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| Benny - "Look Luka, you can win trophies at Spurs!" Tottenham lift the Vodacom Challege Trophy |
Kaizer Chiefs (Away) 1-0 Loss
Typical Spurs, overwhelming favourites, match all but dominated, opposition goalkeeper having a blinder, late goal conceded.
Orlando Pirates (Away) 1-1 Draw
A nice Van Der Vaart free kick giving us the lead in the 11th minute and then the brilliantly named Happy Jele equalising on 40 minutes. Corluka playing in central midfield for the second half. Perhaps Harry was still on holiday and forgot which Croatian was which.
HR - "I made a few changes and I was disappointed. Once Luka and Gareth Bale came off we didn’t look too much of a threat, we gave the ball away and lacked quality."
*Barnet (Away) 3-2 Loss
A very watered down side whilst the more senior players were in South Africa. Three nil down after the first half, Harry Kane and Johnathan Obika continue to progress well and got two goals back.
Orlando Pirates (Away) 0-3 Win
Into the Vodacom challenge final with a draw and a loss. Two goals from Rafa including another nice free kick and one from Defoe. Somewhat lucky not to have conceded a few goals in the first half, but converted enough of them to run out 3-0 winners.
HR - "Pirates are a good team, they play some fantastic football and gave us problems at times. We had to work hard to get the win."
*Milton Keynes Dons (Away) 3-5 Win
Top performance from Niko Krancjar having involvement in four of our goals, scoring one and setting up three. Two goals from Pav in the first half and two from Kane late in the second saw us run out 5-3 winners.
Tim Sherwood - "We did well. The first team lads needed minutes and they got that. Corluka was outstanding at centre-half, Niko showed everyone the quality he has and Pav's finishing was fantastic." On Harry Kane - "Harry showed real quality when he came on. He's a good player and we all think he's got a future at the club."
*Leyton Orient (Away) 1-4 Win
Two from Crouch, one from Niko and an own goal capped a dominant performance from our lot. Stand out performances from Crouch and Walker with Keane easily being the worst player on the pitch missing a Crouch nod down from 1 yard out, amongst others. Crouchy's second goal was great, received the ball along the floor to feet, flicked and span away from the defender, took a few strides and showed us all that those toothpick legs can actually strike a ball as he lashed into the bottom corner from 25 yards out.
Brighton and Hove Albion (Away) 2-3 Win
Kaboul, Corluka and Livermore complete a comeback from 1-0 down. Local Enfield boy Livermore was singled out for praise by Redknapp after a lively performance. Rafa picked up a bit of knock but should be ok for the Everton match.
Athletic Club Bilbao (Home) 2-1 Win
Pedestrian first half match saw us go in one nil down before coming back to win 2-1 with goals from Crouch & Defoe. Stand out performances from Walker and Assou-Ekotto. Modric looked like he cared, a bit. Bale & Lennon were quick, Defoe and Crouch sharp. Bassong, Jenas, Huddlestone and Dawson like they were still on holiday. Much was also said about Fernando Llorente before and during the match about him possibly coming to Spurs. From what I saw last night, he was just a mix of the bad parts of Crouch and Pav. Mis-placed passes, poorly weighted balls, poor positioning, skyward shots and no real impact. Based on that performance, I don't think he's the answer.
Pre-season over, six days to go. If I were picking our starting 11 from players predicted to be fit for the game against Everton, then based on our pre-season, I'd go with:
Gomes, Walker, Dawson, Kaboul, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Modric, Van Der Vaart, Bale, Crouch, Defoe.
Just need the international players to come through their games unscathed and the wait is almost over...COYS!
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