Athletic Bilbao Preview

By: Corey | March 12th, 2009

Match: Athletic Bilbao – Real Madrid
Date: 14/03/2009
Time: 22:00 (5pm Eastern)
Venue: San Mames
TV: Not on GolTV until Sunday at 8pm!

Real Madrid returns to La Liga action in a bid to boost their title chances as well as restore some of the fans trust in the team with a win against Athletic Bilbao at San Mames. ‘El Catedral’ as it is referred to, is of course one of the classic grounds of Spanish football, and world wide football at that. It is a hostile atmosphere for any visiting team, although the bleachers really come alive with Real Madrid annual visit. Athletic have been inconsistent performers this year in La Liga, but will be eying a win over a weakened opponent after humiliation in the Champions League by Liverpool on Tuesday.

Athletic Bilbao sit comfortably in 10th place, not to close to the drop, but then again not to far from a UEFA cup spot. They would of course need to put on a more consistent showing in these last 12 matches to have a shot at Europe, but it looks like that wont be needed as they are in the Copa del Rey Final with Barcelona, meaning they are guaranteed a UEFA cup spot next year. All in all, it has been a good season for them then, but their fans will want blood when Real Madrid enters San Mames.

Athletic have been stingy in front of goal this year, with only 35 goals scored. They have shipped 41 goals, although it must be pointed out that this is more a factor of performing poorly away from home. At home, they have scored 20 and conceded 17, which is fair enough at home for 10th place in the table. You could say its Even Steven for them. What I care about is the wonderful stats ESPN put together. Lets have a look:

Stats are wonderful for explaining the inexplicable, but they are not the end all to football as we know. But there is a few things to draw from them. One, they score alot of goals right before half time, but then again they also concede pretty consistently through the first 60 minutes of the game. You can scoff and say so what, but it means that they usually score in the 1st, play the devils advocate at the start of the second looking for something extra, and then after 60 minutes or so, they close up shop.

As for players, Velez and Ocio are fit for the match, and David Lopez most likely will be too. Ander Murillo will also be fit since being out since December. So Athletic will have a bunch of players back to face Real. I still expect them to use most of the same players they used against Barca though, as even though they lost, they played well, and they played extremely well against Sevilla to get to the Kings Cup Final. So I wont see to much of a variation of this:

Athletic Bilbao
No. NAME POS
1 Gorka Iraizoz (G)
5 Fernando Amorebieta (CD-L)
18 Carlos Gurpegui (CD-R)
3 Koikili Del Campo (LB)
15 Andoni Iraola (RB)
24 Javier Martínez (CM)
16 Pablo Orbáiz (DM)
10 Francisco Javier Yeste (AM-R)
11 Igor Gabilondo (AM-L)
14 Susaeta (AM-C)
9 Fernando Llorente (ST)

It leaves a 5 man midfield despite their problem with scoring goals because they really dont have too many great strikers. Of course with Ocio fit, Amorebieta may be moved out to the left in place of Del Campo. Or Koikili could remain there and Gurpegi could make way for Ocio. Ion Velez will probably be on the bench along with Murillo. David Lopez too. Jeesh, its tough to remember all of these players when they are not on your own team!

As for tactics, I expect Caparros to really attack us, seeing as how we looked like a glass house at the back against Liverpool. He may even use Garmendia alongside Llorente in attack, although he would be a little deeper to dictate the play. I am not really sure who he will put out against Real, but I do believe it will be an attack minded group.

Real Madrid News:

Bah, I just found out the game wont be live, hell it wont even be shown that night, not until 8pm on Sunday. That really grinds my gears. What are they showing at 5 that is so important you ask? A replay of the Bayen vs. Bochum match that is already being shown on a delay at 12:30! Bullshit!

Anyways, looks like I will have to watch half of the match on a stream. I have a dinner date on Saturday night around 7 so I will probably miss half the match. Daily savings time screwed me over big time this week. So since I have to watch on a stream and wont be able to catch the whole game, and I might miss the game completely if I dont get back from the Met in New York in time, there will be no “liveblog” for the match. I want to thank everyone for the resounding success that the cover it live blog I did during the Liverpool match was. I will continue to do them as long as I can view the game on television. Its a real pain to switch between windows during a game on your computer, I end up missing most of the game. I am a fan too!

So Real comes into the game with 0 morale right now. They have stuttered in their chase of Barcelona and got their asses handed to them in Liverpool. Now they must take on another of their eternal rivals who is still on a high from making it to the Copa del Rey final. Seems like fun doesnt it? Well these are the sort of games that use to characterize Real as a great team, so lets hope we see a performance from the squad.

No new injury concerns to report, other then Gago, Casillas, Javi Garcia and Cannavaro all trained by themselves so far this week and Salgado and Gago were in the gym yesterday. I dont foresee any problems in their involvement in the fixture on Saturday though. The rest of the 23 man groups trained as usual, Juande probably hoping to keep the focused on starting a new winning streak. 12 games unbeaten wont win them the title, so they are going to need a little help.

————–Casillas—————
Ramos—Pepe—Canna—Marcelo
Robben—-Guti—-Lass—-Sneijder
———Higuain—-Hunter———

Gago was terrible the past three games, lets be honest. He has a ‘knock’ as well, so suffice to say, he should not be playing. Sneijder was okay I guess, if being pretty invisible means you did not do that bad. He will look to help Marcelo defensively, but Sneijder seems to care to little in what his responsibilities are on football field, as he rarely tackles back or gets stuck in. Why the snobbery Wesley? You still just a Dutch import? I want to see more grit.

The same can be said for Guti, has his whole career been a light weight in the tackle. But with Gago out, unless Juande throws Parejo into the mix (why not, couldnt hurt?), Guti will start, meaning Lass is gonna have alot of tackling back to do. Robben also starts because we have no better option. He was also pretty miserable against Liverpool, but since Heinze was the head clown at Anfield, he should drop to the bench in place of, gaspppp Marcelo. This squad looks awful on paper right now, where is the depth?

I want to Szalai, Drenthe (yes him), Parejo, Bueno or Palanca on the bench for this match. The more the merrier. Juande needs to prove a point to his players. Either you play well or you get dropped, its really a simple paradigm. It seems that every coach since Del Bosque (barring Capello) has been terrified to drop players when they are not playing well, even in short sequences. Raul was invisible, dropped to the bench. Canna, Heinze, Robben and Gago. Benched. Its really simple. Put some other players out there and see what happens, it cant be worse then against Liverpool. But we dont have the squad depth, nor does Juande have the trust in the youth team players he needs, to make such changes. He doesnt have the balls either really.

So we will putter along, stringing three passes together before either Orbaiz robs Higuain because he is isolated with no outlet, Sneijder kicks the ball right into an Athletic players foot, or Robben runs with ball, runs over ball, runs without ball, and Bilbao player runs the other way with the ball. As you can tell, my level of content with this team has maxed, after subsiding after Schuster was fired. So a performance is needed, before I go back to my old ‘here is how we gut the team’ post, which I feel like i have done to many times in my blogging career, and many more times in my own head.

Anyways, if Steve is not available for a live blog himself (if you are Steve, email so you can get setup with CoverItLive) then leave your match comments here. And as always, HALA MADRID!!!

Gee Coach, I Know I Made A Boo-Boo, But Did I Have To Cut Off My Arms

Squad List:

Gago and Salgado are suspended.

Iker Casillas, Dudek, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Metzelder, Heinze, Torres, Marcelo, Lass Diarrà, Sneijder, Robben, Van der Vaart, Faubert, Parejo, Saviola, Raúl, Higuaín y Huntelaar.

Injury Report:
GUTI: Strain on the right hamstring. Medical treatment and physiotherapy.

JAVI GARCÍA: Contracture on the right psoas iliac muscle. Medical treatment and physiotherapy. Specific workouts.

CANNAVARO: Contracture on the left hamstring. Medical treatment and physiotherapy. Specific workouts.