Barcelona - Getafe Preview, Wednesday 3pm EST
By: Isaiah | April 17th, 2007
And the Copa del Rey is back in action starting Wednesday at 3pm EST with Barcelona hosting Getafe. It’s the semifinal and the other half of it takes place on Thursday at 3pm EST with Deportivo hosting Sevilla.
Not a bad pair of matchups, really, though Ronaldinho will be missing (it’s not mono, people, really! Or so Barcelona claims). Regardless of why he’s gone, the rest of the team will need to step up even though Getafe have been in a pretty solid slump of late. Ever since demolishing Valencia 3-0 in Madrid, they’ve only won one game (another 3-0 win, this time over Villareal, also in Madrid). That happened to be this past Sunday and for Barcelona, it was perhaps an unfortunate time for “Madrid’s other team” to get back to winning ways. Their run since the Valencia game in La Liga, if you’re keeping track at home, was 1W-4D-3L in a time when Barcelona went 4W-1D-3L. Not a particularly great run for the Catalans either, but they do remain top of the league, if perhaps only because no one else seems to want the title right now.
I expect a tense game and perhaps a lot of Saviola, who has scored 5 goals in the competition, though admittedly over the 2 games against Alavés two rounds ago. He played all 90 minutes of the first leg against Zaragoza in the quarters, but failed to make an appearance in the second leg despite being available. His contributions over the weekend hopefully won’t be forgotten, though he may start on the bench anyway as that seems to be his designated place until it’s clear whether or not Eto’o can sustain the game on his own or not.
With our away form in the relative gutter (5W-5D-5L in La Liga), a win at home is extremely desirable, especially if it’s a 2 goal win or more. That’s obvious, of course, but if the team could just help out the fans a bit and make that second leg a little less jittery for once, that’d be fantastic.
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Comments
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Oh Leo. Well done team, (we’ll ignore that leaky defence) but how I wish Messi wasn’t injured for 3 months this season. He’s more than capable of being to us what Ronaldo is to Manchester United, if defenders would stop trying to maul him all the time.
Posted from
Australia
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Good point, Linda, but that’s what defenses do in La Liga, of course. I think Messi is a better player than Ronaldo, in the end, which perhaps is controversial, but that’s just how I feel at this moment, having watch that golazo-azo-azo maybe 30 times in the last 24 hours…Ronaldo is good, don’t get me wrong, but his tendencies to go to ground too easily are a mark against him, even if he’s cut down on it lately.
Posted from
United States -
If Messi hadn’t been injured so much this season, maybe we’d have seen proof that he’s at least as good as Ronaldo. But he’s young (19! god he makes me feel ancient), there’s time for that yet.
Posted from
Australia -
His maturity as a player is fantastic for someone so young, but you’re right that he has a long career ahead of him, barring injury. I just think his all-around game is better than Ronaldo’s, who hasn’t shown that great an ability to pass/create like Messi has.
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