Copa Preview: Benidorm – Barça, Tuesday 3pm EST

By: Isaiah | October 27th, 2008

UpdatedSo now we’re back with our third real competition (Copa Catalunya doesn’t count) of the year: the Copa del Rey. We start out in 4th round thanks to our status as Primera Liga members and we start out away to Benidorm in the first of a two-legged affair.

“Beniwhat?” you may be asking yourself. Fair enough, but let’s see if we can do their history a little bit of justice. Benidorm is a town on the southern coast sitting on some beautiful beaches halfway between Valencia and Alicante. Will our boys be seduced by the draw of the luxurious beaches or are they bored by the whole playa thing yet? It’s not like Barcelona doesn’t have its share of beaches, after all.

The club, Benidorm Club Deportivo, was founded in 1964 and has never made it above the Segunda B, where it currently resides in Group 3 alongside our very own Barça Atlètic. Currently Benidorm sit in 9th in the group with 13points from 10 games while Barça Atlètic is in 17th with 10 points from 10 games. So they’re not the best, but they’re also not the worst. They have a 6,000 seat stadium, which should be quite a change of pace from the Camp Nou, to say the least.

But Barça cannot sleep on this team any more than they can sleep on their weekly league rivals. With that in mind, Pep has called up the following group of players: Pinto, Jorquera, Piqué, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Alves, Abidal, Touré, Busquets, Víctor Sánchez, Henry, Bojan, Eto’o, Hleb, Nolito, Abraham.

So, Valdes gets a break and either Pinto or Jorquera will appear between the pipes. Jorquera is just returning from breaking himself in a Catalonia “national team” friendly 10 months ago. Furthermore, Márquez, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi are also not included. I’m not even sure who Nolito is, but he’s listed as a forward and he’ll probably take part in the match, if Pep’s track record of starting B-teamers is to be trusted.

Nolito’s real name is Manuel Agudo Duran and he’s 22 years old (born October 15, 1986). That is exactly all of the information I have about him (gleaned from the official site). As for Abraham González Casanovas, he’s 23 (born July 16, 1985)* and he’s a midfielder. We’ll see if either of them get playing time, but I do imagine they’ll be subbed on, especially if the game goes according to plan.

Without that midfield troika that we’ve relied on so much, the going will be a bit tougher, especially since Keita, Pedro, and Gudjohnsen are all out injured (the complete list includes Milito, but that’s a given). So how do we go about getting the points? I imagine we’ll have a very young team out there, with this as my suggestion:

Pinto, Alves, Pique, Caceres, Sylvinho, Busquets, Víctor Sánchez, Abraham, Hleb, Henry, Bojan

Here’s my reasoning behind this lineup: youth and inexperience, but a desire to prove, plus weaker opposition. That means more forgiveness for mistakes (forgiveness from our opponents, of course, not from Pep) and thus a better atmosphere to get some new legs a little bit of time on the field. Note that I did put Abraham out there, but that’s for lack of more midfielders available. Maybe Toure gets the start instead of Víctor Sánchez, but why risk him? This is leg 1 and if we’re somehow not winning after this, we’ll have leg 2 to wrap it all up using a bolstered squad.

Most of the commenters here on this board will note a general appreciation of Henry as the central striker from both myself and Kevin — at least when Eto’o is not on the field, in my case. We also agree that Bojan + Henry = fun! That’s some high level math, I know, but let’s not be fooled, complex equations or no, Henry and Bojan have generally played well when starting together.

The return leg isn’t until November 12, so there’s a small break in which to consider the options (though it’s filled with 2 league games and a CL match). Official prediction: 3-0, Barça. We’re just better than they are, especially right now.

Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that the game will be broadcast in the US except via P2P clients. Please provide links in the comments if you’ve got them and I’ll try to put them here for everyone.

Update: Thierry Henry has been removed from the squad list because of “stomach problems” — apparently he was sick all night and in the morning the team doctors called for a day of rest. Carles Puyol will take his place, meaning we now have another potential right back and our captaincy is no longer up for question (assuming Puyi will be on the field).

My new lineup: Pinto, Puyol, Pique, Caceres, Sylvinho, Busquets, Victor Sanchez, Abraham, Hleb, Bojan, Eto’o

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*Of the B teamers, only Gai Assulin and Thaigo Alcantara were born in the 90s. Both of them were born in April ‘91. That fact surprised me.