Real Valladolid - Barcelona: Preview (5pm EST, GolTV)

By: Isaiah | October 31st, 2007

Jornada 10 opponent: Real Valladolid CF
Location: Estadio José Zorilla, Valladolid, Castilla-Leon
Time: Thursday, November 1, 10pm local time, 5pm EST in the US
TV: GolTV, live, barring some bureaucratic nonsense that stops transmission

Another day, another newly promoted team. This time it’s away to Real Valladolid, the last 18th ranked team. It would easy to overlook a team that’s only won once, has 6 points after 9 games, and whose only win came against Espanyol in their first match of the season (away, back on August 26). Sure, it’d be easy to overlook them, but doing so is general fatal to a season-long campaign, especially when considering away matches. Barcelona have been fairly dreadful away from home, compiling a 1-2-1 record, with a goal differential of +1 thanks to a 4-1 drubbing of Levante. When faced with the likes of Racing and Osasuna, Barca have drawn 0-0, while losing to villareal 3-1 in a comprehensive manner. While it’s hard to compare Valladolid’s home record (0-2-2) with those of Racing (3-1-1) and Osasuna (2-2-0), you can’t take these fixtures for granted. They are not 3 points until the final whistle.

On the surface, Valladolid sucks. Of course they do, they’re 18th in the league, they’re newly promoted, and they’ve scored 11 goals while allowing 19 (compared to Barca’s respective 19 and 7), the latter number being the second most allowed behind Levante’s 20. But Almeria gave Barca a pretty good run for their money thanks to some pressure defense and a poor showing by the blaugrana. That and it must be remember that this is the middle of a packed schedule that runs from October 20 until November 13 and includes 8 games. The final game is a Copa del Rey game against Alcoyano, so I don’t expect the first team to start in the first leg away, but it’s still technically a fixture. There is a league game on November 11 at Getafe, so you could say 7 games in 23 days rather than 8 in 25. That’s an average of close to one every three days for three and a half straight weeks.

So the Barca squad will be tired after that run, but they shouldn’t be too tired at this point. They just got Toure, Zambrotta, and Marquez back from injury, all of whom played in the last match for at least 45 minutes. Thierry Henry and Eric Abidal are both out, though, having picked up injuries during Sunday’s win over Almeria. Henry has an Achilles problem while Abidal hurt his right ankle.

Valdés, Jorquera, Milito, Puyol, Oleguer, Thuram, Sylvinho, Zambrotta, Márquez, Touré Yaya, Gudjohnsen, Xavi, Iniesta, Bojan, Dos Santos, Messi, Ronaldinho and Ezquerro.

Note that Thuram and Ezquerro are the new additions. I imagine that Sylvinho will get the start on the left as he’s the only pure left-side defender on the roster while I expect Zambrotta, Puyol, and Milito to be the others in the back.

So here is my projected starting lineup:
Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Sylvinho, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Messi, Gudjohnsen

I imagine Messi will come on for Gio while Guddie should get his first league start after displaying a good feel for the game during the Rangers game; he didn’t have enough time on the field against Almeria to prove anything one way or the other and with Messi and Ronnie on the field, Gio has no real place as he’s not a pure striker. It’s possible we’ll see Bojan starting up top, but it still, even after the amount he’s played, seems a lot to expect of him. Guddie proved himself capable against Rangers, so he should be given his shot and proving it further. I’d love to see Bojan explode for a couple of goals, but it’s a better move to put Guddie on first and then bring on Bojan if later, a move you can make regardless of the scoreline. 60 minutes for Guddie, assuming he’s not playing dreadfully or there is a more pressing substution need, and 30 minutes for Bojan.

Despite the respect I have to have for Valladolid, I have to reaffirm here what I said in previous comments, that I am not afraid of any team on earth. Rather, other teams should be afraid of us and Valladolid is certainly such a team. They have a good striker in Llorente, but they also have a weak defense that Messi and company can take advantage of.

Official prediction: 1-2, goals by Llorente, Messi, Ronaldinho

I don’t know why I bother predicting who will score. My picks are about as interesting and out-on-a-limb as calling the Spurs this year’s NBA champs…