Copa del Rey Prewview: Deportivo la Coruña v. Sevilla a.k.a. Third time’s a charm

By: Anthony | January 13th, 2009

Two victories in four days over “SuperDepor” should give us the confidence to go on and get this ever vital third consecutive victory over the Galicians. By now I’m quite familiar with Depor and how they set up but for some personal background info on how the match is going to go, I got some information from none other than the Deportivo expert himself, my friend, Paddy.

Now obviously my thoughts about the game were obvious, we were going to go back into the Riazor and show Depor once again how we do it down in Andalucía, with class. Now I’m not going to lie, it’s not going to be that easy, but advancing in the Copa is a must considering it seems to be our only shot at silverware this season *sigh*.

We sat down over a cupper, I asked him a question or two, and this is what he had to tell me.

How are Depor currently doing in terms of performance?
I think that overall this season Deportivo are outdoing expectations. The club didn’t have a big budget to spend on expensive players but made some astute signings, and are in a promising position having qualified for the latter stages of the UEFA Cup, being in the top 8 of the league with a good chance of getting qualification for Europe again, maybe even the Champions League, and still being in with a decent chance in the cup.

Who do you think are the most effective, consistent and dangerous players on the Depor squad that Sevilla should be aware of?
I think in terms of consistency its being hard to look past Daniel Aranzubia in goals, He was a mint signing. In terms of dangermen on his day, I reckon its hard to look by Mexican winger Andres Guardado. Rudolfo Bodipo is another who is in decent form

Can you update us on injuries or ~~superstitions~~ suspensions that any Depor players might have? Antonio Barragan and Gustavo Munua are ruled out for the season, while Pablo Amo is sidelined until February. Mista has resumed training, but will not be rushed back for this match. I don’t know how seriously Miguel Lotina is taking the cup and with a game against Barca coming up at the weekend dont be surprised if you see a weakened Depor team take the field. As regards superstitions I have it on good authority that Angel Lafita refuses to make love in the last 27 minutes before every match

What do you think of Sevilla at the moment?
First I must say I’m not convinced by Manolo Jiminez. Leaving Freddie Kanoute on the bench at the weekend for the first 45 minutes seems like a strange decision to me. However you are 3rd in the league and its hard to argue with that but there is a glut of teams of about the same quality around the same points mark. The end of the season should be fascinating watching in all unfold. I also think Federico Fazio is a fantastic prospect

Do you think that Riki will be influential as he was in the 1-0 game at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán last season?
Well I don’t know. He is certainly not the first team regular he was off 2 seasons ago, and Rudulfo Bodipo is in flying form. He may not even start.

Last but not least, what is your lineup and prediction for the game?
Well if we start our strongest 11 it would probably be the same 11 that got beat the other day: Aranzubia – Manuel Pablo, Lopo, Ze Castro, Filipe – Guardado, Sergio, Juan Rodriguez, Lafita – Verdu – Bodipo. However I could see Ze Castro being dropped. Also its hard to read Miguel Lotina’s mind and there’s always a chance he could put out a much weakened 11, similiar to the team that we put out in the Cup last week. I’m going to have to predict a 1-0 win for Depor!

Fair enough Paddy, fair enough.

Thanks for the interview, but now back to reality. Our strike force is on top form, with both Freddie Kanouté and Luis Fabiano showing glimpses of when they used to single handedly demolish teams for the past couple seasons. Our defense is a rock this year conceding the second least amount of goals only behind Barça and with Palop having a brilliant year as always, is there anything that can stop El Sevilla Campeón?

Not Depor, thats forsure. As much as I respect them and enjoy their football, which can be similar to ours at times, I just don’t see any way that they can take any points out of tomorrow’s match. We’re too strong.

¡¡¡Vamos mi Sevilla, Vamos Campeón!!!