Barcelona - Villarreal: Preview, Sunday 4pm EST

By: Isaiah | March 8th, 2008

The squad list is out and we’re back to shuffling players due to injury:

Valdés, Pinto, Abidal, Thuram, Milito, Sylvinho, Zambrotta, Edmílson, Touré Yaya, Xavi, Iniesta, Deco, Gudjohnsen, Giovani, Ronaldinho, Henry, Eto’o, Bojan.

Note the absences of Puyol, Marquez, and of course Messi. Marquez misses his fifth straight game, Messi the first of probably nine, and Puyol is suspended through yellow cards. Toure will probably start despite leaving training early on Friday because of a back injury he was hoping not to aggravate. That’s a boost for the squad, who won’t have to use Edmilson as a starter unless Rijkaard decides to play it safe with his “Tower of Terror” in the middle. Bojan and Gio make their returns to the squad list and could even get some playing time (especially the former, who scored against Villarreal in the league).

Villarreal’s squad looks like this:

Diego López, Viera, Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Capdevila, Godin, Cygan, Josemi, Marcos Senna, Santi Cazorla, Bruno, Pires, Mati Fernández, Eguren, Nihat, Rossi, Franco, Tomasson.

I’m not sure what lineup they’ll use, but they are certainly a strong team that we can’t take lightly in the least. The fact that they are third in the league right now is proof enough of that. They beat us 3-1 the last time we played them in the league (October 20), but we beat them in the Copa del Rey quarterfinals a few weeks ago (0-0 away, 1-0 home). Our squad rotation system has already upset the chemistry of the team, I think, and now injuries and Puyol’s suspension could further disrupt a sense of continuity within the lineup. Thuram is certainly capable, but he’ll be up against a very speedy Giuseppe Rossi or an equally quick Nihat, both of whom can take him off the dribble, so to speak.

Still, I’m optimistic about the weekend as a whole because Real Madrid hosts Espanyol, a team that could do us favors by drawing or even beating their hosts in Madrid. We’ll know later today, well before the start of our game; if they do gift us some points, those dogs from the other side of town (I believe Corey of the Real Madrid Offside humorously refers to Atletico as the inbred stepbrothers of RM, a sentiment that is applicable to Espanyol as well), we’ve got to take advantage of that and gather in all 3 points. We’re down 5 and it would be wonderful to push it back to 2 by beating the third-place team and extending our lead over them to 10 points.

How we’re going to go about that is anyone’s guess. Even Rijkaard’s, I believe. Here’s what I would do, were I the “mister”:

Valdes, Zambrotta, Thuram, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto’o

but here’s what I expect to be on the field:

Valdes, Zambrotta, Thuram, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Henry

Swapping in Henry for Deco would be blatant disregard for how Ronnie, Eto’o, and Henry play together. In my opinion, they play very badly together, but they certainly have the skills to prove me quite wrong. Villarreal aren’t the best road team there is (7W-0D-5L; 21GF 20GA) while we are, actually, the best home team (12W-0D-1L; 33GF 6GA), we can’t assume that our home crowd will get us through the day — we have to play hard all day. I expect great things out of Iniesta after his craptastic last couple of matches and I also expect great things out of Ronaldinho. He’ll have to be at his best to make up for Henry’s inability to figure out that he’s a striker, not a left winger. Still, I’m optimistic and think that we can come away with all three points.

That is not to say, however, that we will. We could easily draw and despite my optimism, I see that as the final result of this game. We’ll dominate it, sure, with slick passing and extended periods of keep-away in their half, but will we score? We can’t blow chances like we’ve been doing for a while now and expect to come away with a win.

Official prediction: 1-1 draw. Hell, I’ll give the goal to Eto’o cause he’s a goal-scoring machine! This game could wing either way, depending on how we handle Senna and Pires in the midfield. They’re no slouches by any means and I expect a tough battle. I’m not sure if I’ll be at Nevada Smiths for the game, but if I am, I’ll let everyone know via the comments section.