Preview: Barça – Numancia; Saturday 4pmEST, GolTV

By: Isaiah | January 23rd, 2009

Venganza. That’s the word for this match. Revenge, vengeance, getting even, retribution, or whatever else you want to call it (thanks, Thesaurus.com!), that’s what we’re after in this one. The only team in league play — indeed the only Spanish team at all — to beat us this year is, of all teams, Numancia. If you are new to both this blog and the Spanish league in general, you may be shocked to learn this fact. I’m somewhat shocked to state it, for two reasons: 1) We lost to Numancia? and 2) No one else beat us?

As incredible as the first part is, the second part is even more stunning. And I have the oddest feeling that, after tomorrow’s game, Numancia will still be the only team to beat FCB once. Sorry, rojillos, but this is the end of the line for your winning streak against Barcelona.

Naturally I’m biased, since this is a Barcelona blog, after all, but just on the surface, without details, how Numancia got one game off of us is beyond me. If they somehow manage to win two games against us this year, I’ll post about how great they are, about how cool Soria, Spain is. Why am I so cocky today? Hmm…

Ooh boy, time for statistics! My favorites!

Overall:
Barça: 16W-2D-1L, 59GF 13GA; 2.63pts per game
Numancia: 6W-2D-11L 23GF 37GA; 1.05pts per game

Barça home: 8W-2D-0L, 36GF 6GA; 2.60pts per home game
Numancia away: 1W-0D-9L, 8GF 25GA; 0.30pts per away game

So, if you look at that, without any background information, without squad lists, and without very much knowledge about the game that is soccer (guilty on all but the first account, am I), you’d be hard pressed to find a reason, even if you’re a die hard perico or a madridista, to have the slightest optimism that Numancia can come away with a point. Especially if you consider that Barcelona’s A-Team (there you go, Hector, that’s all you get) was rested in midweek, for the most part. Bringing Yaya, Henry, Eto’o, and Pique all off a week’s rest can’t sound good to Numancia.

But do you despair that I don’t give you enough statistics to mull over? Have no fear, the official site is here! Yay statistics! I still say the thing about assists is stupid, though, so ignore that part.

You know what’s also really cool? Stats about Bojan Krkic. Why? Because they debunk your silly notions, that’s why. Last year Bojan was the startlet of startlets, scoring 10 goals in the league and even notching one in the Champions League, of all places. This year, his goal return is paltry. It is despicably small and he should be loaned out to learn how to score.

Last year: 47 appearances overall; 14 league starts, 17 league sub appearances; 3 Champions League starts, 6 CL sub appearances; 2 Copa starts, 5 sub appearances. Goals: 12, 10 league, 1 CL, 1 Copa.

This year: 23 appearances overall; 1 league start, 11 league sub appearances; 3 Champions league starts, 3 CL sub appearances; 5 Copa starts. Goals: 5, 0 league, 3 CL, 2 Copa.

His 07/08 goals per appearance is 0.255 and his 08/09 goals per appearance is 0.217.* I know that’s a couple of hundredths off, but, to put this in the right perspective, if he had scored 1 more goal in any of his appearances, he’d have a higher goals per appearance rate this year than last year. Yet the kid is getting stick from everywhere for not grabbing goals. Sorry, but that’s not fair. He’s started 1/14th as many games in the league and his subs into the games have generally come in the last few minutes rather than early in the second half. He’s score 3 goals in the Champions League, where he’s made – gasp – 3 starts. So lay off the kid, he’s doing well, especially for someone who gets few starts (he has played 57 minutes as a starter in the league and he averages 20minutes 5 seconds per sub appearance).

Sorry to get sidetracked like that, I meant to post that yesterday as a stand-alone, but I got sidetracked so now you can think about that while you consider potential lineups.

Here is Numancia’s squad list: Juan Pablo, Diego, Juanra, Felipe, Pavón, Sergio Ortega, Boris, Palacios, Bellvis, Juan Carlos Moreno, Nagore, Dimas, Del Pino, Quero, Barkero, Brit, Goiria, Aranda.

Naturally, Guardiola hasn’t given us his squad list, which I’m beginning to really dislike. There should be a league-wide rule about when you release squad lineups and it should be 24-48 hours before the match kicks off. That way, jerks like me can get their lineups set and not look like bigger jerks than they really are. Grr.

So no starting lineup guess form me today, just the official prediction: 3-0. Goals by Eto’o (who screams ridiculously and ends up hugging Guardiola), Messi, and Xavi. I’m going to stop betting on Hleb to score until he starts shooting. Which will be never.

And here is your list of places to watch the game: Where to Watch FC Barcelona. I should be able to update it later today with some San Diego information, so look for that if you’re in the area (thanks, Jason).

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*I know I should do this as a function of minutes played rather than appearances, but I don’t have last year’s minutes figures to work with. His current rate is a goal every 209minutes 36 seconds. That is, by my rough calculation, a better goals-per-minute average than everyone except for Henry, Messi, and Eto’o. If you can find someone who has a better one that isn’t one of those three, let me know. I’ll give you a sticker.