Tottenham Hotspur   1    West Ham United   0      (Half-time score : 0-0)

Premier League Asia Trophy
Venue : Worker's Stadium, Beijing
Wednesday 29th July 2009
Kick Off :  6.00 p.m. (local time)  [11.00 a.m. (UK time)]
Crowd :   ,
Referee :  Andre Marriner (-)
Spurs kicked off in the first half.
Weather :  -  Hot, humid
Teams : - 
Tottenham Hotspur :

Cudicini

Hutton
Corluka
Huddlestone
Assou-Ekotto

Naughton (Lennon 70)
Palacios (Livermore 83)
O'Hara
Modric (c)

Pavlyuchenko (Keane 46)
Defoe 

Unused subs: 
Gomes
Chimbonda
Dervite
Rose
Obika
Bostock

West Ham United :

Green

Faubert
Upson
Collins
Ilunga

Stanislas (Savio 66)
Dyer (Parker 46)
Collison (Hines 81)
Boa Morte (Noble 14)
Jiminez (Spector 81)

Cole

Unused subs: 
Stech
Kurucz
N'gala
Gabbidon
Tomkins
Spence
Payne

Colours : -  (kits courtesy of http://www.colours-of-football.com)
Tottenham Hotspur

 

  West Ham United
Scorers : -  
Tottenham Hotspur

Defoe 75

West Ham United

None

Cards : -  
Tottenham Hotspur  

    
O'Hara (foul) 55  

    

West Ham United

    
Noble (retaliation) 55  

     

Match Report : -  
A single Jermain Defoe shot was scant reward for an impressive dominating performance by Spurs as they moved into the final of the Asia Trophy in Beijing.

Having been unable to get off work and with the chances of avoiding the score in an office full of football fans, I drive home knowing what to expect in terms of the outcome, but not what came before the final whistle.

The way that Tottenham played at a sharp tempo in hot, humid conditions and passed the ball well for the majority of the game had the Irons chasing around and getting frustrated.  That spilled over on a couple of occasions, with Mark Noble fronting up to Jamie O'Hara who caught him a little late with a light kick and then Faubert hacked O'Hara down near the end, but got away without a card.

At the start of the game, Tottenham took the game to the East London side with new signing Kyle Naughton, playing on the right side of midfield, sending over a pacy cross that had keeper Rob Green nervously watching as it went over the top by a narrow margin.  Tom Huddlestone from a free kick 25 yards out and skipper for the day Luka Modric from the edge of the area, both went close to the goal-post, but the wrong side of it from Tottenham's point of view.  West Ham had an early opportunity, when Jiminez put in a free-kick that Collins won well, but could only guide straight to Cudicini.

Despite the feisty tackling, the only major injury was suffered by Boa Morte, who went to challenge Assou-Ekotto, but went down after twisting his ankle and damaging his cruciate ligaments in his knee.

The Croatian Modric was linking the midfield to the forward line, with Jamie O'Hara playing neat triangles on the left, but sometimes failing to deliver the final cross into the danger areas.  From the left hand side of the box, Roman Pavyluchenko crashed a shot on goal that Green fumbled and the keeper could only watch Naughton's cross-shot from the right that flashed through the six yard box.  When Noble gave the ball away to O'Hara, the Spurs midfielder plaid it into the path of the Russian forward and he curled a right foot shot wide of Green, but saw his shot come back off the upright.  Collins got across to block his follow up, but the defender was nowhere shortly after, as Jamie tried to replicate Pav's go and his shot left Green standing, watching the ball narrowly go wide.  Roman had another chance when the ball was chipped to him along the edge of the 18 yard line by a West Ham defender and he took the shot leaning back, leading to the ball rising over the bar.

 It was Luka that finished the first half with a run past a coupe of players and a shot that went narrowly wide once more.  The stats showed Spurs had only two shots on target in the first half, but the dominance was not reflected in the figures.

With Keane replacing Pavlyuchenko at the break and West Ham taking off the ineffective Kieron Dyer, Spurs maintained their superiority over the Irons.  Defoe spent most of the second half peppering the West Ham goal with shots as soon as he got the ball, but failed to hit the target most times.  Redknapp brought on Lennon to torment a defence who had already had the run-around, taking the place of Naughton, who had a good game.

Keane slipped Modric through, but he found Green coming out to meet him quickly, leaving the Irons still in with a chance of getting something from the game.  Collins turned on a ball that fell to him just outside the box, but he failed to get any power on the shot, with O'Hara taking some sting out of it too, leaving Carlo Cudicini to bend down to field the ball.

The Tottenham goal had been coming for some time, but it was a gaffe by Rob Green that allowed Spurs the lead when it came in the 75th minute.  Substitute Aaron Lennon slipped a pass through the middle of the Irons defence, with Upson and Collins holding out for an offside decision that didn't (and shouldn't have) come.  Defoe took the ball on from 25 yards out to the edge of the box and let go a low shot to Green's right and it was close enough to the keeper that he could get neither his hand nor foot to the ball

It was only at the end that West Ham threatened and a low ball into the box was met by Carlton Cole ahead of Huddlestone, but he could only scoop the ball well over Cudicini's bar with eight minutes left.

A final against Hull City awaits, with the Tigers having beaten local side Beijing Gouan 5-4 on penalties.  Will Harry get his hands on the trophy he won two years back with Pompey ?  Tune in at lunch-time on Sky to find out.  I've got my day off booked !!

BENNY THE BALL

 

 

 

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