PBP: J23 La Liga 12/13 | FC Barcelona v Getafe | 10 Feb 2013 [R]

Sunday, the 10th of February 2013

| BARCELONA (CEST), 12:00 | LOS ANGELES (PDT), 03:00 | MONTREAL( EDT), 06:00| LONDON (BST), 11:00| MELBOURNE (EST), 22:00

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Camp Nou

BARCELONA

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

Sat 15/09/12 PRD Getafe 1 - 4 Barcelona

Sat 10/04/12 PRD Barcelona 4 - 0 Getafe

Sat 26/11/11 PRD Getafe 1 - 0 Barcelona

Sat 19/03/11 PRD Barcelona 2 - 1 Getafe

Sun 07/11/10 PRD Getafe 1 - 3 Barcelona

Sat 06/02/10 PRD Barcelona 2 - 1 Getafe

Sat 12/09/09 PRD Getafe 0 - 2 Barcelona

Sat 18/04/09 PRD Getafe 0 - 1 Barcelona

My predicted lineup:

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Visca el Barça

Do you think Pique will do the baby-rocking celebration if he scores?

I'm a bit horrified, though I know lots of folks around the world normally go through crazy viewing times to follow the club, and I would happily do so for a big match, it's hard to see it happening for me on a Sunday at 3 a.m. with our big Liga leads unless I happen to wake up just before or during.

Stepping back to the squad we have had some important matches for sure but we've also been w/o Tito for a few and I feel like somehow the former difficulty of predicting the lineup, which Tito initially carried over from Pep, has lately been absent.

Bottom line is that we've seen this with two variants: Valdes; Alves, Pique, Puyol, Alba; Xavi, Busquets, Cesc; Pedro, Messi, Iniesta in any important game with variant (1) Pinto if Copa, and (2) still rotating Masch with Pique and Puyol so each play roughly 2/3s of all matches. Other than that very little rotating even of hugely important squad players like Adriano, Thiago, Villa, and Sanchez; and almost no minutes lately for Montoya (who proved himself early this season), Bartra (should've played more when CB injuries were more rampant but we wanted to see if Song could perform at CB), Song (less proven even as just a DM for us but needs to be worked in to ever mesh better with our particular style as Arsenal is not Barca despite what some folks think), and Tello; as for JDS, recovering Cuenca, and recovering Abidal really no PT at all.

That said, we went overboard on rotating in the first CdR leg against Cordoba and, as a result, had to play a much stronger squad in the return. So I'm not suggesting a wholesale re-working of our starters. Just that we work beyond a 13 person short-rotation (the preferred 11 plus Masch and Pinto in Copa) outlined above, to start at least 2 or 3 of the others, likely 2 of the well proven Adriano, Thiago, Villa and(/or) Sanchez, perhaps plus one of Song, Montoya, Bartra, or Tello.

I think that the club has done well with Roura as a caretaker but, with the bad news of Tito's longer treatment in NYC, we need Roura (with Tito's phone help) to do more mixing and matching of the squad for three broad purposes: rotation/rest (keep squad fresh), mystery/tactics (keep opponent on toes tactically), and insurance/experience (keep bench ready to step in for inevitable injury or suspension). Further benefits are keeping the whole squad happy and united.

So a for instance lineup would be:
Valdes
Alves-Masch-Puyol-Adriano (rests Alba at least and continues the P-P-M rotation at CB; I think M is better next to Puyol than Pique too even if we lack height)
Thiago-Busquets-Cesc (Xavi injured forces this somewhat but I'll rest Iniesta up front too, but, sorry Sergi, we need either you or a Cesc-Song-Iniesta mid, not sure we can start w/o Xavi, Busquets, and Iniesta)
Sanchez-Messi-Villa (so this would rest Pedro and also Iniesta, probably only one of those gets rest / only one of Alexis or Villa gets a start)

Guess I will have to go to sleep early on Sat and wake up 11.00 for the game

I will make sure an English breakfast is waiting for me at that time

No more slip please... we look jaded against Valencia, Some great throughball being wasted and Iniesta run was ineffective

Lets hope Ronaldo score another crucial goal

good reasoning, and i like that lineup. i guess who we end up resting would just come down to who is in the best shape after the international break. for example, the spanish players had to travel to dubai (or was it doha?) and played a not-so-friendly-friendly vs a tough uruguay, so we should rest a few of the spaniards for sure.

roura has done well enough but tito's absence has been a big blow. and i think the team is really missing his leadership. they just don't seem as decisive and confident as they did earlier and have been losing possession much more than usual, although our last few games have also been against very strong opposition at a time of year that we always seem to struggle, so maybe that's a bit unfair.

But he did do the thumb suck in honor of the baby, right? I thought that was what I saw rather than his usual Shakira tribute (index and middle fingers on both hands).

Yes. Thumb sucking against Malaga.



The double-V celebration, I believe, is for February 2 which is both his and Shakira's birthday.

What's wrong with a firm handshake after scoring a goal, hey, hey?

please Messi score at least one goal tomrrow as CR7 scored 3

It's better that we win 1-0 with Puyol scoring the only goal than lose 4-3 with Messi scoring a hat trick

Any chance of Villa starting tomorrow with Pedro playing midweek? Or will we see Alexis? Or....BOTH?

Hope Song gets to play the whole game, he has not been playing at all lately.

did alexis have a game for chile this week?

Going to turn in early in the hopes that I might watch a bit live but can easily see turning off the alarm. Either way let's win.

BTW Regal Barca today advanced to their 4th straight Copa del Rey final for basketball. Single game final tomorrow vs. Valencia at 19:00 (I think 10:00 a.m. PST - 1:00 p.m. EST but I might be off).

His hattrick today =3 points, his goal last week = -3 points.

This is kind of embarrassing, but for some reason (lack of sufficient research) I thought this game was at 4:00 pm (where I live) tomorrow afternoon. I just realized that it's at 4:00 am, as in a little over 3 hours from now

I best be getting to bed

The game start at 6 pm here

Good line up

I don't think anyone could have even handpicked a better lineup, very good.

Looking forward to this. Made it as well, just woke up recently.