Barca v Deportivo La Coruna, or “She’s warming up….” Saturday, 1 p.m. CT, GolTV
By: Kevin | April 25th, 2008
Well, her song isn’t done, but you have to wonder. We’re in third place, one point behind Villarreal and eleven behind the Evil Empire, with five matches left to go. That’s fifteen points. Barring a massive collapse, alien abductions and the like, that’s a lotta points to make up, even if you count the three we’re going to get at the Bernabeu.
Right now, I hope we’re thinking that “fewer matches are better” next season, and will play to overtake Villarreal for the automatic Champions League spot.
But standing in our way is Deportivo La Coruna.
They’re sitting eighth in the table, with not a lot to play for except upsetting one of the big sides at home, late in the season when it’s distracted because of a looming Champions League semi-final draw and…hey, wait…that’s US, isn’t it? 24-karat, stone-cold bummer.
In team news, Iniesta and Milito are both out because of yellow card buildup, and Messi is being rested after the word from the Man U game, which was that he felt a twinge of something. Rijkaard pulled him soonest, and hopefully he’ll be ready for the Old Trafford leg next Tuesday. Eto’o and Xavi will also be rested, which gives you some indication, despite Curly Frank saying that the Liga isn’t done, everybody pretty much presumes that it is.
So who the hell is in the side, and who’s starting?
Well, here’s who we have: Valdes, Abidal, Puyol, Marquez, Sylvinho, Deco, Yaya, Gudjohnsen, Krkic, Dos Santos, Henry, Edmilson, Oleguer, Thuram, “Santi Claus” and Pedrito.
Christ, the starting eleven is almost a no-brainer, based on the importance of Tuesday’s match: Valdes, Puyol, Marquez, Abidal, Zambrotta, Deco, Yaya, Gudjohnsen, Krkic, Henry, Dos Santos.
Look for Yaya and Deco to get pulled early. We might also see Sylvinho for Abidal, if Rijkaard even puts Abidal in the side at all, except as a sub to get loose. Wouldn’t want him playing like crap and messing up the good feelings he has from Wednesday.
In many ways, this is a pain in the butt match that we could easily lose, and I think that people would be bothered from the standpoint of losing ground to second place, but if a loss meant a win on Tuesday, we’d gladly take it. Rock.
Deportivo are pretty crazy. They beat the Evil Empire, but lost to Mallorca. But that’s been the side’s only loss in the last six matches, a verrrrry impressive run. We, on the other hand, have been pissing away the title like a beer fiend in an unwatched alley. But….might we be surfing the good feelings from Wednesday, and decide to come out and whip some ass, even with a depleted side?
Doubtful, particularly given the Deportivo 1-4-5 formation, and two of the four don’t really stray all too far upfield. It’s going to be a looong afternoon in a match that we might very well lose, something like 1-0. I’d be predicting a 0-0 draw were we at Camp Nou, but we aren’t. I think everybody is so focused on Tuesday, that this match is an afterthought, something they have to deal with. I think that as far as anyone on the side is concerned, there are three matches left: Tuesday, the Bernabeu showdown and the Champions League final.
Everything else is just an opportunity to get injured, and be kept from playing in one of the remaining real matches. So I just don’t see us coming out with the fire, except for the kids, who know they probably won’t be seeing any action at Old Trafford unless things are well in hand.
And if “Santi Claus” even gets near the pitch, Rijkaard isn’t going to have to fret about burglars breaking in while he’s home. I’m going to be saddling up and coming for his ass.
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Barca lost 2-0 to deportivo. Where the hell has that hunger gone?
Even at this stage of the year with so much grief, Barca still has a lot to do. They are :
1) Preventing an all english final in the champions league. Last year it was Milan vs EPL and they showed why they had done so well in the UEFA champ league timne after time by thrashing ManU and beating liverpool. Time for us to do the same
2) Prevent home and away victory for Real madrid. Unthinkable!!!
3) Conceding the liga before el classico. Cant bear to see that idiot Schuster getting so much praise for taking the title with so many games to spare which we all but handed to them wrapped in gift paper.
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The league that nobody wants.. I’m actually rooting for Villareal now to just keep up. Barca can handle CL preliminaries next year.
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I bet Isaiah’s review will be pretty scalding. Man! Hate to say I was right, but… A 1-0 loss was pretty easy to predict given the personnel and the defense that Depor play. But who was figuring Marquez to be so exceptionally vile?
Pinto Bean needs some work as well, but duh. He’s been sitting around for months.
Ah, well.
Ballbeav, Drogba has certainly taken a turn for the worse. Can’t see him here. Could have seen last year’s Drogba here, but not this one. Then again, who knows what kind of weird stuff is going on behind the scenes over there?
But hey, they did the job for us. We’ll see on Tuesday.
Icemel, Yaya got knocked around pretty good, but he’s proved to be resilient. But Puyol looked ready, if playing almost as if he was warming up, and Zambrotta is continuing to rise, which is good.
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kevin, you nailed it, marquez went out like a capital c Chump in this match. glad he wont figure on tuesday.
guddy also looked pretty baddy. or just invisible. an invisible playmaking midfielder, makes for a long night.
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It’s funny. I hardly ever say Gudjohnsen is bad because he almost always reliably is. It’s easier to say when he’s good. Saves time and effort. He has been good in flashes this season. I don’t know if playing time would fix that, or if he just isn’t cut out for La Liga. He just doesn’t seem to have the ball skills or passing ability to work in the side.
Rijkaard said it best, when he said that Depor deserved the win, and that Pinto didn’t deserve the loss, which means he was let down by the lads.
It’s all on Tuesday now. Wonder how Man U will be feeling, in the aftermath of the big battle royale with the Chelsea groundskeeping crew?
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Spot on, Kxevin. Guddie’s got himself such a reliably poor reputation that it is so easy for him to impress.
Didn’t really care about that game, to be honest. I was just hoping that there were no injuries. But I, like an idiot, got up at 4am anyway, just because my weekend isn’t the same without seeing Yaya’s pretty face.
Second place isn’t out of reach, so obviously that would be much better than having to play the preliminaries. We struggle with the current amount of games as it is.
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Deco had a pretty awful game.
So did Henry.
Pinto takes too long to clear the ball.
sheeesshh!!! it’s been ages since we have scored a goal.Posted from
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Rooney might make the game, might not. It would be golden if he couldn’t.
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I’m struggling with this review. It’s all I can do to not barf whenever I think about the game, so you can imagine what writing about it would do…
Yaya was a man in midfield, everyone else was a mouse. Expletives are all my mind conjures up as descriptors for our performance. I stopped paying attention after the first goal and concentrated on talking to my buddies and downing some pints. Then there was the second goal and I said “Two tears in a bucket, fuck it,” cause there’s no more league and giving Real Madrid the guard of honor (that’s what we call it in English, icemel) would be tragic and painful to watch.
So we fight lamely on for 2nd. Or 3rd. Or 4th? Where do we want to end up? 4 games left and maybe we can SCORE in one of them. Or is that asking a bit much of the lads?
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Apparently Vidic and Rooney are doubtful for tomorrow’s match… but so is Yaya
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No Yaya, no chance. If we were going to roll out the “Goals? What goals?” lineup that we did, we should have done a makeshift midfield, too. I saw at least two knocks that he could have picked up, the foot in the first half seeming the most potentially serious.
I don’t have to tell anyone how critical he was to our control of them in the first leg. Nothing, but NOTHING came through the midfield, which is where they love to attack.
Uh, oh….
Let’s just keep our fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, I reckon that Isaiah has said, indirectly, that there will be no Deportivo review.
So look for the preview of tomorrow’s match this evening. There’s much to report on and off the pitch, from Rijkaard saying R10 is definitely outta here, to fights and injuries, as well as speculation galore.Stay tuned.
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Hey, don’t be scaring us like that, Joe. The latest report is an ankle bruise, according to the home site. He got treatment, and “has been included in the selection without any complications.”
Whew!
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Well, yeah, Kevin, that’s sort of what I meant, but I was going to drop a line or 20 about it, then it was suddenly late and I went to bed. Badly needed beauty rest. Didn’t work.
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Ugh, just realized I got that bit from the B(ritish)BC. heh.
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http://fcbtransfers.blogspot.com/2008/04/etoo-for-sale.html
Holy crap! While we’re over here, having a great time, Pep is doing the Lord’s work over at fcbtransfers@blogspot.com. Clean slate? Eto’o for sale? Nucleus of Iniesta, Messi and Krkic? Not bad….
Nice work, Pep.
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I don’t mean this to inflame, but Tim Stannard wrote an article about Barcelona last week after their disapointing derby against Espanyol. The title of the article was “Tomato Eating Surrender Monkeys.” Watching the game on Saturday (against an admittingly impressive and now shockingly 7th place Depor) on Saturday, the words kept scrolling through my head. Here’s the link for anyone who cares to read it:
http://www.football365.com/spanish_thing/0,17033,9405_3454301,00.html
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No worries John, this piece did not inflame, although it did pour a little salt in the wounds. Interestingly the article did mention a key word the has been discussed here. The word, not surprisingly is…”one-dimensional”. Kxevin, I hope you read this article. I think the writer hit the nail on the head, for it is not Messi how is one-dimensional, but rather the attack as a whole. Messi is the only real dimension Barca seems to have right now.
I remember asking a few weeks ago if anyone felt a hole on the left sin R10. I just don’t feel we’ve been able to find any viable solutions on that side, certainly Henry was a bust and Iniesta has not had the time to gel in this spot. This option should have been tried earlier in the season, when it became apparent to everyone in the world, except Frankie-boy, that Henry is not a wing! Unfortunately what that means for us now is a left-wing with only one game under his belt, hardly what you want to see going into the second leg of the semi-finals against Man U. That is, if Iniesta even gets the start. I read Henry will get the start at OT, but in place of whom? Could it be Iniesta, Henry, and Messi up front? Eto’o has certainly struggled to find the back of the net in the CL and with a sale looming on the horizon for both forwards it could be argued that one it no more vested than the other. More likely it will be the more tried and true, Henry on the left, Eto’o in the middle and Messi on the right. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad line-up, remember Glasgow. Henry had a beautiful goal from the left after coming on for Ronnie and we all remember Messi’s two something-out-of-nothing beauties.
Can’t say I’m not nervous about tomorrow, cause frankly it’s all I can do to sit still long enough to type this comment. I think I need some Zanax or something. Better yet, a long run might do the trick.
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No worries indeed, John. Stannard has always done good work, and he’s right. The idea of a Barca core: Iniesta, Messi, Krkic is a great one. All three are young, still improving (scary to contemplate for Messi) and dedicated to the side.
If we sell Eto’o (and we should) then keeping Henry is a no-brainer. He works with the kids in practice and makes them better. That’s been one benefit of his presence here, as well as at Arsenal in the past. Henry becomes a central striker who comes in to ignite things. With his chronic injuries, I can’t see him not being cool with that.
My bile toward Ronaldinho is unrestrained at this moment. It is matched only by my disdain for management, who went into the season thinking that nobody would get hurt, and everyone would be perfect forever. So we have no backups at critical positions, which allows players either being hurt or being dicks to mess up the attack.
Ronaldinho is a critical miss, not as much because it’s him as because the attack needs a player filling that role, whoever the hell it is. Deco is, on form, something of a surrogate, but not the full-on attacking, passing playmaker needed over there.
And we ALL agree that Henry ain’t it. And who is Yaya’s backup? Edmilson? That and 2 Euros will get you a bag of Barca Chips.
I’m dying to read Isaiah’s preview. I still think that Henry on the left is a mistake. I’d rather see Iniesta pushing up or something. Dunno.
Worse than being one-dimensional, we’re boring. Even as we controlled the ball for almost the entire match against Man U in the first leg, aside from some moments of individual brilliance (Evra is still re-running that Messi highlights reel in his head), we were never really threatening to Van Der Saar.
Long shots, lobs, let’s shake some stuff up and get the ball on goal. Sometimes, keepers spill stuff, and we can clean it up.
Is it tomorrow yet?
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same line up as the first leg! 4-4-2 with a freed-up iniesta, i say. henry is in his own isolated little world, and we need possession and more possession. ManU wont be crowding the box and we will exploit the spaces.
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agree with kevin that we need to take more shots from outside the box. that Henry can do, but deco, eto’o, and xavi can do it too.
rooney and vidic didnt practice today and Fergie says “frankly i dont see how they could play tomorrow.”
all the Toure talk has been based on the fact that he didnt train on sunday, plus the media needing something to write about. todays training is closed to the public so we dont know. but the official word, like kevin said, from the FCB site is that he should basically be OK. if we get through i see him getting a nice rest for the final.
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Watched both the Celtic and Man U. games last night back to back, and you’re right, Messi needs to be less predictable tomorrow. The biggest contrast I noticed between the two games was the pass. You were so right on that one Kxevin. In the Celtic game Messi had more variety, serving up some beautiful crosses, 1-2 passes, and great over-laps with Puyol and Deco, in addition to his brilliant runs. Granted the Celtic defense gave him more space, but still, he was more unpredictable in Glasgow–more threatening, more productive. If Man U. wants to score they won’t be able to flood the defense, there will be opportunities without the 3 v 1 on Messi.
Oh, I did have to super-slow mo that move around Evra about ten times! Brilliant! Unfortunately, C.R. had an equally impressive and embarrassing maneuver on Deco.
If Iniesta gets the start with Messi, Henry or Eto’o that does leave a shallow midfield off the bench. I’m guessing one of the mighty mites will sit, giving Henry the start and leaving a more viable replacement for the midfield. Surely Isaiah will be able to shed some sagely light on the matter. And while his figuring that out maybe he could advise the boys on how to get that little round thing into the back of the big rectangular thing at the end of the pitch!
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I’m predicting a starting front line (I’ll leave the rest to Isaiah) of Iniesta, Henry and Messi. In my dreams, it would be Iniesta, Henry, Eto’o and Messi, with the middle two crashing the box. I know….the 4-2-4 again.
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Can’t see Frank starting a 4-4-2, but given that it’s now or never maybe he’ll show some spine. I still think a 4-3-3 is more likely with Henry, Eto’o, and Messi. Keep in mind, with all the absences and injuries this season, these three have not played together much. But when they have, they’ve produced. I don’t know our record with these three up front, but it can’t be that bad.
Kxevin got me thinking about Henry and the youth. How about a Krkic, Henry, Messi thing? Bojan feeds off Henry and vice versa. It might be a good change up for the second half if the net is being evasive.
Waiting for tomorrow reminds me of my first multi-pitch climb in Colorado 18 years ago. It scares the shit out of you to sit around a wait, too much time to think. You tend to over-analyze and worry about unnecessary things. It’s always much better to just get on with it, it helps you keep your nerve. No time to think about how it will feel to be completely exposed 500 ft. above the ground on a granite slab with your life in the hands of another. No, I say it is better to just do it!
Tomorrow can’t come soon enough!
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like a real nerd, i looked up the weather forecast for tomorrow’s match. in case you were wondering, its supposed to be dry, with temps in the 50-55 degrees F range at match time.
appears that Toure trained today with the team. woo woo!
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i see why jenny might want to have some midfield backup on the bench (ahem, besides guddy and edmilson). but i still think that we need to start with our best, ball-possessing midfield. in the worst-case scenario that ManU scores the first goal, they will then sit back and defend with all their might. at that point we can make a more offensive substitution, such as Henry coming on for Deco.
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