First Trophy of the Season

Spurs win at an appreciative Ibrox Stadium | Set piece strategies | Nearly a title for Rosella's Morocco | Contract extensions continue | Coming soon on Spurs Across the Pond

Hey, it counts!

Spurs Men won the Walter Tull Memorial Cup against Rangers in the penultimate friendly match of the off-season, notching the first silverware of the 2022/23 campaign. Sure, it's not quite the same prestige as winning an FA Cup, but it's nice to see Tottenham and Rangers honoring a former player of both clubs who was the first Black outfield player in English football. Tull's football career was tragically cut short when he died in action in WWI.

Rangers 1 - 2 Tottenham

For whatever reason, this match didn't quite capture my attention as much as the previous two friendlies did. With the exception of Harry Kane, who had a great performance, the rest of the team didn't seem quite as up for it as they did in the South Korea tour—which is understandable, with them wanting to make the tour of Sonny's homeland a success, and also having one eye now on the rapidly approaching regular season. Ben Davies' knock in the Sevilla game was perhaps a cautionary tale.

Rangers were well up for it and nearly as aggressive as Sevilla were last weekend, but the crowd at Ibrox Stadium was decidedly more friendly. Kane and Son both subbed off to respectful applause from the home fans and the traveling Spurs fans alike. Kane's brace was the difference-maker in the result. I also enjoyed our first glimpse of Ivan Perišić in a Spurs shirt. He's still got it!

There are two takeaways from this match that I wanted to highlight.

My first observation was that Emerson Royal seems to be feeling the pressure from the newest signing, Djed Spence. While he'd had plenty of bright moments in the first two friendlies, against Rangers he was back to his inconsistent ways and looked, well, ruffled. We didn't see a whole lot of action from Spence when he subbed in, but he made a nice defensive tackle at a crucial juncture in the game. Lots of Spurs fans have been quick to categorize Spence as "one for the future," but let's face it—Royal has never locked down the right wingback starting spot as his, and Doherty's situation is up in the air since he is just now returning from injury. I don't think having more competition at the RWB position is a bad thing, however, because that frees up our jack-of-all-trades, Ivan Perišić, to provide more cover in the forward line and LWB, where we don't have as much cover.

My second observation leads us to today's special topic:

Spurs' set piece specialists, on and off the field

A few weeks ago, Spurs added a new member to Conte's coaching staff, Gianni Vio. He's a former banker turned set piece coaching specialist (talk about a career pivot, eh?) who has worked with teams such as Brentford, Leeds, and the Italian national team. Vio is a natural fit for Conte's team, since he is also a proponent of "automation," with thousands of different set piece permutations in his coaching repertoire.

I believe we saw a marked improvement in Spurs' set pieces last season (both offensive and defensive), but there's still room for further progress, particularly when it comes to free kicks. This brings me to my other takeaway from the Rangers friendly:  Harry Kane is still terrible at free kicks. His (heavily deflected) free kick goal against the K-League super team was, indeed, a fluke. He must be taken off free kick duty, for the sake of both the team and us long-suffering fans. I cannot bear to see Son looking dead in the eyes as he stands behind Harry, knowing that his record-breaking strike partner is going to waste yet another free kick opportunity.

Vio will have to make his own determination on which player (or players) should be stepping up to the free kick spot in Kane's stead, but there are a few likely candidates based on past evidence. Son and Eric Dier have both scored free kicks in the past for their national teams (which was much longer ago for Dier than Son, admittedly), and while I have never seen Kulusevski take one, we've seen how powerful his shot technique can be from open play, so he deserves a look-in.

Other than free kicks, I'm also hoping to see Vio figure out how we can score more headed goals—as well as defend them better.

A goal, but no trophy for Rosella

Thanks to a free trial of fuboTV, I did end up watching the WAFCON final between Rosella Ayane's Morocco and South Africa. There was a lively home crowd for hosts Morocco, a WAFCON record attendance of more than 50,000.

It was a lively match, but South Africa definitely had the edge for the majority of the game. Rosella was a big part of Morocco's near-comeback, scoring her first goal from open play of the tournament in the 80th minute, but the Lionesses couldn't find an equalizer to force extra time. Still, that was Morocco's first time getting out of the group stage, let alone making it to the final, so they can hold their heads high. It was also the first WAFCON title for South Africa, so no matter who had won it would have been historic.

I hope Ros is able to bring some confidence back with her to Spurs! She showed a lot of leadership during this tournament, too.

New deals for Davies and Parrott

Somehow the need for a new contract for Ben Davies wasn't on my radar, but it was certainly welcome news. He's extended his contract to 2025, so one of our longest-tenured players will be reaching the 10-year mark with the club soon. I think Ben more than proved his usefulness and commitment to Spurs over the last season and has also been one of Wales' most important players in their journey to the World Cup. I'm looking forward to him taking Clément Lenglet under his wing—as well as getting some healthy competition from the Frenchman.

I was more surprised to see a new contract extended to Troy Parrott, also to 2025, because although he had a much more productive loan this past season, I kind of expected the club to cash in now with a permanent transfer out for the Irish player. But perhaps Conte sees some potential for him to be a legitimate squad player in the first team soon. For now, he's heading out on yet another loan, this time to Preston North End in the Championship. Good luck to Troy.

Coming up on Spurs Across the Pond

What's that coming up behind us?

It's THE PREMIER LEAGUE SEASON.

I don't know how it's already here, but it is. There's one more pre-season friendly against Roma to dread/look forward to first, but on August 6 the Men's team kicks off their league campaign at home to Southampton. Ready or not, it's go time!

(I mean, I think Conte and the lads are ready, but are we? Are we ever??)

Keep an eye out next week for my preview of the 2022/23 PL season. I'll be:

• grading the transfer window (thus far)

• predicting Conte's preferred starting XI

• identifying key narratives around the league

• and more!

When we get closer to the WSL season opener on September 11 I will also share my season preview for the Women's team.

But speaking of the Women's team, we're getting very close to the Women's Cup, which begins on August 14. I'll have a preview of the tournament coming soon.

A reminder that if you want to help support my coverage at the tournament, or just support the newsletter in general, I have a Ko-fi page set up where you can give a one-time tip or even become a monthly member (perks coming soon!). I'm blown away by the fact that I'm already at 90% of my fundraising goal for the tournament. Big thanks again to everyone who has contributed so far!

COYS