Jul 13, 2022 10 min read

Dier's Left Foot Kicks Off Pre-Season

There's a lot to cover in the world of Tottenham Hotspur this week, but I'm going to start things off with the Men's pre-season match while it's still fresh.

It really hasn't been that long since we last saw Spurs Men in action, but it still felt like a breath of fresh air to see them back on the pitch for the first pre-season friendly. There were some new faces, some returnees from loan, and of course, our old favorites. The South Korean Spurs fans packed the stands for the friendly against the K-League super team, and we were treated to a thoroughly entertaining match from start to finish.

death, taxes, Son and Kane dominating the attack

K-Team 3 - 6 Tottenham

Of all people, Eric Dier got the scoring started with an absolute screamer of a goal from his left foot. I know—what a wild sentence! The K-Team answered pretty quickly with a superb header from Cho to equalize with the last touch before halftime. Conte made several subs for the second half, including Harry Kane, who made an immediate impact by forcing an own goal from the K-Team. Our opponents equalized again. Kane then scored a goal of his own from yet another left-footed shot (I'm sensing a theme from recent training sessions...). Son scored his first goal of the match from the penalty spot with a delightful chip down the middle. K-Team scored their last goal of the match off a free kick, which admittedly was well-struck but both Son & Sarr in the two-man wall and Lloris in goal could have done better. Then Spurs answered with a free kick goal of our own from... HARRY KANE?! Sure, there was a huge deflection, but it still counts. (This doesn't mean I want Harry anyway where our free kicks in competitive matches). Sonny grabbed the last goal of the match after showing great composure in the box to get around his defender.

I thought Oliver Skipp looked great in his first game back since injury and hope that he'll continue to get plenty of minutes once the real matches begin. Bryan Gil also put in a great shift and certainly made an argument that he could be a useful squad member this season, or at least deserves a loan in England rather than Spain. I was also delighted with what we saw from Richarlison so far—he definitely needs these friendly matches to build up his chemistry with the team, but there were lots of promising signs in his performance today. Both starting wingbacks (Royal and Sessegnon) looked bright despite a few mistakes, and we also got a nice cameo from Doherty, who seems to have recovered nicely from his injury, too. Our last substitution brought on four youngsters: Troy Parrott (who is somehow still only 20 years old), Harvey White, Charlie Sayers, and Malachi Fagan-Walcott. White was the standout, for me, though Parrott also made a good account of himself and he seems to have his confidence back. The only real negative from today's match was that Davinson Sánchez looked pretty shaky, but that's to be expected when he's playing out of position on the left side of a back three.

Unfortunately, a few players missed out on the friendly due to knocks from training or pre-existing injuries (in the case of Ivan Perišić). We also got the news that Yves Bissouma and Fraser Forster tested positive for COVID and will therefore miss the second friendly in South Korea—and have to fly home separately. I was hoping to get our first glimpse of both of them in a Spurs shirt in these friendlies, so that's a big bummer.

Up next is the second and final friendly in South Korea, against Sevilla. Perhaps we will be treated to a Lamela appearance?

Extra cover at left center-back

The transfer train just keeps chugging on the Men's side. It's still barely left the station for the Women, but that's okay... for now at least.

Our fifth signing of the summer is a loan move for Clément Lenglet from Barcelona. Now, I won't say that I never watch Barcelona matches, but they're few and far between, and if I ever saw Lenglet on one of his infrequent appearances, I don't remember him standing out. In other words: I don't have much to offer in the way of analysis about this guy.

The funny thing is, from the way other people have been talking about him as just needing another chance to revive his career, I would have assumed he was way younger than 27. But whatever his age, I definitely think he deserves the chance of a fresh start. Many decent footballers have struggled at Barcelona for reasons that don't always have much to do with their actual footballing ability. And we all know how the "Juventus rejects" we got in the January window have worked out (swimmingly!).

My personal theory is that Lenglet will, indeed, be a backup for Ben Davies, not his long-term successor. Davies has been on such a strong run of form for club and country that I can't see him losing the starting spot in the lineup—at least not at first. That being said, Conte is well-known for improving players whose reputations have taken a hit, so we could see Lenglet featuring more regularly by season's end. At the very least, it's good to have some legitimate cover for Davies' spot, since we got kind of lucky with the Welshman not having any extended injury spells last season. I'll feel better knowing we have a player who's a specialist on the left side to replace Davies when needed rather than relying on Sánchez who, again, does not belong on the left side of the formation.

No, not Pretzel-burger

(It's going to be hard not to use the emojis as shorthand though...)

I was delighted to see Spurs Women announce a third incoming transfer, Ramona Petzelberger from Aston Villa. She signed a permanent contract that runs through the 2023/24 season.

Unlike with Lenglet, the few times that I've seen Petzelberger play she very much stood out. Many of you will remember the bullet of a header she scored at the death to secure a 1-0 win in Aston Villa's favor the last time we played them.

Friend-of-the-newsletter Shuban asked me if there was a men's player I could compare her to for reference, and my immediate instinct was to say Weston McKennie. They have a similar kind of "controlled chaos" vibe about their styles of play, though I think Petzelberger might be a little more efficient than McKennie, whom I do like but can be wasteful sometimes.

In some of the highlight clips I've seen of her, I've also been impressed by the savviness of her first touch. Overall, I think she's going to bring a lot of dynamism to our attack. I don't know much about her defensive abilities though, so I would hesitate to say she's a like-for-like replacement in the squad for Maéva Clemaron. And after seeing more of Drew Spence whilst she's been playing for Jamaica in the Concacaf W Championship, I wouldn't say that Spence is particularly defense-focused either. So hopefully we'll see an additional signing along that vein to balance out the midfield portion of the squad.

Interestingly, Petzelberger had played for Germany at three different age levels many years ago but hadn't been called up to the senior squad until the Arnold Clark Cup earlier this year. I didn't catch that tournament (I'm not sure if it was even streamable in the US), and she obviously wasn't called up again for the Euros, but in a team as stacked with talent as Germany is, it says a lot that she's at least in the conversation.

Behold, fixtures!

Since the Women's season starts over a month after the Men's we had to wait a little while longer for the fixture schedule to be released, but it's finally here.

I find myself looking at the schedule from an entirely different viewpoint than I did last year. Last season, when I saw a fixture with one of the top 4 teams I wrote them off as "probable losses." Although we had a little bit of luck go our way in a few of those matches, I think it's fair to say that those fixtures are now firmly in the "result possible" category—and indeed must be if we want to reach new signing Romana Petzelberger's goal (really, the goal for everyone who loves the club) of playing in the Champions League in 2023. So this season, I'm not writing off any fixture on the schedule; they're all there for the taking with the right strategy (cheers, Rehanne!) and the right squad (a work in progress until September 1).

All that being said... matchday 1 is going to be a tough one! Manchester United have seen quite a bit of transfer activity and are still going to be a formidable opponent this season. I'll go more in-depth into their roster when I do my preview for the first match, but one notable addition to their squad is a player very near and dear to us as Spurs fans—Rachel Williams. It remains to be seen if she's going to be a starter for them or more of a depth piece, but either way, we know she's not someone you want to be playing against.

Likewise, the final matchday is also going to be a contentious affair. West Ham are a team that we should be beating in theory, but we ended up dropping five points to them last season. I would say that at this point, the West Ham fixture has more of a derby feel to it than Chelsea does (Arsenal, it goes without saying, is a serious rivalry regardless of past results).

The good news is that for the most part, the most difficult fixtures are spread out fairly evenly throughout the season, with less challenging opponents staggered in between. Newly promoted Liverpool could be a potential wildcard since the ownership has been investing quite a bit into the team.

A major obstacle in the WSL season is the uneven nature of the schedule. When you factor in the international breaks and domestic cup fixtures, there can often be large gaps without games contrasted with periods where there's a pile-up of fixtures. The COVID outbreak postponements didn't help matters last season (for example: a rescheduled match caused a doubleheader with Chelsea at the end of the season). This is why it's so important for the club to focus on increasing squad depth this off-season, because you never know when an overuse injury is going to hit a key player, or another player struggles to find form after a long break. At least this season we won't have the Women's Asian Cup to contend with in the middle of the season.

The Summer of Soccer continues

The bad news first: Eveliina Summanen and Tinni Korpela will not be progressing in the Euros. They lost their first two matches with Finland in the group stage so the last match is a dead-rubber at this point.

The good news: Becky Spencer and Drew Spence are going to the World Cup! Jamaica earned automatic qualification after winning two out of three Concacaf W Championship group stage matches and finishing second in group A after the US. This will be Jamaica's second World Cup in a row, and the first for both of our Spurs players. They definitely deserve it after the strong performances they put in. Spence even scored her first goal for Jamaica in the game against Haiti, a beautifully-weighted header. I have to say, I'm not seeing where she got this reputation of being a defense-minded player from. That's not the impression I got from her play in the tournament so far. I do have to say that I feel a little bad for Haiti missing out on the automatic qualification, but they probably have a decent shot in the intercontinental playoff if their form in this tournament is anything to go by. I wish Spurs would scout Melchie Dumornay! She was a real breakout star in the tournament.

In the other group, Shelina Zadorsky also qualified for the World Cup with Canada. She hasn't had as much playing time as we would have liked, only featuring in the second match as a starter, but that's still a contribution. Canada's group was much less competitive than Jamaica's, with Costa Rica easily securing the second automatic qualification spot. Panama finished in the playoff spot.

Unfortunately, Canada and Jamaica face off in the semi-finals, so only one of them will have the chance to secure automatic qualification for the Olympics by winning the final, while the other team will have to fight for a playoff spot by winning the third place match (the loser of the final is also in the playoff).

Of course, the big story of the Concacaf W Championship was Mexico finishing last in group A and missing out completely on the World Cup and the Olympics as a result, despite being the hosts of the tournament. But since we don't have any Spurs players on the Mexican team, I won't dwell on their misfortune.

I mentioned previously that I haven't been able to watch the Africa Women's Cup of Nations, but Rosella Ayane and Morocco have made it to the semi-final on Monday, with their opponent yet to be determined. I get the sense from those who have watched Morocco that Ayane hasn't been particularly effective, other than her one penalty goal. There's lots of talk about her finishing being poor... sounds familiar.

SpursPlay, but not over AirPlay

I think I am going to end up enjoying SpursPlay when all is said and done, but my experience with it got off to a rocky start. I don't know if any of y'all have an AppleTV, but the AirPlay function is not working properly on SpursPlay just yet. I was getting sound, but no video. Luckily the tech support is aware of the problem and told me they're hoping to have it fixed before the Sevilla friendly on Saturday. It ended up being a moot point for today's friendly since it was airing on CBSSN (as is the Sevilla one!).

I'm mostly looking forward to being able to watch some of the Women's fixtures on SpursPlay, since we'll have some actually respectful commentary about the team for once. The FA Player can be kind of a downer experience sometimes, and ATA Football—my preferred platform for watching the WSL—doesn't get every Spurs match.

And at some point, I will need to get around to watching the Conte documentary...

Speaking of Conte, let's end this issue on a delightful photo of him doing Son's signature goal celebration with him at the pre-friendly press conference.