| Tottenham's first
'competitive' pre-season friendly ended in 2-2 draw with Boca Juniors in
the humid heat fo Suwon in Korea.
From the first minute, it looked like
Spurs might be on the end of a right hammering, with Boca finding an
easy path through the middle of the Tottenham defence. When Gago
broke in the first few seconds, he picked up a pass off a colleague and
hit an early shot that flew well wide. The only recompense for
this miss was the fact that it put off the inevitable for a minute or
so. Within two minutes, Spurs were a goal behind. An old
fashioned long ball down the middle was seized on by Delgardo on the
left side of our defence and as Cerny came out to close him down, the
Boca striker slipped a low shot past him to make it 0-1.
The Tottenham defence had been caught
napping and appealing for offside. It didn't get a lot better
straight away, as they were left standing by another direct ball through
the heart fo the defence, where a pass out to the right put Gago in for
a shot that he tried to curl around Cerny, but the Czech keeper leapt to
catch the shot.
Play settled down a bit and it was on the
quarter hour that Spurs had their first threat on goal, with Carrick
hitting a looping shot wide from a poor clearance, but another Boca
attack left Spurs trailing as Palacio ran through to strike a low shot
that Cerny once more was called into action to gather.
Tottenham then started to get it
together, with Mendes beginning to exert an influence, while Tainio
found his feet and began spraying passes around. He looked a
decent enough player with a will to win the ball and when he had got it,
play a bit, with passes out side and some neat little touches on the
ball. He also seemed keen to get into the box, which we need from
our midfield. It was the Finn's interception that led to the
goal. Defoe got the ball, beat one man, took the ball of another
as he dallied on it, then found a yard of space in the box before
crashing home his shot across Abbonanzeri. It was a typical Defoe
goal in a way. A chance bit of possession and a fine striker's
finish.
That was 28 minutes in and three minutes
later, it was 2-1 to Tottenham. Tainio got the ball and fed
Mendes, who was easing through the midfield and slid a pass into centre
field to Defoe. Looking up, Jermain poked a short pass into the
path of partner Mido, who took one touch out of his feet and struck a
low shot right to left across the keeper as he set himself. It was
another good forward's goal, taking the shot early after pushing it just
out of the closing defender's reach.
The defensive pairing of King and Dawson
were settling too, with them both making important blocks as Boca
players closed in on goal. King almost put one in for Boca, with
his headed interception dropping on top of the net with Cerny
stranded. From the corner resulted and when it was played in,
Cagna got to it at the near post with a back-heel that flew goalwards,
but luckily, at a good height for Cerny to take cleanly. At times
it was route one stuff from the Argentinian side. The keeper
booted the ball upfield and Schiavi got to the ball first and with the
goal in sight pulled his shot wide of the mark.
The ref was giving some generous
decisions and a free-kick was played in to the near post, with a Spurs
body getting in the way. As it flew up, Cagna was underneath it to
hit a fierce volley that Cerny had a clear sight of and pushed over the
bar.
The first half reflected the various
stages the teams were at in their seasons. Boca at the end o their
season and arriving only a couple of days before the game, while Spurs
are building up to the start of the season and had acclimatised a bit
better.
Boca came out quicker at the start of the
second half, with Cerny drawn into a diving save to tip around a 20 yard
shot from Delgardo. Then, the Spurs keeper found himself picking
the ball out of the net when Cagna hit a free-kick from left of the
penalty area past him, but it was indirect and nobody had touched it, so
play was restarted with a goal-kick.
It was interesting seeing Defoe up against
some strapping South American defenders, but he gave as good as he
got. In fact, he out-muscled the defender to get ahead of him and
lobbed the ball goalwards, but not high enough for the keeper to be
caught out. Michael Dawson spilled blood for the team, when he got
an elbow in the face and suffered a broken nose, playing on for ten
minutes before having to leave the field. Spurs were breaking from
some good passes from midfield and when Carrick released Andy Reid on
the left wing, the Irishman cut inside and struck a cross-shot that
Abbonanzieri pushed out with no Tottenham shirts available to seize on
it.
Both sides made changes, with Routledge
and Gardner coming on for Tottenham and it was Routledge who provided a
low cross into the box which Mido was just a yard away from. Then
Carrick put a nice ball over the defence for Tainio to run onto, but the
Boca keeper beat him to it. When the Argentinian side broke away
with 70 minutes played, substitute Bilos took the ball into the Spurs
area and unchallenged hit a low drive into the bottom corner of the net
for the equaliser. It was disappointing, but Tottenham had been
doing their old trick of backing away as players pressed towards the
Spurs goal and the shots had all been off target or easy for Cerny until
then.
More substitutes disrupted the flow of
the game and the game ran out of steam in the steamy atmosphere, with
Boca happy for the draw and Spurs having to make do with the one point.
As a pre-season exercise, it might have
come a little too soon in Tottenham's preparation, but I think they
played well in patches, with their concentration lapsing in other
parts. With two more games to play, it will be a nice exercise in
seeing how their play improves over the remaining games of the
tournament.
MEHSTG TOP MAN :
- TEEMU TAINIO
|
