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With the sun shining down and all hopes for the new season buoyant, the
game kicked off and 90 minutes plus later, the hopes were still there
and Liverpool had been vanquished by two goals to one, in a game where
Spurs rarely were threatened by the visitors, who are viewed as
pretenders to the title. Harry
Redknapp had chosen to go with Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane up front
to start with, but he had options available from the bench and with the
Reds having walking wounded in the line-up, their bench was thin on
names you had even heard of, let alone quality. So when Spurs had
a welter of chance sin the first half, they deserved a four goal lead at
the break, but let Liverpool back in before clinching it two minutes
later.
The game revolved around some very good
midfield play in the Tottenham midfield, with Wilson Palacios providing
the tackles and a bit more in terms of running and shooting and Luka
Modric providing the slide-rule passing to open up the square Liverpool
defence.
A second minute corner saw Modric's cross
find Assou-Ekotto and his shot was way too high from outside the box.
But then Ledley King came to Tottenham's rescue as Ryan Babel threatened
to break into the Spurs box, then Gomes plucked an Insua cross out of
the air with little problem. With three goals for Spurs, Jamie
Carragher must have been a good bet for first goal-scorer and that
nearly came to fruition when Palacios hit a shot across goal and the
Liverpool defender almost put it past his own keeper, but managed to get
the ball wide.
With Fernando Torres limping almost from
the start, his effectiveness was extremely limited. Every time he
went in for a challenge, he came out wincing or lay on the floor for a
bit, whinge to the referee or appeal for a foul/penalty. It was a
shame, as he is a fine sight in his pomp, but I am pleased that today,
that he, Carragher, Skrtel and Gerrard were clearly not 100%. It
also helped when Carragher and Skrtel clashed in the air, with the
former needing stitches in his head, while the latter needed attention
for a cut mouth.
Unfortunately, Phil Dowd did not have his
best game, with penalties being denied later in the game to the Reds,
but the fouls he let Liverpool get away with without bookings amazed
many. It was his leniency and inconsistency that infuriated the
Spurs fans. With three bookings on either side, it could have been
more, with Carragher throwing an arm across Defoe to stop him getting
past; this after he had already put in some harsh tackles. Skrtel
continued pulling Defoe's shirt off him, with his replacement Ayala
coming on to do the same. Torres continual back-chat would have
earned most other players a yellow or a sending off, as proved by Sammy
Lee's low level abuse of the fourth official.
The nearest Liverpool got in the first
period was a cross shot dragged wide by Gerrard from 20 yards, but
Robbie Keane should have had a 12 minute hat-trick with some better
finishing. Palacios ran down the right wing and crossed over
everyone to the left side of the box. Luckily, Modric was there to
keep it in and flick a right foot half volley, with the outside of his
foot, to Robbie Keane. Inside the six yard box and with Reina
covering across his box, he put his diving header low, but straight at
the middle of the goal, where the keeper got back to block the effort
with a very good save on the half hour.
When Modric took a 34th minute clearance
from the defence that had eluded two Liverpool defenders, he slid Keane
through on the right side of the box, but his shot was at a nice height
for Reina to throw up a hand and knock the ball out for a corner.
From it, Defoe lost his marker with a darting run to the near post and
got a powerful header on the ball, but it went wide. The skipper's
last chance of the first half came when Carragher could only knock a
ball high into the air with a defensive header, leaving Tom Huddlestone
to nod the ball back into the centre of the Liverpool penalty area and
find Keane, who lashed it first time at goal, but the ball headed for
the upper tier.
Spurs needed a goal before the break and
when it came, it arrived from an unlikely source. A free-kick for
another foul, on Palacios this time, was given to Spurs about 30 yards
out - just to the right of the centre. As had happened before, Tom
Huddlestone stepped up to take it and it hit the wall, as it had before,
but this time hit Insua in the face and bounced back towards where the
kick was taken from. This time Benoit Assou-Ekotto took a touch to
get it on his left foot and rifled the ball like a bullet past the
diving Pepe Reina, who could not get a touch on it as it flew into the
top right hand corner of his goal. It was a cleanly hit shot that
showed that the defender has come a long way since his injury of about
eighteen months ago.
Coming a minute before half time, it was
a good time to score, especially with previous openings not being
capitalised on. There were no changes at the break and Tottenham
had been passing and moving very well, as they had been closing down the
Liverpool player son the ball too. And the way they started the
second half, it looked as though they would go further ahead.
Aaron Lennon took a pass from Corluka and sped past Carragher and
Mascherano, neither of whom were good enough to even be able to foul him
moving at that speed. With 50 yards behind him, Lennon tried to
take the ball into the box, but as he cut into the middle, he was
dispossessed with three team-mates to his left.
For once Liverpool broke well as the
Spurs attack broke down. Torres and Gerrard exchanged passes,
leaving the Scouse skipper to run onto a lay back and hit a shot that
went a foot wide, with Gomes seeming to get a touch on it. In the
52nd minute, it was Reina getting a touch on a shot, when Defoe laid a
pass into Palacios' path and the Honduran struck it with power, but it
was on the rise and might have just gone in had Reina not pushed it over
the top.
Two minutes later and some sloppy
defensive work allowed Glen Johnson on the Liverpool right to manoeuvre
past Hud and BAE, leaving him on his own running into the box.
Gomes decided to come for the ball and took the player out too, leaving
the linesman and the ref to award the penalty, for which he got a yellow
card. Gerrard rarely misses and struck it down the middle with
some height on it as Gomes dived to his right. It was an equaliser
they hardly deserved, but their lead did not last for long.
Modric had already put Defoe in to turn
and shoot at goal in the 58th minute, but Carragher blocked his effort,
before the striker was chopped across his throat by Carragher's arm as
he went to go past him once more. A free-kick and the Croatian
midfielder swung a neat cross to the far post, where Carragher was
denied another own goal by Sebastien Bassong getting there first to
power the ball into the top corner in the 59th minute. It was a
prodigious leap and one that showed Bassong's athleticism and strength.
Not that the lead should have been taken
for granted, with a cheap free-kick given away 25 yards out on the left,
which Gerrard smashed at goal, only to see Heurelho Gomes push it over
the top. When a Babel cross was headed up in the sir, Gomes
collected it well and Torres tried to knock into him and then whined
that Gomes had fallen on him. Aaahh !! But Spurs had an
injured player of their own and Robbie Keane was limping around after
taking a whack on his ankle, but he summoned the strength to hit a
fierce drive at goal after running from deep. The power in it
surprised Reina, who could only beat it down and take it at the second
attempt, but it was to be Robbie's last contribution before leaving the
field to be replaced by Peter Crouch, making his debut nine years after
joining the club as a junior.
And Crouch almost got on the end of an
Aaron Lennon cross, but the low ball was behind him, although Modric had
a shot clocked as he followed in, then his former Liverpool team-mate
Torres put an acceptable chance wide when he headed Johnson's cross off
target. Spurs were now tiring and when Corluka won the ball, only
to see it bounce forward past him to Gerrard running through, it looked
a dangerous situation. But Ledley covered and did enough to push
Gerrard wide and his shot across Gomes was taken low down quite easily.
There was little chance for Crouch to
show his best abilities, but he did get on the end of a cross from
Modric, but although he got his header on target, it was not powerful
and Reina picked up easily. At the other end, substitute Yossi
Benayoun was dictating the tempo of the Liverpool midfield play and was
causing problems, none more so than when he picked up a one-two from
Kuyt and hit a shot that King blocked away for a corner, which could
have ended up going past Gomes on another day.
Into the last five minutes, there were a
clutch of penalty claims. Firstly, Carragher clearly had a hand in
Crouch's back as the ball came in from the right, with the linesman
having a clear line of sight, but failed to even consider it, then
Liverpool broke and substitute Vorinin claimed he had been shoved off
the ball by Assou-Ekotto as he ran onto Benayoun's pass. BAE stood
strong and went shoulder to shoulder with the Russian, who crumpled
under the challenge. Again, the referee wanted nothing to do with
it, much as he turned down Tottenham shouts for a spot-kick when Jamie
O'Hara struck Ayala on the arm with a stinging volley. When
Voronin hit a shot at BAE from a couple of yards away, he shouted for a
penalty, but once more there was little interest shown by the officials.
As time ran out, Huddlestone did well to
throw a block to stop Gerrard shot getting on target and then the big
man was involved in an exchange with the petulant Torres, who might be
showing signs of losing it, but the ref just spoke to them as there were
only a couple of minutes of added time left.
When the final whistle sounded, there was
a great cheer from around White Hart Lane, although one corner was
quiet. For all the hype surrounding Liverpool's good season last
time out and their ambitions to win the title, they showed that they are
along way off the usual suspects, as their comments about Spurs on the
opening day being a tough fixture were sounding hollow, as they need to
come to places like ours and win if they are to be considered serious
contenders.
Having only lost two games last season,
they are already one down and their title challenge might be over before
it had begun. While not as bad as their city rivals, it was a bad
opening day for Merseyside and with all five London teams winning, could
the balance of power in the Premier League be moving South ??
And for my favourite moment of the match
? Well, it had to be man-of-the-match Wilson Palacios' pass off
his back to Modric on the right wing. Outrageous and effective,
but sometimes, Wilson needs to keep it simple when we are not quite out
of sight.
ASHLEY CORDLE |
Liverpool
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