Copa Preview: Mallorca – Barça, Wednesday 4pmEST, GolTV

By: Isaiah | March 3rd, 2009

If you’re wondering what to do with the disproportionate amount of hope floating around in your chest, El Mundo Deportivo is about as bored as you are and is half-gleeful and half-panicky in its announcement that their Facebook group called “We Believe” (Creemos) has 5,000 members! OMG. And in case you’re unfamiliar with Facebook, EMD provides you with a handy-dandy, red, bold link to an explanation. OH GOD UPDATE UPDATE: They’ve got 8,000 now! Oh jesushchristthisissoexcitingggg!!!!1@.

Or you could do what I do on game days: stare at my computer screen while hitting refresh every time the squad list page loads. I can barely even register any of the words on the screen, deciding when things have been posted only by shifting line lengths and number of characters present. Will it be The Yaya? Marquez? Ack, Pep, you’re already killing me and there are 24 hours until kickoff!

So we’re up 2-0 in this here two-legged tie, which fundamentally changes the way that I approach this preview. Here are our chances to advance: any win of any score, any draw of any score, and a 1-0 loss. A 2-0 loss means we go to extra time. So, barring a Getafe-esque debacle, we’ll go through even if we start the second-tier team.

However, last time we played, it looked like this before and this after. Mallorca was, at the time, going in with several losses and draws in a row, but now they’ve won 3 straight, including 2 straight away. That, um, changes things. This is their only chance for any silverware whatsoever, so we’re going to have to show up, despite our obvious advantage going on.

Guardiola has called for all hands on deck, so to speak, by putting everyone on the squad list. Everyone. Like…all of them. Yeah, that narrows it down for me, Pep. Thanks a lot. But, I’m going to forge ahead, as always, in the face of adversity.

I’m calling for the following lineup: Pinto, Alves, Pique, Caceres, Sylvinho, Busi, Keita, Hleb, Bojan, Eto’o, Pedro!

There are reasons for each player. Let’s build at the back. Pinto is our Copa keeper and that’s just how it is. It has nothing to do with Valdes’ real or perceived foibles, but rather because we’ve always used Pinto and not doing so would be silly. I don’t think that Pinto increases or decreases goalie risks, to be honest, because he brings a different style from Valdes. VV has the reaction speed that Pinto lacks, but Pinto has better command of his area, generally speaking. So that’s that.

The defense should be, I think, the same as it was against Real Betis, with the exception of Sylvinho for Abidal. The reason is because despite Mallorca’s obvious need to push forward, if we play with Sylvinho on the wing, we can keep pressure on their wingers, who will be forced to play slightly withdrawn in order to prevent Hleb and Sylvinho from combining up the side with Bojan in order to get the ball into the box to Eto’o more fluidly. Now, I know that the best response to this, if you’re not in favor of Sylvinho starting, is merely to point out that the last time Sylvinho started, he not only didn’t play particularly well, but also we lost. And we lost because we didn’t have enough coverage on the wings. Fair enough. However, I think that Sylvinho can prevent a 2-0 or worse loss simply by providing solid crosses that Bojan and Eto’o can put away. We’ve already seen that Bojan can get in behind defenses when there are good crosses sent his way, so why not increase the number that do so, especially since Mallorca is not going to be able to muster the same amount of offensive firepower that Atleti did.

As for subs, I think we can give Milito 20 minutes at the end, to get him some reps, especially if we’ve got the game salted away. Even if we don’t, though, I think it’s worth giving him the opportunity to kick some people in the shins and get back into the swing of things.

In the middle, I’m calling for a DM (Busi), fronted by Keita and Hleb. I think that this is the opportunity Hleb can use to create something on the wings with both Alves and Pedro! or, if he switches to the left, with Sylvinho and Bojan. That takes some of the playmaking pressure off of him, though it does increase the pressure on Keita, who would be responsible for the high pressure and their playmaking midfielders. I can see Guardiola betting on Xavi to be able to play his way through 4 more games (Mallorca, Bilbao, Lyon, Almeria), but I don’t necessarily think that’s the best way to go. Give Xavi and Messi their time off and at halftime you can sub on Iniesta, who will dramatically change the game. If Iniesta does start, then throw him on for either Hleb or Pedro!, depending on the role you want him to play.

Iniesta can play either the Xavi role or the left winger role, depending on what’s necessary. Starting him isn’t the best idea, I don’t think, because I’d like to see him play against both Bilbao and Lyon (especially Lyon). However, getting him some playing time is good. If we need more width on the left, we can either swap out Bojan directly or swap Bojan and Pedro! and the sub on Iniesta for Pedro!.

The front line (Bojan, Eto’o, Pedro!) is designed to both put some fresh legs out there and provide some width to what has lately been a slightly underwhelming attack in terms of speed and precision (not counting Messi’s goal against Atleti). Eto’o, however, is a beast, but just needs to get a little bit of confidence into his legs and he’ll return to the goal-per-game rate that we were just getting used to. His veteran leadership (if you can call it that because I’m not sure screaming and being a total beastly beast counts as leadership, but sometimes it does, I guess, maybe) is necessary and good, and he provides a lot of physical power in the middle that no one else on the team can. He has positional sense and capability that no one else has and he can open up channels in the offense for both himself and for his partners up front.

So there you have it, my defense of my lineup. Show me the light, if you can, in the comments.

Official prediction time, suckas: 2-1, Barcelona. Goals by Eto’o and Bojan. We’re the best team out there and we’re going to prove it against Mallorca, with our second-string team. And we’re going to let in a consolation goal late in the match thanks to Milito getting a bit mixed up with Pique, who he has never played with before. (Our third sub will be Guddy on for Keita).

And, because this is the Copa, don’t forget that the Where to Watch page is relevant.