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Another convincing performance, although having had a little more of a
test than previously, earned Spurs a 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund and
the Feyenoord Jubileum tournament trophy to bring back for the trophy
cabinet. Once more, it was a slick
passing and possession game that Tottenham put on and Dortmund broke
through a few times to work Heurelho Gomes, but it was another clean
sheet to give the defence as much confidence as the three goals that
went in at the other end gave to the midfield and forwards.
The early opening fell to Dortmund, with
the Croat Petric put away by Hummels, but he lashed his effort off
target in the fourth minute. It proved to be a costly miss just
five minutes later.
It was a good move constructed on the
left wing that lead to the opening goal for Tottenham. Bale,
Giovani and Gilberto exchanged passes, with the Brazilian knocking the
ball infield to Jermaine Jenas on the corner of the box. The
captain took the ball inside and appeared to be heading into a dead end,
but managed to squeeze the ball to Darren Bent a yard back from the
penalty spot. The striker turned well and with his marker just off
him, he took his shot early, leaving the goalkeeper off balance and
unable to recover his ground to dive the right way to stop Bent's low
effort. While Spurs had not looked threatening up until that
point, once more, the most noticeable thing was the possession they had
and how they held onto the ball.
Borussia came back into the match with
some good movement and passing around the area and when Gilberto gave
away a free-kick on the edge of the area, Petric stepped up to fire a
shot on goal, but it was too central and too high to adversely trouble
Gomes. The closest they came was when Valdez controlled a through
pass on his chest, turned past Dawson and as Gomes closed him down, he
slipped a dribbling low shot past the keeper, but across the face of the
goal and wide. They did get one on target just before the break,
with Hanjal taking time off from kicking people to kick the ball at goal
and the new Spurs goalie held it low down. Up until then, Gomes
had only be required to pick off some crosses into the goalmouth, but he
was to have more to do in the second half.
Half-time saw the entry of many of the
Celtic fans who were entering to fight for the wooden spoon with hosts
Feyenoord. This produced some good natured chanting, but having
beaten them 2-0 on Friday, they held no moral high ground over our
supporters.
Bale and Bent made way after the break
for Berbatov and Lennon, with Bentley moving across to the left wing.
Berbatov looked his usual laconic self. All fancy flicks with the
outside of his foot and fancy body language that almost screams "I'm a
class striker, get me out of here !" He laid some good passes
through, but his general involvement was peripheral, as he lacked the
impetus to get into dangerous positions and the fact he has not score
done of our 28 pre-season goals speaks volumes.
One such pass released Dos Santos through
the German defence and having taken an extra touch that pushed him a
little wide, the Mexican had to drag his shot across the keeper and it
bobbled wide. That was just a minute after the interval, but
Tottenham opened the opposition up again a minute later, with a move
right across the face of the penalty area and ended with Giovani laying
it up for Bentley to run onto and smack a shot that goalkeeper Ziegler
pushed up into the air, with the effort being at a good height for such
a save.
Gomes produced a save in the 52nd minute
from Valdez, who broke through onto a pass from Federico, but the keeper
spread himself well and kept the effort out with his long legs.
From that save, Tottenham broke away and from a quickly taken free-kick
by Berbatov, Giovani lifted the ball over the last defender. As
David Bentley raced past the yellow shirt, the ball moved into the area
and Hummels got nowhere near the ball and brought the new signing down
in the box, but the referee decided to play on.
Not that it was a great problem, with
Tottenham scoring their second goal two minutes later. A surging
break from JJ ended with him slipping a pass wide right to Dos Santos,
who took the ball and swept it past Ziegler to finish with aplomb.
It was a neat piece of finishing and one which showed he had learned
quickly from the chance he missed earlier.
Changes to the side just after the hour
saw Bentley replaced by Chris Gunter, necessitating Gilberto moving out
of defence into midfield. There were plenty of moves building
through the midfield, but Dortmund's substitute striker Klimowicz forced
a good save from Gomes with a shot on the turn on the edge of the box
that left Huddlestone in his wake. From the corner, it was
comfortably cleared, as most of the corners had been.
Jenas took a break too after 72 minutes,
with young defender Adam Smith making an appearance at right back, with
Zokora moving into midfield. Later Jenas was to be named as player
of the tournament.
Dortmund were still hopeful of getting
something out of the match, with another substitute - Sadrijaj - firing
in a shot from outside the area, which Gomes dived to turn aside.
Our new goalkeeper was also called on to keep out a Sahin drive with his
legs - a good sign that he is happy to use any part of his body to stop
the ball - with the rebound conveniently falling to Klimowicz, but as he
hit a shot at goal, Smith put in a good blacking tackle.
With the German side getting frustrated,
a number of late challenges were pulled up by the referee. This
lead to a stop start end to the game, but Tottenham's flowing football
could not be stopped.
With Borussia putting up a bit more of a
fight than Celtic, it was a tougher game, but the nature of the final
goal showed that skill could overcome muscle on this occasion.
Starting with a ball out of defence to
Aaron Lennon, he picked up the ball on halfway and ran at the backing
off yellow shirts. As they did, Smith came up to give good support
on the right wing and when Lennon's pass found him wide of the penalty
area, he stroked it first time, low across the six yard box. The
keeper was in no position to take the cross and the defenders could not
touch it as they were running back towards their own goal. This
left Jamie O'Hara to arrive at the far post to give the delightfully
weighted pass the treatment it deserved and the midfielder side-footed
the ball past Ziegler for 3-0.
It was a well crafted goal and one that
saw Adam Smith introduce himself to the Tottenham fans with an inviting
ball that showed he didn't panic and produced a quality pass that was
just as important as the finish.
So, another pre-season trophy in the bag,
with a couple of good performances against differing opposition and in
different weather conditions, as the rain today made the pitch a bit
slicker and that might have suited our game more. It will be
interesting to see how much use of the sprinklers at WHL takes place
before games next season.
As Friday's match report said, this is
all well and good for pre-season, but we will have to wait and see if
this sort of form is carried into the Premier league programme, as that
will be a totally different kettle of fish.
BARRY LEVINGTON |
