Preview: Barcelona - Real Zaragoza; Saturday 4pm EST

By: Isaiah | February 14th, 2008

So I know it’s a day early, but the preview for the first of many must-win games is here and I’m leaving town tonight on a mini-vacaton to the west coast. San Francisco and its lack of slushysnowycrap will be a welcome relief to both my immune system and my eyes, which are tiring of seeing the same gritty winter scenes day-in and day out. It does mean, though, that I’m going to miss the Zaragoza match and will probably eschew the review of it too in favor of focusing on the Champions League match on Wednesday.

I know I also avoided doing a review of the Sevilla match, but I decided earlier in the week that my inebriated brain had been unable to process the game in any meaningful way at the time, so my review would merely be a slanted rehashing of my own preview and who wants to read that? I thought the game could have been won — should have been won — but it wasn’t and now we’re 8 points back. Time to move on, time to focus on Zaragoza.

We beat Zaragoza at the Camp Nou in late September, 1-4. Two goals from Messi, one from Iniesta, and one from Rafa Marquez. I would be more than happy with such a scoreline, especially considering that we’ll probably start a very similar lineup. However, Real Zaragoza is a beast at home, as opposed to their awful away record. They’re two entirely different teams; away they’ve only won 1 game, but at home they’ve only lost 1. At home they’ve allowed 15 goals, but they’ve also scored 26. Their record at home is 6W-5D-1L while Barcelona’s away record is 3W-6D-2L (14 goals for, 10 against).

This points towards another draw of the 1-1 variety, to be honest. However, several key components that were missing during the Sevilla game are back from injury and could make a large difference in the proceedings. Toure is back! Toure is back! He’s returned from the African Cup of Nations and should get the start. Puyol could start because of the lack of a right back due to an extension of Zambrotta absence and Oleguer needing surgery on his hand, meaning that either Marquez or Thuram will partner Milito in the back with Abidal out wide.

With Toure back, that allows Xavi and Iniesta to be the midfielders, with Ronaldinho, Messi, and Henry up front. However, because of the knock he received against Sevilla, Henry might start on the bench, giving way for Bojan. That might be the best as Bojan will not overlap Ronaldinho’s positioning — Henry has the ego and skills to think he should be where Ronnie is, whereas Bojan is too young to challenge such a global icon and will listen to the directions given to him rather than thinking on his own (whether or not he should is a completely different question) — and will allow Ronaldinho to have a go at the back line. If he doesn’t, he should be pulled in favor of Guddie with a quickness. Hopefully Messi will not have to fight his way through 4 defenders every time he touches the ball, but that will be based on whether or not Iniesta can fill the middle of the field, allowing Bojan to squirm off into the gaps created by Messi’s runs, thus allowing Messi to either continue his runs or lay the ball off. And with Ronaldinho at the back post and fully capable of dropping a free kick or two into the upper 90, that’s several weapons we’ve been lacking lately. Toure’s return lets us shuffle a little more than we would otherwise be able to, which is fantastic. And that I have full confidence in him is not hurting my current mood.

While Zaragoza will harry us and will certainly be on top of counter-attacking, if Xavi can play for 90 minutes as hard as he’s been playing for 15 these last few games, I think we’ll be able to spread out more and really attack them. No one will have to stay back since we’ll have 4 full time defenders and Abidal running up the wing. Unfortunately we won’t have anyone who can head worth a damn out there, but you gotta love the spirit Abidal puts into his crosses that go straight to 4 defenders with Bojan squashed in between them. Can the kid wear stilts? He’d still be pretty awesome…

Deco, Henry, and Eto’o all look like they’re going to be saved for the Celtic match and I think Toure would be too were it not for the injuries on the backline. Perhaps he will only play 45 minutes, though. This is my lineup prediction: Valdes, Puyol, Thuram, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Messi, Henry. Again, feel free to replace Henry with Bojan, as is probable.

Here’s some other news to digest:
1. Eto’o thinks that “Henry, Messi, Drogba, and myself would be a superteam”. For what it’s worth, I disagree. Cut out Henry and you’ve got a shot at it, but I don’t like the emergence of a long-ball style team as that which the fans and the players both want. I am fully against it. Barcelona, to me, stands for beauty over brawn.
2. The rumors about Cesc Fabregas coming to Barcelona are still out there, especially now that the Brewster ruling is sending waves through anything and everything that’s related to football. If you haven’t heard of that ruling, you either live under a rock or get all your news from me. Cause this is the first time that I’m mentioning it. For some reason. Anyway, Cesc looks like he’s going to renew with Arsenal, so even if he does want to be Blaugrana, he’ll come at a hefty price. I doubt he’ll have a “lifetime” contract like Casillas and Raul, who just resigned with Madrid until 2017 and 2011, respectively. Weird move, what with injuries happening now and then to players, but that’s how it is, I suppose. And it’s oddly refreshing to see life-long partnerships being made between clubs and players. Even if it is the Evil Empire. Can we do that with Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, and Bojan? Pleeeeease? And then, to one-up RM, we could donate money to charity. (If you say “charity” in front of Calderon, does he wince? Is it like water to the Wicked Witch of the West?).
3. This has nothing to do with soccer, but it’s worth mentioning…The New York Times had a blurb about one of its articles that said “Roger Clemens said that he was talking about his wife’s use of human-growth hormone, not his own.” Right. And Wilt Chamberlain died a virgin. (I’m so multi-sport it makes me sick)
4. There is no 4, only Zuul.

Thank you and see you all on Tuesday when I return from our Western Lands. I heart fog.