a somewhat weaker lineup, but it’s for a reason: Pinto, Puyol, Piqué, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Busi, Keita, Xavi, Bojan, Eto’o, Messi. [/update]

With Abidal coming back for the Mallorca match we can use Sylvinho now, get him a little bit of game time, and then a bit more the next weekend before the CL final. We need to see if Cáceres can handle the CL final by seeing if he can handle the Copa final — while the latter is not truly comparable to the former, they are both finals and the Copa final is a good tune-up for the CL final, I would imagine. The Yaya can’t play defense if we want to win because we need him in his DM role more than we need him in defense. I know Cáceres is young, inexperienced, and occassionaly rash, but you could put him on the right to deal with Rooney’s pace or you could put him in the middle to deal with Berbatov whenever Pique can’t (assuming Berbatov starts).

I hate to use Xavi at this point, but I don’t have any faith in Hleb’s ability to run the show and with Iniesta injured, there’s really no one else. Xavi plays tomorrow, I say, but not against Mallorca. Pique in the back is important to deal with Llorente, despite the fact that there will be no rest whatsoever for the the Great Catalan Beanpole (GCB) unless we put the title away against Mallorca. Then we can throw in Botia and Cáceres as our CB pairing. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit, I suppose.

I like the idea of Busi starting because he needs to get his feet back under him after his beating against Chelsea, where he was absolutely invisible/terrible. He can handle Athletic and will draw fouls out of them so long as he doesn’t get caught in possession, which I think Xavi will help him with by providing a good outlet. Keita deserves the chance to start after his goal against Villarreal (that sheepish smile afterwards is worth it alone, right?) and should be able to provide some welcome steel to the midfield, especially if he continues to play like he has been in La Liga.

Without Iniesta and Henry, our options are somewhat more limited up front. I like the idea of Messi coming off the bench, but I’d rather wrangle control of the game before that’s necessary, so put him out there with Bojan and Eto’o, who will be active and movement-oriented rather than static. Pedro! could be included as well, but I think he’d make a great second half sub for Messi. Sure, there’s a huge dip in quality there, but that’s how that is going to have to be based on our other available offensive weaponry. Eto’o will just have to man up and grab some goals here to make his inclusion worthwhile. No more of this banda-ying about on the wings (La banda, get it? Ha! I made a joke in two languages! And it wasn’t funny in either!) and more of the “I am Eto’o, I must crush you in the middle” with some serious first touch shots, not dribbles. That’s not his game, as I argued in the comments of the previous post.

So there you have it, our starting lineup. This is a real final. This is for real, people. This is serious. This is no joke whatsoever. Oh man, it’s so on.

Official Prediction: 0-2, Barcelona. Yeah, I said it. We’re doing this with the clean sheet (thanks, Pinto!) and we’re doing it with two goal from Samuuuuu. We’re the away team, sure, but whatever, we’re both away and it’s in Valencia, where we know we can do this. Title #1, coming right up.

If the game is on GolTV, then the Where to Watch page is relevant. Check it out if you’d like to catch the game in a bar somewhere.