Comedowns and Comebacks
In hindsight, I probably should have identified Leeds United away as a likely trap game for Spurs Men. One cheaply conceded goal was the difference-maker in the narrow loss, breaking the three-game winning streak that had fans feeling so optimistic.
After Spurs Women gave up a very early goal to Brighton & Hove Albion, it looked like it was going to be disappointment all around for Tottenham Hotspur, but the team was able to rally with an equally quick brace of Olivia Holdt goal involvements to claim the comeback win. And as frustrating as those three consecutive losses were last month, these fixtures against the "best of the rest" teams are the ones we really can't afford to lose if we want to keep progressing, so it was a real relief to see the players recover and get over the hurdle.
In this issue: Leeds United recap | Brighton & Hove Albion recap | News from around the Lane | Pub chat
Now I have a confession to make: I've been battling a bit of a cold for the last few days and fully slept through the first 80 minutes of the (admittedly early kickoff in Central Time) Men's game. So since I don't have any real insights to offer on that match, I'm merely going to record the scoreline for posterity and include a few pertinent Notable & Quotable items.
I was much more alert for the Women's game, thankfully, and there's lots to get into there.
Then, I'll do a roundup of the latest club news and share the previously promised bonus bookmarks.
PL MD 10 | Leeds United 1 - 0 Tottenham
Okafor 79'
Notable & quotable:
• Dejan Kulusevski made his 150th appearance for Spurs in a substitute appearance.
• RDZ is suspended for the next game (against Ipswich Town) due to picking up his third yellow card of the Premier League campaign.
• Spurs Men have failed to win any of the last 39 PL games in which they have conceded the first goal.
• Referee John Brooks and his VAR team controversially declined to give Leeds player Jayden Bogle a red card for a tackle that likely injured Mathys Tel. But the officials' incompetence was no excuse for Spurs fans to subject Bogle to racist abuse, and Spurs have rightfully condemned those actions in a club statement.
Racism is abhorrent behaviour for which there is no place in football or society.
Regardless of club allegiances and on-pitch results, no one should ever stand alone in the face of this.
WSL MD 9 | Tottenham 2 - 1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Gaupset 51', Holdt 53' | Kirby 2'
Alarm bells were going off within the first two minutes of this match. The Seagulls swooped in for an early goal—specifically, our old nemesis Fran Kirby. She was left unmarked in the box, a frustratingly common occurrence for our defense this season, and Kirby is too talented to miss in that scenario.
Spurs struggled to get back into the game right away, but by halftime things were looking more positive, and we went on to claim our first comeback win of the season. Olivia Holdt essentially took the game into her own hands (or feet, rather) and contributed an assist for Signe Gaupset and a goal off a Drew Spence assist, all within the space of two minutes.
So two was the magic number for this match: we conceded within two minutes of kickoff, but scored twice in a two-minute stretch to claim the win in the second half.
There was definitely potential for Spurs to score more, but Chiamaka Nnadozie overcame an early injury scare to make five saves for the visitors. However, Spurs' attack was a bit lopsided in this game, with Victoria Pelova struggling to get into the game and Matilda Vinberg doing little to suggest she should still be starting over Kirsty Hanson. Hanson's introduction as a substitute was crucial to Spurs turning around the flow of the game.
Jess Naz came on so late that she didn't have much of an opportunity to impact the game, but it was still great to see her make her first appearance in front of the home crowd this season since returning from her injury.
Notable & quotable:
• Drew Spence made her 100th appearance for Spurs and marked the milestone with an assist.
• Lize Kop made her 50th appearance for the club.
• In addition to it being Jess Naz's first home game appearance since her injury return, it was also her first WSL appearance of the season.
• Signe Gaupset has scored three goals in three games across all competitions, and four in the last five.
• Olivia Holdt registered her first WSL assist of the season, and it was also her first WSL game of the campaign with a goal and an assist (she also did so in the win over Bristol City in the Players Cup).
• Holdt has scored three goals in three games across all competitions, and has two assists across the same span.
• Holdt also earned Player of the Match for the second matchday running. She quipped after the game that the award was "for Drew" though!
• In a strangely refereed game, center official Melissa Burgin somehow didn't give out a single yellow card.
• The team hasn't kept a clean sheet since matchday 4.
• We just need to win the away game in January to maintain our perfect record against Brighton over the last two seasons (including the cup win earlier this season).
• Caitlin Dijkstra was proud of the second-half performance:
We were like one collective, 100 percent in the duels.
• Martin Ho echoed her thoughts:
When you go behind that quickly it’s not ideal and that’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen in terms of how we organise, how we set up, but then in the second half it’s more about us, how we compete, how physical we are, how dynamic we are with our approach and how ruthless we are with our chances. I thought we were a lot braver in the second half, we were more physical, we imposed ourselves and when we do that, we can be a match for anyone.
News from around the Lane
• Former Spurs Men goalkeeper Barry Daines has passed away at the age of 75.
• Time for an Academy update:
- The Men's U21s unbeaten streak to start the season has ended with a loss to Chelsea on MD 7.
- The Men's U18s have progressed to the quarter-finals of the U18 Premier League Cup.
- The Women's U19s lost in the first round of the FA Women's National League Cup.
Pub chat: Bonus bookmarks
• Emma Sanders at BBC Sport has a new interview with Drew Spence to mark her WSL appearances record milestone:
Emma Sanders
I know the sacrifices—looking after yourself and making sure that you're available all the time. I know how hard it is to keep that motivation for so many seasons... I feel like I'm probably in the best shape that I've ever been. I'm recovering quicker, I understand my body a lot more and the nutrition side of things has helped me.
• Tom Garry at The Guardian reported that FIFA is set to miss its own target for achieving prize money parity between the Men's and Women's World Cup by the 2027 Women's edition in Brazil:
Tom Garry
I don't think this should surprise us after all the FIFA controversies this year, but it's still disappointing.
• Megan Feringa at The Athletic wrote about the WSL's refereeing quality crisis:
Amid the mushrooming player wages and squad depth and investment, increased visibility and scrutiny and real-time consequences (financial, sporting, the longevity of a manager in post), it is not the decisions made on the pitch but the lack of proportional full-time resourcing and education for those responsible for making them. What remains is a gulf, one growing bigger and more noticeable as the rest of the game propels upwards.
Up next:
November 11 | Spurs Women vs Crystal Palace (Subway Players Cup)
Team news — Eveliina Summanen remains unavailable with a knock but could return as early as the next WSL game against Everton
We have a midweek match tomorrow, a Players Cup home game for Spurs Women. We welcome Bethany England and Molly Bartrip back to Brisbane Road for the first time since they left the club, but hopefully it's not too warm of a welcome—at least until after we secure the win.
The recent league fixture against the Eagles at Selhurst Park was a 0-7 blowout in Spurs' favor, but we did have the benefit of an early Palace red card. I wouldn't expect quite as many goals this time, but we do need to take the task seriously and ensure we add three more points to our tally in the league phase table.
Selma Panengstuen has started every cup game so far, so expect to see her back between the sticks. There are other opportunities for squad rotation, but Martin Ho will likely continue to be cautious with reintegrating Jess Naz after her return from an ACL injury and only feature her as a substitute over the next few games (at a minimum; we might not even see her start a game until after the winter break).
Streaming note: The club's match preview says that the match is going to be streamed on the WSL's YouTube channel, but as of writing there isn't an actual link for the stream yet, so hopefully that proves to be the case... I swear, they cannot seem to make it easy for fans to watch this competition.
That's all for today. Thanks for reading, and see you back here later this week for a Spurs Women-centric issue (Spurs Men are on international break until the following weekend)!
COYS
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