We’ll Take You In: Barca-Real Sociedad Preview

By: kage | February 3rd, 2012

Where the Heart Is

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in,” Robert Frost once wrote. For FC Barcelona, the road this year has been as difficult a journey as Dante’s Hell; a full half their league road games have ended in draws. But then there’s home. Camp Nou has been paradisiacal. Nine wins, one draw, no losses. Forty-three goals scored, two allowed. On Saturday Barca returns home to face Real Sociedad. From six thousand miles away, I can feel the relief.

This is the second Liga encounter between the two teams this season. Return with me now to that thrilling if excruciating day of yesteryear: a 2-2 draw in mid-September where Barca made it look almost insolently easy for 29 minutes, and then were left hanging by a single claw from the edge of the precipice, lucky not to lose in the last moment, after second-half goals from Agirretxe and Griezmann.

Somehow the whole season seems contained in that game. Alexis was playing brilliantly on the wing when he was scythed down by Estrada from behind and put out with a hamstring injury.

Alexis was hurt, and the game turned

That seemed to change everything: the team seemed tentative and tired in the second half. Pedro played with energy but was appallingly wasteful in front of goal. David Villa was the game’s goat; he shot yes straight at the keeper. (Stop me if you’ve heard some of these before.) Villa also added a special touch — a long back pass that was a perfect assist for the wrong team, squaring the game. Even Victor Valdes seemed to lose focus. Real Sociedad returned the ball to Barca in an honorable gesture by kicking the ball all the way back to the keeper… who had his back turned and nearly let the ball roll in the goal from 75 yards away.

At least Leo thought it was funny...

The draw left Barca seven points behind Real Madrid in the league. Yes, then too.

Seven points, then and now

But this is nothing if not a season of two halves, and away draws (like the last two games Barca has played) have been followed with resounding home victories in almost every case. Real Sociedad will be much the more rested team. Barca has only 15 first-team players available, which means the only ones who didn’t play against Valencia were Valdes, Xavi, Alves (well, he only played 20 minutes), and Adriano. I’d guess that they’ll all play, and that Fabregas will sit down – he finished with his head wrapped in several miles of bandage on Wednesday. Presumably Puyol, after two heroic games in a row, will also accept some pine time. Isaac Cuenca, after a brilliant start to his career, has already forgotten how to challenge defenders on the wing (Christian Tello, will you please show Isaac how).

So my starting 11 is: Valdes; Pique, Mascherano, Abidal; Busquets, Adriano, Xavi, Thiago; Alves, Messi, and Alexis/Tello. Pep is not likely to agree with me about Tello, but if the kid starts, he scores. You heard it here first.

Yes, Tello will score -- pass it on.

The Basque club has something in common with FC Barcelona: they’ve both had an up-and-down season. They looked pathetic against Barca, and they looked powerful against Barca. In the last three games they put a whuppin’ on Sporting Gijon, 5-1, and beat Valencia at the Mestalla, 0-1. But in between those games they also got crushed at home by Atletico Madrid, 0-4. So it’s hard to know which team will show up this time. They don’t have the simple home/away dichotomy that Barca does: they have 3 wins each, home and away, making them the 6th best team on the road.

Midfield mainstay David Zurutuza whipped in a brace against Sporting in just five minutes, and then broke his nose; he’ll miss this match. And Real Sociedad tend to let in nearly twice as many goals in the second half as they do in the first. So I see Barca making amends, as they have all season long, for the road blues: they pull away in the second half to win 3-0.

Meanwhile, Getafe has won two away games in a row, and has lost only once at home this year. I see them taking points away from Real Madrid. For all of Barca’s injury woes and and the resulting exhaustion, this could get interesting.