BATE??? What You Catch a Fish With?

By: Corey | September 16th, 2008

The Champions League group stage kicks off today with a whole host of mouth watering ties that I cannot watch because I have work and class immediately after that, but none the less, its a good day for any football fan. Of course Real kicks off its group tomorrow, Wednesday the 17th at 2:45pm eastern time, the usual start time for CL games. And we have interesting opposition in for form of FC BATE Borisov. A team from Belarus, yep Belarus, is surely the rag doll of the “Group of Death” and it should be a formality for Real.

I had said last week that I had very little knowledge of Numancia until I did some research. I will say this again with a different ending. I have no knowledge of BATE, and after researching I still have no knowledge of them. Probably because I cant read Belarussian, but also because it seems every source imaginable that I go to for info on football does not know much about them. Maybe I am early with this preview, but even UEFA.com had nothing of interest about players or tactics. This would surely be goal.com’s range, as they often have contributing authors from Armenia and articles about nothing. But not so.

FC BATE

So here is my run down of BATE. They are located in Borisoz, Belarus with the 5,500 seater Haradzki Stadium to their name. FC BATE was founded in 1973 under the name Berezina Borisov, a three-time champion in the SSR Belorussian League champion. The club was re-established in 1996, at which point it took its current name, FC BATE Borisov.

The team made their Belorussian Premier League debut in 1998 and finished as runner-up. They won their first league title one year later and again in 2002, 2006, and 2007. Notable former players include Alexander Hleb who plays for the bad guys and Vateli Kutuzov who has had an offbeat career. They are a typical ex-Soviet team (seems so strange to say) with high fitness levels and a phsyicality to their play. Their coach is 31,Viktor Goncharenko, which makes him the youngest coach in the history of the Champions League.

They Gennadiy Bliznyuk as their main goal threat, as he hit three in the qualifying rounds, to add to his 18 in last seasons league campaign. He is a Belarus international, and will be a thorn in the shakey Real Madird backline. He is partnered by Vitali Rodionov, who himself hit 15 league goals last year and had numerous assists. The scouting says that the front two have great chemistry and will definately be a danger for Real.

Sergei Sosnovsky is according to some scout reports a very strong central defender with an eye for goal on set pieces (eek!). Tough in the tackle and and solid as a rock on the ball, he will take some skill to get around. They also have the talented Sergei Krivets, a 22 year old central midfielder who is really the driving force in thier play. He has worked his way up through the Belarus junior teams with some impressive displays and he looks to be their star turn. He is also an avid Real Madrid fan.

But beyond those players, its anyones guess what else they have in store. They usually play with a 4-5-1 in a defensive posture, and look to counter, albeit rarely, in a 4-4-2. They were as defensive as you could get in the qualifying rounds and got some lucky breaks, so I cannot see them taking the game to us like Numancia tried to. Much less winning.

Real Madrid News:

First things first. Sergio Ramos is okay. Pshhhh, then why the hell was Salgado played instead of Torres???? I am all for keeping the man at the club until he retires, he is a legend for us. But he is so past his prime and everyone knows it. Atleast he wont see any time this match. Also, I think the “controversy” over Sergio playing through the pain for Spain (thats how you rock a rhyme, rock a rhyme we rock because its tricky) is a non-issue. Del Bosque is not Aragones or Camacho, he is a peaceful man that takes all things into consideration, including his players club duties.

Also, Pepe is suspended for this match, so I expect to see Canna and Heinze in the middle, as the popular opinion is that Metzelder really blew it against Numancia. I think its to early to judge him, but he will probably see the bench for this game atleast. Wesley also trained with his team mates, which was great to see. He will probably be in contention towards the end of the month, when most of our players are a little fatigued, so perfect timing for him. Fitness trainer Jordi García devised a session with jogging exercises and an obstacle course with cones and hurdles. The players did ball work and practised on scoring from headers. The session ended with a practice game.

With all of that in mind, we really only have Pepe out and Sneijder not being risked, so a full-ish squad to pick from. Considering the performance against Numancia, I wont be surprised to see a few new faces in the lineup. As already alluded to, Heinze and Canna will probably partner up in the center, with Sergio Ramos coming in at right back and Marcelo retaining his place. He did pretty good against Numancia actually, quite game for him but good. Metz and Torres will be on the bench, with Salgado and Javi Garcia missing out (what is happening to him, he really is not in good form right now).

Diarra will probably maintain his place as he did a good job handling Numancia, while Guti is a lock at the attacking mid spot. I think De la Red gets a start finally, its about time. VdV, despite his debut goal, was woefully bad for me, he just is not a central midfielder like Ruben or Wesley. He will bring more balance to the team and he will actually be able to win a ball back and the distribute, something VdV was not doing enough. It may seem a little cautious going with a dobule pivot in this game, but I think its more of an experiment then anything. Ruben is more offensive minded then many think, and he can really link defense to attack and help Diarra out.

Gago is the other option, but it seems he and Diarra will battle it out for the DM spot. Robben will be on the left because Drenthe still has not shown anything, but I say put VdV for Robben and see how he does on the wing towards the tail end of the game. Up front I would prefer to see Higuain retain his place alongside Ruud, but I dont know if Schsuter can keep Raul on the bench. He should, but I dont know. Raul needs to be benched for a month or so, as to get it into his head that if he is sucking major ass he cant play, and hopefully that will be a wake up call for him.

More of the same tactically, but hopefully with a little more regard for defending properly in this game. Supposively, cough cough, set pieces were addressed in training, although I saw no mention of it in write ups of training on the official site nor did I see any pictures showing them working on any set pieces. My hope is they did, Schuster addresses it in his pre-match press conference below, but we will see.

Anyways, this should be a blow out, not like a goal fest we saw with Numancia, I mean a 4-0, 6-0 drubbing. But Ill stay conservative and say 3-0 to the good guys, with Ruud getting two and Sergio Ramos scoring from a set piece. HALA MADRID!

Schuster Pre-Match Presser

Will Ramos play tomorrow?
He trained well this morning and he is ready to play tomorrow.

BATE Borisov seem to be the easiest opponent in your group. People expect you to take the three points. Would losing complicate things?
It is vital for us to win tomorrow, but we will also have to win the rest of our home games. We can’t afford to falter.

Do you think the team benefits from being in a tough group given that they will have to do their best in every game?
I don’t care about what team we face first. The first three points have to be ours and we must take them any way we can. Our next match is in Moscow. We know the Russians and we wil have to fight hard with them. I think the group is fine as it is.

What do you think of the competition this year?
The four most important Spanish teams are in the championship and I think we will all have a good year. English teams have proven to be the toughest in the last few years, but I think we will do better in the competition this season. Right now, the strongest are the English.

Has it been hard to get your men ready for the Champions League in just two days?
Not really. Last year I found out the Champions League motivates everybody because it is a beautiful competition. We will watch every game tonight. Motivation is key to our work. It helps.

Is your squad suffieciently strong to win the Champions League?
I think it is. I have total faith in this team. I think Roma eliminated us last year because of two or three reasons that had nothing to do with our quality. I trust this team to reach further in the competition this year.

The team made mistakes in defence against Numancia…
We don’t have problems in defence, but we do during set pieces. We have to watch out more. It also happened to us against Deportivo. Numancia had few chances on goal and scored twice in the first half. They also scored one goal in the second after few chances. We have to be more aggressive during set pieces. Many teams try to defeat us that way because they don’t have enough quality to do so otherwise. Tomorrow’s match could be similar because BATE are a quality team at set pieces.

Do you think the team can put up a strong fight against the English sides if it sustains no injuries?
Of course. There’s no doubt in my mind. I wouldn’t mind facing an English team.

Will the starting line-up change much from the one that faced Numancia?
This is a stage in which players begin to feel tired, especially after two weeks of international games. We have to take care of this. We will play seven more games -five league clashes and two Champions League fixtures- until the next stoppage. It is always nicer to have a good start to the season. We want to be at the top of the Champions League from the very beginning. We all believe we can have a good season and in order to do that we will have to balance our efforts, which means there will always be some changes.

Raúl is -with Van Nistelrooy- the Champions League’s all time top-scorer. Does the team need his goals?
Of course it does. He is a very important player to us. He will play tomorrow.

Betting houses put Chelsea as favourites to win the title and Real Madrid are on the second spot. Does that add pressure?
No pressure. I’m happy about it. I love being in second place. It means all we have to do now is reach the top spot.

Did you have to work on Raúl’s morale due to his absence from the Spanish team that won the Euro?
It was a decision hard to understand because he had been on the team for many years. He had to get used to it and I am sure it wasn’t easy. He loves the national team and always wants to help out. He has to get over it and I’m sure he will.

What do you know about BATE and Belarusian football?
I was closer to the country years ago and watched more of its football. BATE is a fast team with a tight defence and two attacking midfielders. Their best players are their strikers. They are an uncomfortable opponent and we will have to take advantage of the positive atmosphere there will be at the Bernabéu. Belarusian teams are dangerous. We have to respect Zenit too and watch out for them.

Have you seen any BATE Borisov matches?
We have recordings of some of their league games and of their match against Anderlecht. They shed a lot of light. They usually score few goals, both when they win or lose, and they draw many fixtures. We’ve worked to avoid any surprises tomorrow.

Who do you consider to be the toughest opponent in the first round?
I don’t think we can relax against any team. We will have to win every game and give our all on the pitch. Juventus are a prestigious side and Zenit have earned everyone’s respect… Nobody is easy.

UPDATE:

Goalkeepers: Casillas, Dudek.
Defenders: Torres, Cannavaro, Marcelo, Heinze, Ramos.
Midfielders: Diarra, Gago, Guti, Robben, Drenthe, Javi García, Van der Vaart.
Forwards: Raúl, Van Nistelrooy, Higuaín, Saviola.

Metzelder has been left out of the squad along with Salgado, surprise surprise. Javi Garcia makes his way back into the squad for the first time since the first Super Copa game. He will fill in for De la Red who as Donovan pointed out, it on suspension from Getafe’s last UEFA cup game against Bayern. So exepect to see VdV in the center of the park again, hope he does a hell of alot better then last game. Gametime is 2:45 eastern, be there or be square. Should have a liveblog from Dancy of Steve up. Hala Madrid!