Barcelona – Sevilla: Saturday 4pm EST

There has been some debate on whether or not this game will be shown, but as attentive reader John pointed out in a comment to a previous post, the rival TV companies MediaPro and Sogecable who have until now kept all but 2 La Liga games per weekend from being shown through a rights dispute, have come to their sense (somewhat) and made the league games available. According to this Forbes article, that dispute is at an end until next off-season, at which time these exact same issues will resurface. But for not everything seems set to be shown and that’s great news for Barca and Sevilla fans who are looking forward to a “clash of the titans” tomorrow afternoon.

At 4pm EST I will be at Nevada Smith’s in Manhattan watching the game. In fact, I’ll be there at 2:30 in order to watch the Milan-Parma game with a buddy (a half-Milanista, half-Fiorentinista [Viola?] combo child) and my lady. Good times shall be had by all, that is for sure. Feel free to stop by and say hello, not that you’ll know who I am except I’ll be loud and nerdy in equal proportions.

The squad listing is as follows:

Valdés, Jorquera, Henry, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Zambrotta, Iniesta, Abidal, Oleguer, Márquez, Deco, Touré Yayá, Thuram, Sylvinho, Milito, Messi, Gudjohnsen, Giovani and Bojan.

Note that Gudjohnsen has been included in the lineup for the first time. Regardless, I expect the starting lineup to be exactly what it was against Lyon on Wednesday. That is:

Valdes, Zambrotta, Marquez, Milito, Abidal, Xavi, Toure, Deco, Ronaldinho, Messi, and Henry.

Ronaldinho remains untouchable, even after his sub-part performances, but he does need to step it up and start to score and provide better passes. His work rate is higher than it was last year, but now he needs to improve on his production, which was quite high last year relative to his work rate. I could see Xavi being swapped with Iniesta in the starting 11, but that doesn’t seem such a smart move against a team like Sevilla. Ah, Sevilla, the opponents.

Sevilla is one of those teams you have no choice but to be afraid of. It doesn’t matter that they just got whooped by Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates at the same time as Barca was laying it on Lyon; rather, that should make them more dangerous as they’ll be looking to regain their confidence and their pride. Barcelona shouldn’t go in thinking they’ll win, but rather with the idea that they must play hard and well in order to get a result at all. Sevilla has won 4-1 in both of their league games (Huelva and Getafe), but they haven’t played away from home yet. The Camp Nou isn’t the best place to make a debut of any sort, but they’ll be looking to improve on last year’s semi-dismal 6W-6D-7L away record, including a 3-1 loss at the Camp Nou on October 15 last year. It was a nice birthday present last year, but this year we’ll have to see if the blaugrana can’t repeat their performance (2 goals by Ronnie and one by Messi; Kanoute scoring for Sevilla).

I believe we can win this game, but only if we play the brand of football that was on display against Lyon. There is a lot more to discuss, including Ronaldinho being substituted, but I don’t have very much time at the moment, so more next week. Remember, Nevada Smith’s 4pm on Saturday.

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Category: Barcelona, La Liga, Lineups, Preview