FC Basel – Barça Preview: Wednesday 2:45pmEST, ESPNDep

By: Isaiah | October 21st, 2008

We’re back to the Champions League once again, this time for a trip to Basel, Switzerland. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s start with the history lesson:

FC Basel was founded in November 1893 — in fact, their full name is FC Basel 1893 just to reinforce that point — through a newspaper advertisement. Only a few years later, one of their first captains would found another club in a similar fashion in a different country. That man was Joan Gamper and the club was, you guessed it, FC Barcelona. Check out the clubs’ colors which are very similar, especially this year when Barça adopted the split jersey.

Basel may not be as successful as its little Catalan brother, but they’re no slouches either. They’ve won 12 Swiss league titles and 9 Cup titles (4 doubles). Their most recent win was this past season, when they won the double. Domestic success hasn’t bred European success, unfortunately for Basel, who have never made it out of the Group Stage.

So who are they, right now? After 11 games, they’re in 2nd, trailing FC Zurich only through goal differential (+16 to +13). Their leading scorer is 32-year old Scott Chipperfield, with 4. His strike rate is 0.50 (4 goals, 8 matches), which is pretty damned good. In the Group Stage of the CL, though, he has yet to score — in fact, Basel has only scored once in the two games (and has conceded 4).

Statistically, we’re not looking at a powerhouse, but complacency is the Devil’s main weapon. Barcelona are down a couple of players, but here’s the squad traveling to the land of mountains, snow, and secret banking:

Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Víctor Sánchez, Puyol, Márquez, Martín Cáceres, Piqué, Abidal, Sylvinho, Busquets, Touré, Iniesta, Xavi, Bojan, Hleb, Henry, Eto’o, Messi

So we have the return of Xavi and Caceres and the probable return to the starting lineup of Messi. The Argentine is rested, having not played during the weekend, so I don’t see a reason not to start him in what could be the clinching CL group stage game. With the current standings (Barcelona have 6 points, Shaktar and Sporting CP have 3, and Basel have 0), a win would put Barcelona in a fantastic position.

Here’s my random lineup that Guardiola won’t pay attention to (oh for the days of Rijkaard): Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Márquez, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Hleb, Messi, Eto’o.

See what I did there? I took a bunch of names and made a 4-3-3 out of it. Woohoo! We’ll see how close I get to it this time…

This is very short, I know, but I’m pressed for time, unfortunately, and there seems to be so little to say. So, for my Official Prediction: 2-0 Barcelona. Sorry, Basel, but you’re getting your proverbial ass handed to your proverbial you. Wait, that’s too many proverbs.