Preview: Barça – Mallorca, Saturday 2pmEST, GolTV

By: Isaiah | January 2nd, 2009

La Liga is back, folks. You can drag your sorry butts out of bed after lying dormant for 2 weeks, probably feeling sorry for yourselves. I’ll freely admit that I kept busy doing other things, like catching up with old friends, playing video games, and partying from dusk until, well, like a few hours after dusk when I would go to bed cause I’m an old man.

So it’s time for Mallorca, on Saturday at 10pm local time, 2pm Eastern, 9am in Honolulu (just in case Barack wants to watch!). It’s in the Camp Nou, where it should be in the mid-40s (~7 or 8C) and raining, so wear your parkas, anoraks, or whatever else you sport during the cold winters in Barcelona. You jerks, it’s freaking 24 degrees Farenheit here (that’s -4C)! It was 0F (-18C) on New Years Eve, perhaps even colder during some of the wind gusts. You and your temperate climates!

[Insert response from people from actual cold places like Minnesota, Chicago or Fairbanks. Now that's cold, folks. And that's a moose in the picture, too.]

Regardless, it’s the first match of the new year for the blaugrana — and my first game with my official socio card in my pocket, by the way. I’m 162,523 and don’t you freakin’ forget it — and while not everyone will be able to make it thanks to long flights and possible jetlag (is jetlag allowed after first-class flights? I kind of doubt it). That would mean Alves and Messi might miss — and almost assuredly won’t start.

But let’s start with Mallorca. They’re in 17th place with 14 points (3W-5D-8L) with 17GF, 29GA (-12GD). Specifically, their away record is 1W-1D-6L (4pts; 4GF, 18GA), meaning they are the second worst away team in the league. Only Osasuna is worse with 2 points and they’re tied with Almeria and Valladolid, both of whom have more goals scored with 8 and 10 respectively. With a -14 GD away from home, any venture beyond the confines of Son Moix — don’t give me that new sponsored name crap, it’s also Comiskey, the Gund, your favorite college bowl game — is a dangerous venture.

Here is who they’ll do it with (from their official site): Santana, Josemi, Ivan Ramis, Lionel Scaloni, Mario Suárez, Fernando Varela, Pierre Webo, Jose Jurado, Aouate, Alhassane Keita, Navarro, Nunes, Ayoze, Juan Arango, Jose Luis Martí, Aritz Aduriz, Enrique Corrales, German Lux.

You could ask Jeremy who their starting lineup is going to be, really. He’ll know better than I. However, here’s who started last game, their 0-0 draw against Sevilla: German Lux, Ivan Ramis, Nunes, Enrique Corrales, Josemi, Mario Suárez, Jose Luis Marti, Aritz Aduriz, Juan Arango, Fernando Varela, Lionel Scaloni. So I’m not sure who will start in place of Josemi or if the starting eleven is often switched up.

Okay, so on to our boys, who are back in action, finally. There’s no official squad list out as I write this, but everyone except for Pique and Milito are fit enough to play. That means that the squad list could or should (or something to that effect) be everyone else. As I said before, Messi and Alves probably won’t start, so here’s my completely random lineup that Guardiola won’t listen to in the least, but which I’ll give anyway cause you know you’re into it:

Valdes, Puyol, Marquez, Caceres, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Henry, Eto’o, Hleb

Note that SPF45 is back! He’s pictured above, looking all young and UNICEF-less against Mallorcan giants, who he no doubt shredded in a very subtle and probably unnoticed fashion. And perhaps he’ll do it again, though it might be smarter for Guardiola to hold him on the bench until the second half so that he doesn’t have the strain of a full match to work through an perhaps can come on when the game is well in hand and get more strength in him without the worry of being tackled super hard.

If Iniesta doesn’t start, Guardiola could put in any of Busquets, Keita, or Gudjohnsen — whoever has been practicing better this week — and while that might provide a dip in inspiration and divination of running lanes, it would probably provide an uptick in match fitness. Iniesta has, after all, been out for a while.

Regardless of who starts, it’s over from the outset. Mallorca can’t play with us and we’re going to come out guns blazing. It’s like giving Pete Carroll three weeks to game plan and then showing up with your second string instead of starters and expecting to win. Not going to happen, JoePa (and that hurts cause I kinda hate USC).

Official Prediction: 3-0. We stay exactly on form and get some quality minutes out of Bojan off the bench. Goals by Eto’o, Henry, and, for f-ing finally, Hleb. At the end of it all, though, will it be a good day?

Category: Team News

Tags: Andres Iniesta, Team News, Thierry Henry

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