Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

There's definitely been big improvements in the Spurs WSL side but they're still really mid-table compared to MC, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. They make too many mistakes when in possession, insisting (why, oh why?) on playing out from the back even when being high pressed. That is a fatal flaw too many 'lesser' teams in the WSL have. IMHO it is simply not worth the risk; I'd far prefer to see the goalie punt it up the pitch old style.

I hope Spurs marketing realise that a good, consistent WSL team can generate decent income for the club and having them playing more often at the Spurs Stadium would definitely help with that, particularly when up against those top four or five teams. There's definitely money to be made from the womens' game if developed sensibly.

With the two England Womens' Internationals a couple of weeks ago there was a lot of criticism of the games from a commercial point of view being played in small venues abroad when they could have probably filled Wembley and somewhere up north like Anfield, Old Trafford or the Etihad.


Sunday 10.03.24 EDIT

Oh yes! 0 - 4 away win at AV: just what the doctor ordered.

Fourth place in the Premiership is now definitely game on.

[EJG1980]

Get in! Great stuff from Spurs today, a massive crunch match and the team turned up and put in an excellent and emphatic performance.

Had to bide our time as in the first half we were getting the build up play right but kept misplacing the final ball or picking the wrong choice, but we kept going in the second half but started getting the final ball right and blew them away.

Nice of them to help out with that crazy McGinn red card foul on Udogie when we were 2-0 up, just to make things a bit more straightforward. Then we were able to control the match even more and put the icing on the cake with the two late goals. Before the match our goal difference was six behind Villa, now we're two ahead.

Son got man of the match because of his two assists and a goal, but I thought outside that he was the attacker who misplaced the most passes or chose the wrong options most often. Personally thought our best players were Udogie, Johnson, and Sarr. Bissouma put in his best performance for a while too.

Great to see Timo Werner get another goal, let's see if he can do a Richarlison and go on a really good run of scoring.

A real shame for Micky VDV to go off injured again, hopefully it's not as serious as his previous injury, but Radu Dragusin did very well when he came on to replace him.

Edit: I’ve just seen that it was also a good day for the Spurs women today, getting an equaliser against Man City in the sixth minute of injury time and then beating them on penalties in the FA Cup QF. It’s the first ever time the Spurs women have reached the FA Cup semi-final.

[fallenangle]

I was going to post later about the Spurs' Womens team beating MC to get into their FA Cup semi-finals being the cherry on the cake of a great day for Spurs.

Sort of sad (but not that sad) for the two MC players who missed their penalties - two very good England international players you would not have thought could miss but did.

Found the highlights and penalty shoot out:-

[EJG1980]

Spurs women have got the best draw they could have hoped for in the semi-final, a home tie against Leicester City, massive chance to get to the final now. We'd be big underdogs in any final (especially against Chelsea) but it'd be a huge boost to the women's team to even get there.

The semi-finals take place on the 13th and 14th of April, and as the men's team are playing away to Newcastle that weekend, the THFC stadium will be free. I'd be gobsmacked if we don't take the chance to host the semi-final there. The Newcastle match is a 12:30 kick-off on Saturday, so hopefully they can schedule the women to kick-off on Saturday evening or make it the Sunday match to maximise chances of a big crowd.

[fallenangle]

Hope they show it on TV wherever it is played but if the THFC Stadium is free it would be rude not use it. I can't believe that with the right promotion they couldn't get a decent crowd there for a unique game like that.

Getting a bit ahead of things but although the Spurs Womens' team is not the most reliable even if they get Chelsea in the final, who would undoubtedly be favourites, I wouldn't rule out an upset. I saw the Everton v. Chelsea game and Everton held them comfortably for much of the, very dull, match and only lost 1 - 0.

Without Sam Kerr up front Chelsea are lacking natural goal scorers with the exception, of course, of the over lauded Lauren James. If they can keep her in check, keep her out of the last third of the pitch, off the ball and wind her up with some close marking she gets frustrated being out of the game and loses discipline. In short the Chelsea attacking threat can be neutralised, one way or the other and then it could be a much more even match.

BTW I smiled at an online report I read about the Aston Villa v. Spurs game, I think it was the Daily Telegraph one, where the writer described the AV performance as being very 'Spursy'.

I would not be surprised if Spursy was added to the English dictionary of modern colloquialisms if not there already.

[EJG1980]

Hope they show it on TV wherever it is played but if the THFC Stadium is free it would be rude not use it. I can't believe that with the right promotion they couldn't get a decent crowd there for a unique game like that.

Getting a bit ahead of things but although the Spurs Womens' team is not the most reliable even if they get Chelsea in the final, who would undoubtedly be favourites, I wouldn't rule out an upset. I saw the Everton v. Chelsea game and Everton held them comfortably for much of the, very dull, match and only lost 1 - 0.

Without Sam Kerr up front Chelsea are lacking natural goal scorers with the exception, of course, of the over lauded Lauren James. If they can keep her in check, keep her out of the last third of the pitch, off the ball and wind her up with some close marking she gets frustrated being out of the game and loses discipline. In short the Chelsea attacking threat can be neutralised, one way or the other and then it could be a much more even match.

Regardless of how easy or tough either match would be, another good reason to hope we avoid Man Utd is because Grace Clinton is on loan from them, so I assume that would make her ineligible for the final if they were our opponents. I checked the league match against them earlier in the season and she did have to sit that one out, but I'm not sure if the rules are the same for cup matches. It'd be a real bummer if she'd helped the team reach such a historic occasion and wasn't able to play in it.

I would not be surprised if Spursy was added to the English dictionary of modern colloquialisms if not there already.

I get annoyed by Spursy, not because I care about people making fun of Spurs, but because they've got the meaning of it completely wrong!

Spursy was originally coined for stuff beyond Spurs' control that would screw us over, such as needing a win on the final day of the 2006 season to get top four for the first time since 1990, and the whole squad goes down with a Norovirus infection and we lose the match. Spursy.

Or like in 2012 when we finish fourth but Chelsea who finished outside the top four unexpectedly win the Champions League, so they take our spot. Spursy. And then after that final they changed the rules so that fourth place wouldn't lose that spot in the future. Double Spursy!

Or the time when Eric Dier gave away a last minute penalty against Newcastle that cost us the win, for a ridiculous handball decision, and then a week later they announced they were changing the handball rules so that incidents like that would no longer be given as handball. Spursy.

THAT kind of stuff is what the term Spursy was coined for. Once pundits latched on to it they just use it for anything like letting in a last minute goal, failing to win when you could move up a league position, losing a match unexpectedly... outside the teams that are steamrollering to the title, that's all stuff that happens to every single team multiple times a season. It ain't Spursy, it's... er... footbally

Rant over

[fallenangle]

LOL, good rant. Thanks for the clarification.

I'd forgotten MU were the other potential finalists and that would likely mean Grace Clinton would be ineligible as an on lone MU player.

I suppose we have to support Chelsea then to win that game but if MU can exhaust Lauren James and Guro Reiten (if playing), their other star player, in the process of losing I would not be unhappy.

Just saw that the Spurs versus Chelsea WSL game is being shown on BBC2 31st March and could be an interesting taster as to what might happen if they meet in the FA Cup final. There is also the WSL meeting this weekend, 17th March, against Leicester, not being shown AFAIK by the BBC. Again could be an interesting precursor to the FA Cup semi-final game in April too.

[EJG1980]

Hehe, it's a losing battle as the other definition is what most people take it to mean now, but I shall endeavour to be an annoying git who'll keep saying "well, actually, what it really means is..." wherever I can

I've just noticed that a few days ago they announced that the final match of the WSL season (Spurs at home to West Ham on 18th May) has been moved to the THFC stadium. So if they're going to do it for another league match you'd have to assume that there's no way the semi-final won't be held there too.

Edit: There we go, THFC Stadium confirmed for the semi-final, which will also be shown live on BBC Two. Glad that they managed to schedule the game for the day after Newcastle vs Spurs, should help maximise the number of fans attending.

[fallenangle]

Good news indeed.

Just finished watching the Wolves v Coventry FA Cup Quarter Final. First half a bit 'meh' but the second half quickly became a classic FA Cup tie with some superb football in the final third, mostly from Coventry. They should have been at least two up but Wolves came back strongly and made it a really good watch for the neutral right up to the final whistle.

Glad I stuck with it. Problem is that it will be difficult for any of the other televised games this weekend to deliver that level of entertainment too.

Should also say fingers crossed for the Spurs game today. With the other games and those tomorrow I'm going to be all footballed out by the end of the weekend.

[EJG1980]

I made two mistakes today: I stopped watching the Coventry match a couple of minutes after Wolves went 2-1 up, and I watched the whole of the Spurs match

Everything we did well last week against Villa we did badly against Fulham today, they were much better than us for the majority of the match. We started really poorly, constantly giving the ball away and were lucky that Fulham didn’t take the lead, but we grew into it and for the fifteen minutes before half time we were on top and looking the more likely to score… and then we let Fulham in to sucker punch us right before the break (from one of many Fulham moves started by a loose pass from us).

Was expecting a reaction and fast start from us in the second half but alas it was just like the start of the match, we were poor again and this time Fulham punished us and scored a couple of goals. We then missed a couple of great chances to get back into the match (especially the Timo Werner miss) but I’m not even sure it would have made a difference if we had got one back. Shame we didn’t find out though.

Really disappointing after the Villa win, but all they can do is acknowledge that today wasn’t good enough and try and put it right with a good performance and win in our next match.

[fallenangle]

That Werner miss summed up our attacking performance where we missed at least three very good chances and could have had more possibly making them play more defensively. But they did not and our defence and midfield was very shakey throughout. Fulham undoubtedly deserved to win.

We'd be one point ahead of AV on the same number of games played if we'd won. Now we have to hope WH do us a favour against AV later today but I'm not holding out much hope of that. A draw would be OK because they'd still be only 3 points ahead of us with one game more played but if WH lose that is effectively a two win gap which is not a good place to be at this time in the season.

Whatever happens Spurs need to play better than they did against Fulham.

EDIT

The end of a really good weekend of football. Three out of the four FA Cup quarter finals were outstanding footballing entertainment in part or in full.

Spurs losing to Fulham left a sour taste but WH did us that favour in drawing with AV (they could/should have won it TBH) and Spurs Women beat Leicester Women in the WSL. An encouragingly positive result to have before their FA Cup semi-final game in April.

[EJG1980]

Yup, I didn't make the same mistake I made with the Wolves match with yesterday's semi-finals

I got maximum annoyance from the West Ham match though as I checked my score app at just the right moment to see the score change to 2-1 to West Ham, checked it again a few minutes later, still said 2-1 to West Ham, wait another few minutes, check again, full time, 1-1

I have seen a few people say though that it was a fairly obvious handball so the goal was correctly ruled out, and they had no idea why it took them so long to check it. Still a good result though, lessens the damage of our poor day at the office against Fulham.

Good day for the women, and for the under-21s, who also won to go back to the top of their league.

[fallenangle]

After the less than stellar England game against Brazil on Friday for want of some football over the weekend I watched the MC v. MU WSL game on Saturday. Entertaining enough but yet again Chloe Kelly, who I rate highly, was left unused on the bench. It occurred to me that her lack of recent match time and a plethora of other on form WSL strikers might result in her not being in the England squad for the up coming international games too.

If so................................................ ..............

I was thinking that when Grace Clinton is called back to MU after her loan spell at Spurs, as seems highly likely on her current form, Spurs are going to need a quality replacement and that might make it a good time to put in a bid for Kelly as she'd definitely get regular play time at Spurs.

There's already been speculation about whether she'll sign a new contract with MC when her current one runs out in 2025. She is a Londoner and started her top flight career at Arsenal so a move to Spurs is not that fanciful. Pairing up with Beth England, Spurs primary striker who herself moved to Spurs to get more regular match time, seems to me like it would make a potentially great partnership that might help propel Spurs Women into genuine WSL winning contenders.

[EJG1980]

Yeah, the England match wasn't too inspiring, but a few Spurs players have had good international breaks so far, the most notable being:

Ben Davies captained and Brennan Johnson scored for Wales as they progressed to the Euro 2024 playoff final; Udogie started Italy's 2-1 win against Venezuela and last night Vicario made his Italy debut (and kept a clean sheet) in a win against Ecuador; Romero and Lo Celso both started and both scored in Argentina's win against El Salvador.

Hopefully Wales can beat Poland in the playoff final (though it'll be a tough match) so Brennan and Ben (oh, and Joe Rodon!) can play at Euro 2024. I'm tempted to watch that match instead of England tomorrow, as it's a competitive match as opposed to a friendly, and it'll have more Spurs player involved

Speaking of the women's team, I got a ticket for the FA Cup semi-final against Leicester. I was going to get a normal seat for £15 but I noticed that they were selling seats in the premium corporate section, right in line with the half-way line, for £25. So I went for one of those as it was only a tenner more, and I'm never gonna sit somewhere like that for a men's match, and it's the only area of the new stadium I haven't sat in yet.

[fallenangle]

I was wondering whether to watch the Belgium game or not, I probably will but the Wales match is likely to be a better watch the reasons you've said.

If they're selling those premium seats for the Leicester game at that sort of price I'd be surprised if the stadium wasn't close to full. I'd suspect there will be locals who maybe have never been inside the ground and will take the opportunity to do that and see, whatever the result, a genuinely historic game. Should be a real occasion particularly if Spurs win.