Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sloppy play, but 3 points are 3 points

Sunderland has been struggling throughout the season and have been considered underachievers so far. I was hoping their poor form could continue for the game against Tottenham, but I was surprised with their display.

Once again, Tottenham's first half was abysmal, with poor displays from Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Adebayor in particular. Sunderland were no doubt a better side in the first half and they almost got the lead when Richardson was all alone in front of the goal, but couldn't get the final touch on the ball delivered by Larsson.

First half ended with 0:0 and I was outraged with teams display. They seemed unmotivated and movement was just horrible. Yet again, Harry did his wonders in the dressing room and you could really see the new side on the pitch in the second half. In 61st minute, Van der Vaart played a perfect pass to Pavlyuchenko, who was awful till that moment, when he converted this chance into a goal.

It was then when things took the turn for the better for Spurs, Assou-Ekotto was superb on the left flank with Modric cutting more into the middle, which created a lot of space for Cameroonian. Sandro displayed yet another great defensive performance in the middle of the park with his great tackles and aggression and Adebayor was maybe the best player in the finishing moments of the game. He has shown some great movement and technique to preserve the ball in some vital moments.

All in all, I'm satisfied, seeing how odds were against Spurs, but is this kind of game enough to compete with Chelsea on Thursday? I don't think so. Hopefully, Bale will be fit and I think Defoe might be given a chance, at least from the bench. His exclusion today was perhaps the biggest surprise. Perhaps Harry was angered by Defoe's statement that he will leave the club if he doesn't start more EPL games.

5 comments:

  1. so out of all the teams ( too many for me to keep track of ) wich is your favorite, i live in salt lake, and our new soccer team (real salt lake) seems to be quite a decent team, but i dont think they could compare internationally. what is your take?

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  2. funny stuff right there ;)

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