xzander
14-08-2007, 01:20 AM
Apologies for the late report, following Saturday’s game I’ve developed something of a drinking problem. Anyway, here goes:
As Chopra’s low drive hit the back of the net the Stadium of Light went crazy. Three minutes of injury time allocated and Sunderland scored with two and three-quarters of them gone. This win equalled their record for the whole of their previous Premiership season in one go. The noise was extraordinary.
Within seconds the final whistle had gone, and amid the pandemonium around the ground, Spurs fans made for exits in much the same way as my dog does after a visit to the vet – i.e. with a very obvious keenness to get out.
<o:p></o:p>
I felt guilty for not staying to acknowledge the players but a glance behind me showed I needn’t have bothered, the white shirts draining from the pitch like bathwater, the one exception being Robbie Keane, standing near the centre circle with his hands on his hips, aghast. <o:p></o:p>
Then I had to walk around the ground and back to the car, while Sunderland fans who five minutes before time had been singing “We’re staying up” and who were now excitedly yelling “Top of the League, man!” into mobile phones milled around me before making my way in heavy traffic through the village of Boldon, where happy Mackems were sitting outside the pubs in the warm sun with fresh pints of ale in their hands, clearly settling in for the afternoon. At this point, in a baking hot car, 185 miles from home, I decided my Saturday had gone quite badly wrong. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Let’s give credit to <st1:place>Sunderland</st1:place>. They’re a different club to the one relegated 16 months ago, with a well-organised, efficient side who will, in my opinion, comfortably survive in the Premiership. Spurs won’t be the only team to get mugged there this season. I admire the level of support the club enjoys from the locals–the stadium sits over the water from the city centre and whole families grow up going down to watch the team play. It’s a pleasant sight in a Premiership increasingly obsessed with ‘brand awareness’. <o:p></o:p>
But <st1:place>Sunderland</st1:place> did little more than remain solid, organised in numbers at the back, and play intelligently in finding and exploiting space going forward. They were an efficient side, with an impressive will to win, but nothing we haven’t seen before–to all intents and purposes this was a side geared to win enough points to stay up, nothing more.
The fact Spurs lost had much to do with their own display as well as the opposition’s. Put in the colourful language of a Scottish relation of mine, Spurs were ‘honking’ last weekend. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Rewinding the game in my head, it seems to have encapsulated the worst of the traits that Jol’s side have exhibited over the lest few years. Gifting of goals and valuable points in the final minute. Conceding ground and possession to the opposition as they push up in search of a goal.
The irritating thing about that goal was that the Spurs fans could see it coming a mile off – it’s happened too many times for it to be surprising. Spurs played the game at half pace, as if they’d already scored three. They almost looked surprised on 75 minutes when the score was still 0-0, and then couldn’t mount a convincing assault on the opposition goal.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Individually, no-one distinguished themselves. Robinson looked his normal self after a summer off, and though Chimbonda played well in defence he wasn’t as aggressive as he should have been on the overlap. Kaboul looks the business–strong, agile, lung-busting runs forward to scare the shit out of the opposition, that sort of thing. <o:p></o:p>
Stalteri looked like he was holding things together for most of the game, but still looks like a man battling against every instinct to control and pass the ball. He defended OK until he got turned inside out in the 93<sup>rd</sup> minute and it all fell apart – from the other end of the stadium I saw his wildly raised leg in a gesture of hopeless surrender.
<st1:city><st1:place>Gardner</st1:place></st1:city> misplaced passes and headers all afternoon. I’m increasingly convinced he’s the Tim Henman of football – likeable chap, enough talent to do a job, but just not good enough for the top level. Watching him this weekend made Curtis Davies seem like a knock-down bargain. <o:p></o:p>
In midfield, I’m increasingly sceptical about Jenas and Zokora’s ability to play together. They both do the box-to-box thing quite well, but I’m getting unsure about what they both bring to the team. I’d like to see them rotated and used with other midfielders so they do their main job well instead of both doing the same job badly.
And quite what the whole midfield were doing so damn narrow I do not know.
From the start it didn’t seem like we had the players to take men on and stretch the opposition on the flanks – was Taraabt injured? Malbranque got a couple of useful balls in, but other than that we were depressingly mundane, content to shift the ball around in front of <st1:place>Sunderland</st1:place> rather than take them on. No pace, no cutting edge, and the strikers looked more content to try to walk the ball in rather than make a yard and have a shot, which is exactly what the much less expensive Chopra ended up doing.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
It was a depressing day out, made worse by the distance we’d all had to travel and the team’s seeming disinterestedness in proceedings, coupled with the team tactics which assumed we’d overrun Sunderland without much trouble.
The debacle on Saturday carries uncomfortable echoes of the last time we visited, when another Stalteri-engineered last minute implosion resulted in a damaging result. Yes, we had half a defence out, but that’s no excuse for a performance so inept.
We’re now three points behind three of the big four with one game played and that gap won’t be closed anytime soon. The only vaguely positive thing to be said about the whole performance would be that a result which could have been described as ‘mediocre’ five minutes from time was turned by a swing of Chopra’s boot into one which was completely unacceptable, thereby ensuring a demand for drastic and immediate improvement.
The team’s apology to the fans and the club now has to start tonight.
As Chopra’s low drive hit the back of the net the Stadium of Light went crazy. Three minutes of injury time allocated and Sunderland scored with two and three-quarters of them gone. This win equalled their record for the whole of their previous Premiership season in one go. The noise was extraordinary.
Within seconds the final whistle had gone, and amid the pandemonium around the ground, Spurs fans made for exits in much the same way as my dog does after a visit to the vet – i.e. with a very obvious keenness to get out.
<o:p></o:p>
I felt guilty for not staying to acknowledge the players but a glance behind me showed I needn’t have bothered, the white shirts draining from the pitch like bathwater, the one exception being Robbie Keane, standing near the centre circle with his hands on his hips, aghast. <o:p></o:p>
Then I had to walk around the ground and back to the car, while Sunderland fans who five minutes before time had been singing “We’re staying up” and who were now excitedly yelling “Top of the League, man!” into mobile phones milled around me before making my way in heavy traffic through the village of Boldon, where happy Mackems were sitting outside the pubs in the warm sun with fresh pints of ale in their hands, clearly settling in for the afternoon. At this point, in a baking hot car, 185 miles from home, I decided my Saturday had gone quite badly wrong. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Let’s give credit to <st1:place>Sunderland</st1:place>. They’re a different club to the one relegated 16 months ago, with a well-organised, efficient side who will, in my opinion, comfortably survive in the Premiership. Spurs won’t be the only team to get mugged there this season. I admire the level of support the club enjoys from the locals–the stadium sits over the water from the city centre and whole families grow up going down to watch the team play. It’s a pleasant sight in a Premiership increasingly obsessed with ‘brand awareness’. <o:p></o:p>
But <st1:place>Sunderland</st1:place> did little more than remain solid, organised in numbers at the back, and play intelligently in finding and exploiting space going forward. They were an efficient side, with an impressive will to win, but nothing we haven’t seen before–to all intents and purposes this was a side geared to win enough points to stay up, nothing more.
The fact Spurs lost had much to do with their own display as well as the opposition’s. Put in the colourful language of a Scottish relation of mine, Spurs were ‘honking’ last weekend. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Rewinding the game in my head, it seems to have encapsulated the worst of the traits that Jol’s side have exhibited over the lest few years. Gifting of goals and valuable points in the final minute. Conceding ground and possession to the opposition as they push up in search of a goal.
The irritating thing about that goal was that the Spurs fans could see it coming a mile off – it’s happened too many times for it to be surprising. Spurs played the game at half pace, as if they’d already scored three. They almost looked surprised on 75 minutes when the score was still 0-0, and then couldn’t mount a convincing assault on the opposition goal.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Individually, no-one distinguished themselves. Robinson looked his normal self after a summer off, and though Chimbonda played well in defence he wasn’t as aggressive as he should have been on the overlap. Kaboul looks the business–strong, agile, lung-busting runs forward to scare the shit out of the opposition, that sort of thing. <o:p></o:p>
Stalteri looked like he was holding things together for most of the game, but still looks like a man battling against every instinct to control and pass the ball. He defended OK until he got turned inside out in the 93<sup>rd</sup> minute and it all fell apart – from the other end of the stadium I saw his wildly raised leg in a gesture of hopeless surrender.
<st1:city><st1:place>Gardner</st1:place></st1:city> misplaced passes and headers all afternoon. I’m increasingly convinced he’s the Tim Henman of football – likeable chap, enough talent to do a job, but just not good enough for the top level. Watching him this weekend made Curtis Davies seem like a knock-down bargain. <o:p></o:p>
In midfield, I’m increasingly sceptical about Jenas and Zokora’s ability to play together. They both do the box-to-box thing quite well, but I’m getting unsure about what they both bring to the team. I’d like to see them rotated and used with other midfielders so they do their main job well instead of both doing the same job badly.
And quite what the whole midfield were doing so damn narrow I do not know.
From the start it didn’t seem like we had the players to take men on and stretch the opposition on the flanks – was Taraabt injured? Malbranque got a couple of useful balls in, but other than that we were depressingly mundane, content to shift the ball around in front of <st1:place>Sunderland</st1:place> rather than take them on. No pace, no cutting edge, and the strikers looked more content to try to walk the ball in rather than make a yard and have a shot, which is exactly what the much less expensive Chopra ended up doing.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
It was a depressing day out, made worse by the distance we’d all had to travel and the team’s seeming disinterestedness in proceedings, coupled with the team tactics which assumed we’d overrun Sunderland without much trouble.
The debacle on Saturday carries uncomfortable echoes of the last time we visited, when another Stalteri-engineered last minute implosion resulted in a damaging result. Yes, we had half a defence out, but that’s no excuse for a performance so inept.
We’re now three points behind three of the big four with one game played and that gap won’t be closed anytime soon. The only vaguely positive thing to be said about the whole performance would be that a result which could have been described as ‘mediocre’ five minutes from time was turned by a swing of Chopra’s boot into one which was completely unacceptable, thereby ensuring a demand for drastic and immediate improvement.
The team’s apology to the fans and the club now has to start tonight.