FC Barcelona vs. Real Sociedad: Complete La Liga Preview, Team News, and More

The 2012-2013 La Liga season is officially underway and fans are eagerly awaiting the start of Barcelona's first match.

In less than 24 hours, La Blaugrana will open their season against a tough Real Sociedad side who will aim to get a great start to their season.

Both squads have made some key signings this summer, but will they play a big role in this match?

In preparation for Sunday's match, Bleacher Report has put together a preview of the match.

Read on to get up to speed on the preparations, key battles and prediction for Barcelona vs. Real Sociedad.

Team News

Barcelona

Unlike their rivals, Barcelona has had a pretty eventful summer.

Tito Vilanova takes over from Pep Guardiola as the club's manager while Jordi Alba has rejoined his old club.

Seydou Keita has left for China, while Alex Song needs to only complete a medical before he is officially a Barca player.

Fitness-wise, the biggest question mark is Carles Puyol. If the defensive leader is unable to play, Javier Mascherano will likely take his place.

There are also questions about who will start up front with Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Pedro and David Villa all available.

Real Sociedad

Txuri-urdin enter the season looking a bit stronger than last season now that Carlos Vela has made his move permanent with Chori Castro also signing.

Philippe Montanier will aim to improve his squad's away form from last season by taking a point from the La Liga giants, but will struggle to do so.

The big question is how they will line up in attack with Imanol Agirretxe and Vela both being possible starters.

Key Matchups

Barcelona's Central Defense

The biggest concern for Barcelona will be in central defense.

Whether it is Carlos Vela, Imanol Agirretxe or both, Real Sociedad will have a strong chance of scoring.

Last season Barcelona greatly struggled on the counter-attack, especially when Javier Mascherano was on the pitch.

With the Argentinian starting once again, this could be the key to the entire match for La Real.

Central Midfield

As much as Real have improved in midfield, they are still going to give up lots of possession.

Barcelona's midfield is just too great for them and, in truth, nearly every team in Spain.

With chances coming rarely for Real, Sergio Busquets will need to be careful to kill any breakaways made by the visitors and he could play the biggest role of all.

Prediction

As much as it would be nice for the league to see a team take points from one of the Big Two—Barcelona and Real Madrid—Real Sociedad will have their work cut out to do so here.

The team has improved and will pose a threat on the counter-attack, but the gap in quality is just too great to overcome.

If Barcelona can get an early goal, we could see another 5-0 route. La Blaugrana will be very confident and eager to start the new Tito Vilanova era off on the right foot.

Real can hope to hold Barcelona out of goal, but eventually we have to believe that the defense will be broken down.

Result—Barcelona 4-2 Real Sociedad

Follow @MichaelCernaBR