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Sunday 3rd August 2003

PSV Eindhoven : -  Waterreus; Begelund, Hofland (Vogel 46), Colin, Lee; Van Bommel, ver der Schaaf; Rommedahl (Hoogstrate 46), Park (de Jong 75), Robben; Kezman 
Unused subs: Rob van Dijk, Jan Vennagoor of Hesselink, Theo Lucius, Jan Wuytens, Michael Jakobsen, Daniel Guijo Velasco, Tim Janssen, Leonardo Gonzalez

PSV Eindhoven -  Park 9, Robben 89

PSV Eindhoven -  None 

For all the caustic comments that Kezman made about the club in midweek, he was portrayed as the villain by the Spurs fans, but if this is an example of his finishing prowess, then he is welcome to stay away from White Hart Lane.  On this evidence, we would be better going for someone like the Korean Park, who caused all sorts of problems with his darting runs and fine headed goal.

Of course, the one player we would really do well to capture would be Mark van Bommel.  Scorer of a scorching goal for Holland against England at this ground, he strode around the midfield like he owned it.  You have to go back a long way before you can remember a Spurs player doing the same.  Every Spurs move foundered at his feet.  He's not always spectacular, he's not flash, he just gets on with the game and does what is necessary.  Getting a foot in here and intercepting a pass there, his work makes it difficult for others to play against.  Having bolstered the forward line and bringing in another defender, van Bommel is exactly what is required in the Tottenham midfield.

Spurs were troubled by the pace of the PSV attack, with Park, Robben and Rommendahl all showing a swift turn of speed against our defenders.  Robben was first up to pull a sharp save at Keller's near post, before Kezman got on the end of a Rommendahl raid, but Kasey got a foot in the way to deflect the ball wide.  It only delayed the inevitable, as an unmarked Park headed in off a post.  The defending of set-pieces really was rank in the first half.  Kezman had already been granted a free header, which he put straight at the keeper and later had another he put over the top.  The Serb also hit two hopeful shots way over the bar and looked tied down every time Chris Perry closed in on him.  All you could say is that he was in the right place at the right time, but his goals to efforts ratio was very low.

Perry also managed to get up the other end and from a cleared corner, Treacle put in a pacy low cross and Chris' flick of the head took it against the angle of post and goal, but away for a goal kick.  Acimovic was showing his passing ability and set up attempts by Postiga and Keane, but both were off target.  I can hardly remember Wattereus having a serious save to make, with a dive at Keane's feet the nearest to it after a neat exchange of passes with Milo and Postiga.  He did need to get behind a Redknapp free-kick just before the break, but the hardest thing about that was holding on to the ball to prevent the on-rushing forwards seizing on any slack handling.

Ricketts had come on to replace Simon Davies early on and he made a good fist of showing what he is capable of.  Strong tackling and ambitious running at the opposition showed a determination few others shared in the team.  He is still a little loose in possession on occasion, but his skill is obvious and the more first team experience he has might mean he has a good chance of being a regular squad member in the short term.  Bunjy came on for Anderton at the break and nothing really changed because of that.  He shows some good passing touches, but as a defender or defensive midfielder, he just doesn't cut it.

Kezman continued to miss chance after chance, while ver der Graaf managed to get something on target, when he clearly elbowed Taricco in the face in a scramble for a corner.  He had already punched the Argentinean in the mouth - neither incident seen by the officials - and when he went right through the back of Robbie Keane late on, Gallagher only deigned to speak to him, rather than show him a yellow or have him substituted, as is the practice in 'friendlies'.  Taricco got himself involved by pulling the Dutch defender's hair and it is something that I wish someone at the club would talk to him about.  There is no place for such petty squabbling at the club and if he can't cut it out, then please show him the door.

Gus Poyet's introduction made an impact on the play as he had a header that went wide and his forays into the box did cause some unrest for the PSV defence.  However, too often the final ball in was poor and the task of defending for the visitors was simple.  The final flourish in an attempt to grab a draw saw Keano fire over a free-kick from the left corner of the box and Poyet lay back for substitute Dean Marney to drive wide.  Marney had showed great effort and demonstrated that he is able to get from box to box quickly, but not quickly enough to stop Robben when he broke a couple of minutes from the end.  He got into the Spurs area and hit a low shot that was stopped by Carr's leg, but it returned to him and with Keller still getting up from covering the first effort, the Dutch winger slipped the ball under him to make it 0-2.  

It was probably a fair reflection of the game, despite the fact that Keller wasn't unduly troubled by the Eindhoven strike-force.  I can't wait for the real action to start though.  Then I might be rid of people returning from half time fifteen minutes late, pointing out that our 'number 6' is quite good and the slow hand clapping that echoed around a 2/3 filled ground.  It was a pre-season friendly for goodness sake.  Keep that for the home defeat by Wolves !!

MEHSTG TOP MAN : - ROHAN RICKETTS

Thom Carlingson

What is wrong with Tottenham Fans ?

Since signing Helder Postiga and Bobby Zamora, and Glenn Hoddle clearing out some of the dead wood George Graham brought into the squad, I have been feeling very good about the future at Tottenham.  I know that we are not world-beaters and doubt that with these two players we would be challenging for the Premiership, but I felt we had an exciting season ahead of us and maybe something we could build on.  So as soon as the PSV game, came up, I knew I had to go to welcome the new boys in and to see a bit of European Football, which the Lane hasn’t seen for a while. 

On the way up to the Lane, I was thinking to myself that it would be a small crowd today. A quiet affair, not too many knee high challenges or handbags at ten paces, I didn't expect too much commitment and passion from our boys, as it is only a friendly after all, but maybe we will get to see a bit of European class that all us supposed "Die Hard Spurs Fans" are looking for.  After getting to Liverpool St and noticing how many Spurs shirts were about, I realised that this maybe a good turn out from the fans.  There seemed to be loads of families all itching to get to see their team, maybe the first time some of these youngsters have ever been to the Lane.  You could see the excitement in the kid's faces, wearing their colours with pride, with there idol's names on their backs.  The train to White Hart Lane was packed and my thoughts of a quite affair diminished, it just seemed like a normal Saturday afternoon Premiership game.

Once we got into the ground and took our seats, behind the goal in the South Stand (the cheap seats!), we could see the turn out was great.  A few empty seats around the ground, plenty in the PSV section.  Although the ground was busy, it was eerily quite.  My Eyes Have Seen The Glory, and a few other Tottenham Classics were being played, whilst our greatest moments were played out on the big screen.  No singing, no chanting from the rest of the crowd.

The teams were announced over the tannoy system. The Spurs line up were mentioned player by player. Cheers at last, but they didn't last long !  One by One, Keller - Cheers, Carr - Cheers.  After the announcer got past Robbie Keane, it started to get quieter and quieter.  I believe Acimovic was last, and I don’t think the poor lad even got a greeting.  The cheers had faded out and we hadn’t even kicked off !  What's the matter can't you cheer 11 times ?

Then the eerie silence again.  All of a sudden the PSV fans were chanting, all the crowd around me seemed surprised, and were looking over at them as if to say "What are they doing ?"  There was only about 100 PSV fans, if not less and they were echoing around the ground.  Hold on a minute, aren’t we supposed to be at home ?

Well after five minutes of the game, you could see PSV were a solid team.  It was going to be very difficult to break them down, and very difficult the get the ball from them.  By this time, two chants had gone around the stadium.  "Stand up if you Hate Arsenal", and "We hate Chelsea" ... and that was it.  No singing players names, no welcoming Helder Postiga home or anything.  The only time we sang to Postiga was to call him "Yiddo" and that was it, but that soon faded away !  Anthony Gardner looked quite comfortable on the ball in the first 15 minutes of the game, picking up the ball at the back, coming forward with it, linking up with Redknapp well.  Then one awful pass from the youngster and there were boos and taunts from our own fans. After that Gardner couldn’t do a thing all day.  Talk about knock the poor lad's confidence.  This carried on throughout the game, and at some points, there was arguing amongst Spurs supporters themselves.  By the time we went down 2-0, although late in the game, many fans were walking out.

The point I am trying to make from all of this is that maybe instead of getting on the backs of our team for not performing, as we would have liked, maybe we should get behind them and give them some encouragement, give them something to play for.  I know it's frustrating when they are not playing as well as we all know they can, but instead of making them worse, lets give them a boost!

If we are going every Saturday and are getting on their backs if they don’t do what we want them to do in the first 10 minutes, why the hell are they going to play out of their skin ???  Let's give them a set of supporters that they want to win things for.  At the end of the game the Spurs players do not even acknowledge the crowd that had turned out to watch them today.  They just wandered back to the changing room without a wave or anything.  At first I thought that was rude, and I felt that the players should give something back to the fans.  I think this is when it really hit me.  Why would they want to acknowledge us, all we have done is put them down and taunted them for the last 90 minutes.

So come on let's get behind our lads and SPUR them on to Europe this season. Let's get behind our youngsters and give them the confidence to shine and let's get handing out those song sheets on match days ! 

Westley Kelley

1. £30 for a friendly fixture is a joke.  I will not be going to one of these 'prestige' friendlies again. 

2. Now that Steffen Freund has gone, who will be doing the tackling ?   Maybe Glenn doesn't think we need to tackle.

3. How can Simon Davies be hobbling in agony on Sunday and be passed fit to play for Wales within 24 hrs ?

4. Where is the midfield pace ?

5. Why can't Acimovic play like that every week ?

6. The defence is still sh*t. They can't mark and they keep getting pulled out of position.  I can see another season of Carr shouting at everybody else coming our way.  Gardner still looks good though.

7. Where is the leadership ?   Where is our Mabbutt, Roberts or Perryman.  We need a CAPTAIN!!!

8. Ricketts and Marney looked good.  I'd play Ricketts from the start next week.

9. Great to see us signing people. Great to see promises being kept.  When I heard Hoddle say that there will be more signings before the start of the season, I was elated. I actually believed it - now there's a change!

10.  Roll on the new season.

The Dazzler