Preview: Sporting Gijon – Barça, Sunday 3pmEST

By: Isaiah | September 20th, 2008

So the next game is nearly upon us and it’s another Sporting, this time Sporting Gijon of Asturias. The lineup will, as always, look different than it did, but hopefully the same result as in the last game against Sporting will occur. That one was a 3-1 victory on Tuesday in the Champions League and while a newly promoted team shouldn’t present as much of a problem as the runner-up from Portugal, the league has, for the last couple of years, been a bad place for Barcelona away from home.

Even Guardiola agrees that it’s time to win some games, so let’s get this party started, eh? But with who? With what squad, oh great and wonderously impossible to predict Pep?

Here is the full squad: Valdes, Pinto, Alves, Pique, Marquez, Puyol, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Eto’o, Abidal, Toure Yaya, Caceres, Bojan, Keita, Messi, Pedro, Busquets

Abidal and Busquets return to the squad as Henry is dropped because of illness and Sylvinho ostensibly because Abidal is in. Let’s just hope that the rest of the squad stays healthy and doesn’t share drinks with the sick players. Or thongs. So here’s my “educated” guess as to what the starting lineup will be:
Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Eto’o, Pedro

Still no Bojan, I guess, but we’ll have to see if he isn’t the one who comes on for Pedro or if he isn’t started in his stead to give the left a player who is more comfortable there. Busquets is the “revelation” of his previous start, but I don’t know if Guardiola will use him early. Unless he does. See how hard this is? Goddammit.

Anyway, there’s not much to discuss about the squad, other than to say that we need to win this game to really kickstart the season. Spotting other teams (and specifically RM) more points (though they play Racing Santander in Santander so three points isn’t a given) is not something we need to do. Espanyol are leading the league (though perhaps only until tomorrow), after all, which is ridiculous, so we need to quickly retake the lead by beating Sporting and then Real Betis on Wednesday.

But on to Sporting Gijon, newly promoted as I said, and full of goals if the 4-3 Sevilla victory at the Sanchez Pizjuan is any indication. They got a hat trick from Mate Bilic, so containing him is obviously priority number one. Bilic, like most of Sporting Gijon’s squad, is a journeyman, but even journeyman (and youngsters, who make up the non-journeyman part of Gijon’s roster) can hurt you if you don’t mark them well.

Not that the flood of goals they put into Sevilla’s net has helped them one iota. They’re in last place, having also lost to Getafe 1-2 in Gijon at their stadium, El Molinón. So they have a porous defense, at least, but they’ll probably park the bus and hope to pull of what Numancia did. I think that with Messi all the more motivated by both the criticism and the praise from his teammates and the media over whether or not he’s too selfish, we’ll see a positive result, though maybe a few scary moments.

I’ve predicted all of the games for the first half of the season in order to compete with a friend in a silly bet — I’ll let you know how that goes — but I’m going to have to change what I said for that bet (2-0) to a slightly closer score.

Official Prediction: 2-1.

The game will be broadcast on GolTV here in the United States and on Canal+ in Spain (or so I understand). It’s at 3pm EST, or 9pm Barcelona time. As always, here is the link to Where to Watch, in case you don’t have GolTV.

I will be at Nevada Smiths tomorrow, sporting my typical red Jayhawks hat, my home jersey from last year, jeans, and 3 days worth of beard. And glasses. Feel free to stop by and say hello.