Pilkington’s goal – Pilkington comes off the left flank to receive the ball in a more central area, as he and Bennett did all game. He lays off to Johnson, who tries to slide a pass through to Holt. Kaboul’s interception is blocked by Pilkington, who slips in Wilbraham as King dallies. Walker challenges, but his clearance rebounds off King into Pilkington’s path, and he finishes well.
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Following on from my post this morning, our Academy beat Sparta Prague 1-0 thanks to a late Jack Munns goal, but lost out to PSV Eindhoven on penalties this afternoon in the U19 Champions Trophy in Düsseldorf.
Souleymane Coulibaly scored a penalty to put us ahead, but PSV equalised within two minutes, and the match eventually went to penalties. It seems that we lost 4-2 with Munns and Dombaxe scoring from the spot. Coulibaly hit the bar with his second penalty kick of the match, and Milos Veljkovic missed the other.
Spurs XI v PSV: Miles, Barthram, Ekong, Veljkovic, Gomelt, Dombaxe, Ball, Hawkins (Bentaleb, 35), McEvoy, Ward (Munns, 27), D McQueen (Coulibaly, 14).
Thanks to ‘Spursidol’ for posting the full squad list in the comments section of my previous article:
1 Jonathan Miles
2 Jack Barthram
3 Kevin Stewart
4 Laste Dombaxe
5 Milos Veljkovic
6 Kenneth McEvoy
7 Nabil Bentelab
8 Souleymane Coulibaly
9 Jack Munns
10 Tomislav Gomelt
11 Darren McQueen
12 Shaquille Coulthirst
13 Luke McGee
14 Ronnie Hawkins
15 Ruben Lameires
16 Dominic Ball
17 Grant Ward
18 William Ekong
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You can also hear me on The Fighting Cock podcast.
Spurs have taken a group of young players to participate in the U19 Champions Trophy in Düsseldorf.
Saturday was the first day of the tournament, and we opened with a 2-0 win against New York Cosmos. Our goals came from Nabil Bentaleb, who drove home as the ball rebounded back to him, and Souleymane Coulibaly, who tapped home a Ken MvEvoy cross.
The second match didn’t go so well, and we ended up losing 2-0 to Fortuna Düsseldorf, who put in what the tournament website describes as “one of the most convincing performances so far”.
This morning we face Sparta Prague (KO 10:30 BST); if we were to win this match, we would play PSV Eindhoven (who won their group) at 14:00 BST.
Some key tournament rules:
– Matches are short – they consist of 2 x 25 minute halves.
– Participating players must be born on or after 01/01/1993.
– A squad consists of up to 18 players.
– Four substitutions are allowed per game.
I will try to find out the full squad list, and will edit this post if I am able to do so.
EDIT: We beat Sparta Prague 1-0 thanks to a very late Jack Munns goal, and now face PSV Eindhoven at 14:00 (UK time) in the Quarter-Finals. If you are interested in following the score, log on to the tournament website at 2 and have your finger ready over the F5 key!
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You can also hear me on The Fighting Cock podcast.
Gylfi Sigurdsson’s goal – after a long spell of possession, Allen’s shot is deflected, and laid back into the path of Sigurdsson by Graham. He hits his shot firmly into the ground, and it finds the far corner.
For long periods of the game, Spurs pressed all of the Swansea team except for Monk, although on this occasion Williams is allowed to push forward with the ball.
He finds Scott Sinclair who, as is often the case, looks to drive inside.
Van der Vaart comes out to meet him, but he skips past him, dragging Sandro across.
Sinclair lays off to Allen, taking Sandro out of the game.
Parker reads this relatively well, and starts making a move across to block any potential shot. Note Modric’s position, though – the most advanced Spurs player in the image above. Also note Sigurdsson, the eventual scorer. Modric has not tracked his man, and has not anticipated the danger of Sandro and Parker having moved out of position.
Modric still fails to move as the ball loops up to Routledge. Routledge has the strength to hold off Assou-Ekotto and the intelligence to tee up Sigurdsson, unmarked on the edge of the box.
Witth Kaboul charging out to close the ball down, Sigurdsson focuses on keeping the it down and hitting the target, and…
…although he hits his shot into the ground, it bounces beyond Friedel’s reach, and finds the top corner.
Swansea’s attacking game is built on keeping the ball and creating 3 vs 2 and 4 vs 3 situations in different areas of the pitch, but particularly in this central region. Sigurdsson has profited many times already for them in his short spell, often finding the ball at his feet in this sort of region due to their wingers cutting in and creating an extra man in a more central area. This time, both wingers cut in, and two of their three central players are well forward and looking to get shots away. Walker is occupied with Taylor making a run in behind, and when Sinclair beats his man (vdV), Sandro has to come across and they take advantage of their sudden extra man well – albeit with a bit of luck from the deflected Allen shot.
Sigurdsson is only just gaining recognition for being a fine goal-scoring midfield player. He was excellent for Reading last year, and I was very surprised when a Premier League club didn’t take a chance on him – Hoffenheim eventually signed him for £6.5m. Rodgers had worked with Sigurdsson at Reading, so obviously knows him well – perhaps he will sign up up permanently this summer (could that be for Spurs?!).
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You can also hear me on The Fighting Cock podcast.
Kevin Davies’ goal –Bolton get some joy down their right; Klasnic finds space in behind King, picks out Davies with a fine cross, and Davies steers the ball beyond Cudicini.
Firstly, without wanting to seem too bitter, a foul should have been given on Bale earlier in the move when Alonso bundled him to the ground from behind.
Nigel Reo-Coker has possession, and with Spurs having recently shifted to 4-4-2, he finds a little space in midfield.
He slides a ball down the line for Klasnic, who pulls away from King a little too easily.
Klasnic has a yard on King, and Davies has pulled away from Nelsen’s shoulder with Walker, who was otherwise exceptional on the night, caught ball-watching.
The cross is an excellent one – in the “corridor of uncertainty” (there’s one for Football Clichés!). Nelsen throws himself at it, and does get a toe to the ball.
But he can’t deflect it away from Davies, who calmly sends the ball back across goal with his left shin.
Cudicini is quite slow down and, having seen to be covering his far post, he almost dives away from it.
While you’re here, why not check out my ‘Summer Rebuilding?‘ article from Tuesday?!