Preview: Barça – Basel, Tuesday 2:45pm EST (ESPN Deportes)
By: Isaiah | November 4th, 2008
After our mudfest this weekend, it’s back to the greener pastures of the Champions League and the Camp Nou to face Basel. The last time out, we dropped a “manito” on the Swiss in a game I was unfortunately unable to catch on TV. Tomorrow’s game will be the same, but I’ll “watch” it via Radio Barça here at work. Ah the joys of the interwebs.
Updated Just to note, here are your TV watching opportunities for this here game:
Live: ESPN Deportes, 2:45 EST; ESPN360.com; as I just mentioned Radio Barça will have live streaming of the match
Replayed: ESPN Deportes, 10pm EST
Online streaming: It’s been suggested in the comments that one look at justin.tv and also rojadirecta.com. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know in the comments and I’ll try to get it posted here.
We’re familiar with the Barça that scores more than 3 goals a game in domestic competition, but only recently have we found our free-wheeling touch in the Champions League. It happened to be against FC Basel, of course, in our last match, where we dropped a fiver on them. Will we do the same damage this time around simply because we’re at home? No, most likely not; Basel will want some redemption and Barcelona isn’t going to have quite the motivation it normally does — though Guardiola will have their hides if they go out lackadaisically.
Here’s the Barça squad list: Valdés, Pinto, Henry, Márquez, Xavi, Piqué, Iniesta, Puyol, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Bojan, Eto’o, Messi, Hleb, Gudjohnsen, Sergio Busquets, Víctor Sánchez, Pedro
Note the absences of Keita, Abidal, Dani Alves, Yaya, and Jorquera. Unlike Liverpool, we don’t have to rotate in order to get the right number of Spaniards in our lineup, which is nice for us, but Guardiola seems not to be the least bit concerned with Basel’s attacking abilities. He dropped 3 defensive players (Abidal and Keita are injured) and included 2 forwards (though Gudjohnsen could be considered a midfielder). Are we going to trot out a 3-4-3? And even if we do put Sylvinho in the back, does that mean he’ll actually be playing defense? He’s not as capable of covering the whole field as Alves is, so he’ll either be pushed higher or held further back, just not both at the same time.
Here are my lineups:
Safe Lineup: Valdés, Puyol, Márquez, Piqué, Sylvinho, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Eto’o, Henry
Guardiola/Crazy: Valdés, Puyol, Márquez, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Busquets, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Pedro, Henry
Yeah. Guess which one is going to be closer? Who f-ing knows! This is so fun!
Okay, there’s really not much to say about this match. We’re going to win it and we’re going to win it comfortably and we’ll be in the knockout stage — why does English not have a good equivalent to octavos? — but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t show up and do our thing. And our thing is personal, professional ass handing.
Official prediction: 3-1. Okay, that may sound conservative, but whatever, you’ll see, I’m never wrong about these things.
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Comments
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Hard Luck, now a win against Sporting is a must, a draw mean we need to win against shakhtar, a loss against Sporting in Portugal is a disaster, because it means we will be playing for second place in the group.
Credit for Basel defense structure, my thoughts are with iniesta now…
Posted from
Germany
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utterly toothless the first half. is Victor Sanchez a real player, or is he just some homeless kid Pep was nice enough to hook up a job for? Bojan was off, Henry had no provision, and Hleb was crap (why did we buy him over Arshavin again?). so there goes our attack.
i need to hear Kxevin’s argument that this isn’t a one-man-team anymore. we looked hopeless for 60 minutes… then Messi comes on and 90 seconds later gives us the lead. i know we qualify anyway, and that this game wasn’t really that important, and maybe i’m just irked by the jingoistic idiocy of the Sky commentators (who evidently didn’t take the time to find out we were missing both attacking wing-backs, our DM, our playmaker, and the better half of our strikers), but we really should have done better.
a frustrating result, despite the unimportance of the fixture itself.
Posted from
United States -
Hleb wasnt crap…he just isnt fit yet..that u can see..
and as for the one-man team ideology…have to tell you i am kinda on the fence on this one…
shaktar could be an isolated incident but shaktar and basel..makes for a good argument
are we getting messidependent..?
Posted from
India -
we have been messidependent for a long time. remember shaktar? its a terrible sign when this kind of thing happens. messi is the only one able to do anything.
i must agree, i thinkn hleb was crap. he is too scrawny, needs to go to the gym and put meat on his bones so he wont be so scraed to run at those defenders. he seems to freeze when he gets the ball and doesnt know what to do with it.
Posted from
United States -
What a poor display.
We were well below par. No drive, bad attitude.
I have to say that Victor Sanchez might as not have been on the park. I like all masia-boys but he’s not the goods unfortunately.
Valdes – 6 (A default mark as he had very little to do and can’t take any blame for the goal)
Puyol – 7 (for effort if not effectiveness)
Marquez – 5 (toally lost his marker Derdiyok for the goal)
Pique – 6 (missed a sitter to make it 2-0 but did his job)
Sylvinho – 6 (didn’t do anything wrong average going forward)
V.Sanchez – 3 (I think he was on the pitch and but made no real mistake)
Busquets – 6 (needed more urgency in starting attacks for deep)
Iniesta – 6 (was busy but uneffective going forward)
Hleb – 6 (had plenty of possession but didn’t beat his defender)
Bojan – 5 (another match in his learning curve but needs to improve his movement off the ball)
Henry – 7 (tried harder than anyone else and created a lot of danger)
Subs
Messi scored within 2 mins but then didn’t do as much afterwards.
Xavi needed more time but didn’t change the match
Eto’o has so much energy, and put in a lot of effort. He is still a guarantee of goals. I’d rather have him start matches like this to put the sword in and yank him off at half timePosted from
Ireland -
i agree ciaran. pep should go for the early lead and then take the boys off, not play it out with the reserves and hope for something and bring in the boys at the last minute.
i give pep a low rating for this lineup
Posted from
United States -
I agree that we should’ve started the main guys and treated this game more seriously, wrapped up the top spot before those games in Dec…. now Sporting is only a point behind us with a game with Basel in hand….
did anyone see Gerrard falling over at Anfield… I laughed my a#$ off… jeez… such a shameless fella…but I was happy that they drew with Atletico rather than them finishing second in that group and being a pain later on the next round…Posted from
United States -
hm…now the whole world changed after a draw…I will browse the comments written before this game till our next win…more interesting…
Posted from
Germany -
While tonights performance was definitely poor I dont think you can point to our dependence on Messi. Its not like we played a full strength squad minus Messi and drew. We played a second string team tonight, and I feel we really lacked creativity in the midfield….Sanchez quite frankly is a waste of space and I feel had Guddy been fit and ready he would have played tonight and you would have seen a much better game. I think we are a lot more Xavi dependent than we are Messi dependent….yes he scored the goal tonight but without Xavi we lack that creativity from the middle of the park. I also think ppl forget the effect Yaya has on a game both defensively and offensively. Not to mention Eto’o, Alves and YES Abidal. All crucial players, all missing tonight. So i dont think its fair to say we are a one man team. Sure we depend on a handful of key players, but so do most top teams.
Posted from
United States -
Per goal.com (for whatever that’s worth), SPF45 is out for 4-6 wks. His loss will definitely be felt and overcoming the loss of his production will be a good test for our boys. I think they’ll be fine, but this means TH and Hleb have to really step up.
Posted from
United States -
Ok, i said that i wanted to see a Messi, and Xavi-less barca to prepare for the worse.. what did i observe during this match;
1. Iniesta is GREAT! (when xavi is around)
Iniesta seemed less effective without Xavi, BUT then again same can be said for the whole squad. So, im going to have to say that Iniesta HAS to be our first choice left wing. He seems to only be effective in the CAM role if Xavi is lurking around.2. Henry is a substitute striker, NOT a Winger!
Henry just wasnt meant for the role, and i dont care how much effort he throw into it, he will never be a better left forward/winger than Iniesta. He should be used as Eto’o’s number 2 or sold3. Eto’o is great.
His absence said alot. We obviously depend on him more than we’d care to admit.4. Hleb is is a mediocre player. not one worthy of the Blaugrana. HE IS NOT THE BUSINESS! call Arshavin’s Agent!
oh, and not only am i terribly scared about Iniesta’s injury because of the obvious absence of Iniesta, but at the thought of us having to rely on Hleb5. We do not have substitutes for Xavi or Messi.
not even slightly. I think today we wanted to see if we could take on Basel, a very low quality team, with a pretty good squad of our own, just without Messi and Xavi. We wanted to know if our team is dependant on Messi and Xavi. I think we all now know what the answer to those questions are.i dont want to further elaborate, cuz im at a loss for words at jsut HOW dependant we or on them.
Posted from
United States -
well, the barca website also says he could be out for up to 6 weeks. we’ll know more tomorrow wednesday. he’ll miss all the big matches.
pique is also hurt. again we will know more tomorrow.
Posted from
United States -
I don’t think anyone in the world has substitutes for Xavi and Messi…
and I agree w/ you about #2, but now that Iniesta is out, I think this is TH’s time to step up and earn his paycheck.
Posted from
United States -
Im the first to heap praise on marquez after a good game, but today his error was highlighted by the fact that it ended up in a goal.
Pique has to bury that. im starting to grow doubts about this kid.
Victor sanchez – i think you guys have all stated the same thing im thinking.
Bojan – should have hit the ball earlier quite a number of times. He is not ready yet, at least not without Messi/Xavi/Iniesta to give him a sitter. he cant succeed if he is surrounded by our subs. I personally think he’s a better shot outside the 18.
It might seem that we are being over dramatic. Where not out of Champion’s League, were still 1st in the group, were still 1st in the liga. Xavi, and Messi and eto’o are still here. BUT STILL. today we learned sometihng about our team, and it was something we probably didnt want to learn. I think we were all letting the Media feed us this “Unplayable Barcelona” thing, and we found out that maybe our bench isnt as deep as we thought it was.
Crisis? No. Not even close. but it is a wake-up call. We are not unbeatable, nothing has been won yet, and it will be a long season.
i hope Iniesta is ok
Posted from
United States -
Damn that would hurt to not have Iniesta for those big matches. I love seeing him on that left side beside Eto’o and Messi.
Posted from
Canada -
i think we do have a deep bench; we just don’t have a Champion’s League-ready 2nd team. of our ideal 1st team players, we were missing for all or most of the game: Abidal, Alves, Yaya, Xavi, Messi, Eto’o. arguably our 6 best players this season. you can’t start half a squad, move some of the rest out of their usual positions, and expect a good result without a staggeringly spectacular team.
i’m saying it again: this game was begging for Andrei Arshavin’s cleverness and cutting edge; someone to make things happen offensively. Henry used to have it, doesn’t anymore. he can finish, but he can’t make things happen. Bojan wasn’t on point, and Iniesta has to have some synergy to be effective. Hleb is just not that kind of player, and i’m starting to wonder just what kind of player he is. he holds onto the ball well… but what’s the point of that if he can’t do anything penetrating with it?
Posted from
United States -
totally agree with you BA… on your whole post.
Arshavin seems the perfect peice for the attacking trident, which would allow iniesta to play alongside xavi
xavi-iniesta behind arshavin-eto’o-messi, with toure for cover… if that doesnt say Champion’s League winners, i dont know what does…
i never liked hleb… but i thought he might grow on me, like abidal did… he has not.
and i agree with whoever said that we should field a strong 11, then take out the stars after the job is done, as opposed to starting a half-assed line-up, then throwing out 3 stars for the last 30 mins to try to salvage…
Posted from
United States -
We played without abidal, Alves, Yaya, Xavi, Kieta, Gudi (last two as second options), messi, and eto
iniesta played as AM not as a wing where he proved worth as i was saying again and again during transfer period he is better than a thousand Arshavine (who dont fit barcelona – sometimes i wish if barcelona bought him so u see it urself).
You cant squeeze all that and say we are messi and xavi dependent, if the rest played without messi and Xavi we may have won, and we may lose even if both played (numancia) its so easy to create a story for the game after the game, but nothing is certain in football.
Beside, take any two big names from any other team, then match it to barcelona without messi and xavi what will you conclude? of course they have an impact, a strong one, you are talking about the best mid and the best winger in the world today, but remember we won games without messi and we won games without Xavi but both plus 6 players out, thats what we can discuss.We cant say the rotation is smart when we win (basel away) and is stupid when we -not even lose – but draw. It was a bad game no doubt but thats football you cant keep scoring fives and i already mentioned this here before the game.
We do not have substitutes for Xavi or Messi for sure but other teams dont even have a “Xa” from “Xavi” there is no player in the world that match those two so lets be realistic.Those responds remind me of responds after the league first game, and on pep blog today before the game i pasted Txiki words about pep:
“Guardiola is and will be a great coach. I hope he’ll be here for a long time and that everyone around this club will remember how he’s making the team play when things aren’t going that well and we will need some patience. ”
(and my only comment on it was:
“True…”)
Thats the best thing about football, being unpredictable and uncertain, enjoy it…
Posted from
Germany -
Ramzi: i’m not saying Arshavin should replace Iniesta. Iniesta has been generally excellent down the left wing. i’m saying that an Iniesta/Arshavin combination would be the ideal setup, especially for last game. Arshavin would be put in place of Hleb or Henry, as the situation demands, not usually Iniesta. but none of the aforementioned Barca players can take a game and a defense on themselves and make something happen. when Iniesta gets support he can be very effective, but he has to have someone to play off of. Henry and Hleb haven’t done/can’t do that; i’m saying i think Arshavin could and make them both more threatening.
lots of replies tonight, i’m glued to the internet with the TV on monitoring the elections.
Posted from
United States -
Wow. I just saw the news about Iniesta. I could be wrong, but I think this will prove to be more of a blow than it appears on the surface. Iniesta’s been the ying to Messi’s yang this season, and I don’t think Hleb will be able to just hop in and fill his boots.
Posted from
United States -
Goal.com rated marquez the best defender with a 7. Although i admit he played perfectly throughout the game, and was a danger on set peices (if pique had decent skill marquez would have had an assist)… but when it comes down to it it was his error that caused the goal. Not that it was all his fault, considering we have a DM to break down attacks, and a left back to prevent dangerous crosses.
Posted from
United States -
http://www.goal.com/en-us/articolo.aspx?contenutoid=945802
Iniesta says he wants to retire at Barca. And that if he was not nominated for the Ballon d’Or its because he didnt deserve to be.
have i ever mentioned how much i love iniesta… i hope the “6 weeks out” diagnosis is an exaggeration.
if only mr cronaldo had half the class this man does…
Posted from
United States -
holy crap…6 weeks thats bad…might mean he ends up issing all of our imp games…even the match against the EE…??
and aren’t we ebing overly dramatic about a draw..yes a draw..?…we just need to sporting in portugal and everything’s rosy…and rest assured Guardiola will put up the strongest side for that match..
Posted from
India -
the problem with that Krish, is the word “just”. we cant afford to say we “just” need to beat (insert name here). we just did that against basel, we “just” need to beat basel to get into the final 16. although i have to admit, it would have been nicer to assure ourselves in the 16 now, because we know shaktar can kick us around and are dangerous, and sporting are the second best team in our group. obviously i hope, and in the back of my mind i know, that we will make it through, i just cant help but feel that it should have been put away last night. also now we have to play very serious CL games during our busiest months on the calendar which i am sure pep would have rather avoided.
Posted from
United States -
andrew we are in the last 16…that is assured
what is not assured is whether we will top the group..and as for Shaktar at home i know we will win…not think..know..
the sporting away fixture is a tricky one..let us seeSPF 45 out for 6 weeks is a huge blow IMO
Posted from
India
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