Shifting the Status Quo

It's been a while since the last issue. To be brutally honest, I've found it hard to get too excited about Men's football lately. Between the Saudi league transfer boondoggle, the disturbing response to the Benjamin Mendy verdict, and the small matter of there being a World Cup happening on the Women's side, I've been consciously disinvesting my attention from Tottenham's Men's team for the time being.

I did watch the first pre-season game against West Ham, but it's now been so long since that I've forgotten most of my takeaways, and I have yet to watch the most recent friendly against Lion City Sailors (as most of y'all will already know, the second friendly against Leicester was canceled due to a waterlogged pitch). It's clear that Ange Postecoglou is already transforming the squad's playing style and by the time the season begins we could be watching a completely different team to last season's—with or without Harry Kane. I'm sure I will manage to build some personal excitement back up before the season starts, but for now, I'm going to swerve talking any more about the Men's team in this newsletter issue except for a couple of quick news tidbits.

In this issue: Spurs Women in the World Cup — group stage recap | News from around the Lane

Before I get into recapping the World Cup action so far, I would like to share the podcast collaboration I took part in recently to discuss the fallout of the Mendy case. It's hard to overstate just how disappointed I was in the several Spurs Men players who liked Memphis Depay's harmful post in support of Mendy. It should be noted that Mendy has already been signed by a new club (FC Lorient) and his career is going to be just fine, not that Depay has had the humility to admit he was being reactionary and just plain wrong. Regardless, the sad truth is that misogyny is rampant in football culture and we all have a responsibility to counter it. I hope this discussion can be a positive contribution towards that goal.

Spurs Women in the World Cup: Group stage recap

I will admit that my expectations for our Spurs Women players in the tournament were not nearly high enough, or at least off the mark individually. Who would have expected Rosella Ayane's Morocco to be advancing to the Round of 16, while Shelina Zadorsky's Canada are already going home? I did suspect that Jamaica could be a surprise package after their strong showing in last summer's Concacaf W Championship, but their defensively flawless group stage was beyond what I ever could have predicted. Some of the nations that were considered top contenders going into the tournament were also caught by surprise, it would seem; besides reigning Olympic Champions Canada, we also saw the unexpectedly early exits of Brazil, Italy, Germany, and South Korea—with the United States barely surviving thanks to the now-infamous goalpost deflection for Portugal. On the flip side, there were spirited performances from New Zealand, Haiti, and Ireland that were all for naught in the end.

Let's take a look at each Spurs player representing at the World Cup to see how their group stage efforts went down.

Ria Percival — New Zealand

3rd in group | 4 points | 0 GD

Ria got significant game time in the group stage, including the full 90 in New Zealand's shocking 1-0 defeat of Norway in the first game of the tournament. Unfortunately, she missed a penalty in that match as well, but it didn't end up affecting the result. New Zealand were unlucky to not get at least a draw out of their second game with the Philippines, who put in a very respectable performance in their debut World Cup and indeed got their first win against New Zealand, a 1-0 courtesy of Sarina Bolden's headed goal. The Football Ferns ended the group stage with a scoreless draw against group-winners Switzerland, but missed out on qualification for the knockouts due to Norway edging them out on +5 goal difference after finally getting their act together in their last match against the Philippines. If only New Zealand had been able to convert one of the numerous chances against the Philippines, just a point would have been enough to advance.

Still, I think they can feel very proud of how they competed in their home tournament. Try to watch this interview from one of my NWSL faves and Ria's co-captain, Ali Riley, without tearing up.

The silver lining to New Zealand's early exit is that we don't have to worry about Ria risking a re-injury to her ACL before Spurs' season begins. As it is, she looked lively in the appearances with her national team and will surely be ready to bring that never-say-die attitude back to Tottenham for the WSL campaign.

Her fifth World Cup comes to a close, but she remains the Football Ferns' most-capped player.

Luana Bühler — Switzerland

1st in group | 5 points | +2 GD

Spurs Women's newest (and still only) summer signing got off to a strong start with Switzerland, playing the full 90 in the 2-0 win over the Philippines. While she wasn't tested much on defense (except for set pieces, where she didn't look totally confident to my eye), I was impressed by her passing range and execution—some of which came about through deft pressing and positional awareness. If we can get a little more creativity from the defense this season that can only be a positive. Sadly, Luana picked up a knock in that first game and missed the next match against Norway. She was an unused substitute in the final group stage game against New Zealand, perhaps a cautionary decision ahead of the knockouts.

Switzerland have a tough opponent in the Round of 16 in Spain, and realistically I would expect Switzerland to be heading home. But this tournament has been all about expectations being upended, so we'll see!

Shelina Zadorsky — Canada

3rd in group | 4 points | -3 GD

Yes, there's the usual caveat here that we don't actually know if Shelina is going to be in a Spurs shirt this season or not. There should be some clarity on that soon though now that Canada are out of the World Cup.

Canada got off to a slow start with a scoreless draw against Nigeria, but put themselves in a good position to advance after winning their second game 2-1 against Ireland. Shelina played the full second half of that match and the defense conceded zero goals while she was on the pitch. But then they suffered a heavy 0-4 defeat to Australia in the third match and ended up missing knockouts qualification by one point. Australia had known they needed all three points to be safe, and they punished Canada's disjointed backline (Shelina was not involved in this game, thankfully for her).

It's kind of shocking to see Canada do so poorly after their Olympics success, but the writing has been on the wall for a while now that things were getting stale, tactics-wise. They've also had a long, well-documented struggle with their federation, so we should show them some grace.

Beth England — England

1st in group | 9 points | +7 GD

England were one of just three teams to complete a perfect group stage with three wins—alongside Japan and Sweden—enhancing their contender status.

Their performances were not uniformly perfect, however. The first game was a narrow 1-0 win over a tenacious Haiti side (let's all pour one out for Melchie Dumornay, one of the most exciting young players of the tournament despite Haiti's early exit). Only Georgia Stanway's penalty separated the teams in the end. Beth had to wait until the second game against Denmark—another 1-o win—to make her first World Cup appearance, featuring in the last 15 minutes of the game and nearly making an immediate impact with a big chance to score. She played about the same amount in the final game against China, a 6-1 routing. Again, she had chances to score, but just as many chances that didn't come about due to selfishness from other teammates (I'm looking at you, Laura Coombs).

Nobody likes to see a player pick up a tournament-ending injury, but Keira Walsh's knee injury (it seems unlikely she will feature again at the World Cup) could end up being a boon for Beth's opportunities to play. Since Rachel Daly has now shifted back into the left back/left wingback role, Beth is only competing for striker minutes with Alessia Russo now. Russo finally got a goal in the third match, but hasn't impressed as much overall as she did in the Euros as a super sub. Here's hoping Beth gets her chance to truly shine!

England face Nigeria in the next round, which certainly won't be an easy game.

Becky Spencer and Drew Spence — Jamaica

2nd in group | 5 points | +1 GD

I truly could not be more proud of our Jamaican Spurs players, especially Becky. She is one of just three goalkeepers to keep a clean sheet in all three group games (the other two being Japan's Ayaka Yamashita and Switzerland's Gaëlle Thalmann) and was awarded Player of the Match after Jamaica's final group game against Brazil.

Now, going into the tournament I suspected Jamaica would cause some real problems for the teams in their group, including fellow Concacaf travelers Panama, but I will admit that I thought getting out of the group would be a stretch—simply because of how stacked both Brazil and France's rosters are. That was a tough group to be in! But according to Becky, they had full faith in themselves:

Absolutely, I feel we’ve been hugely underestimated. I don’t think anyone took us seriously. But as a group we know we have a real togetherness. We are resilient and had a point to prove. For months we’ve been saying it - we will get out of the group.

And indeed they did. They kicked things off with a hard-fought scoreless draw against France (who went on to score eight more goals in the group stage, by the way), which was slightly marred by Bunny Shaw's second yellow sending-off. Allyson Swaby stepped up to score in Shaw's absence against Panama for a 1-0 win. Then, knowing they just needed a draw to advance, they weren't able to score but held Brazil scoreless as well. This was a Brazil team that started the likes of Marta, Debinha, Kerolin, and Ary Borges (who'd scored a hat trick in Brazil's first game), so keeping that clean sheet was an impressive feat.

Jamaica will surely need to start scoring more themselves to keep progressing in the tournament—and I wouldn't bet on Shaw leaving the World Cup without a goal—but their defensive solidity, supported by the Swaby sisters as the CB pairing, has been the key to their success so far. Drew has been quite active across the whole pitch, contributing to the defense while being responsible for the majority of the attacking opportunities they've had. And Becky, although not the captain (that would be Shaw), has had an important leadership role in organizing the backline.

Jamaica play Colombia next, one of the other nations achieving their first-ever berth in the knockouts. I cannot wait to watch Linda Caicedo take on Jamaica's stalwart defense. Trust me, you don't want to miss this match.

Okay, now I'm gonna make y'all cry again:

It's such a cruel twist of fate that Jamaica getting their triumphant moment required such an absolute legend of the game saying goodbye to the World Cup stage. Marta forever 💛💚.

Let's end the Jamaica recap on a fun note though:

Rosella Ayane — Morocco

2nd in group | 6 points | -4 GD

I can't say I saved the best for last, because Ros herself hasn't had the best tournament, but her country is certainly having a moment.

It was looking really bleak for Morocco after their first match, a 0-6 loss to Germany. Rosella played until near the end of stoppage time. To give Morocco credit, they didn't play terribly—far from being the stereotypical underdog team that bunkers in and defends in a low block, they were at least attempting to get something going on the attack, albeit unsuccessfully. It really felt like a case of Germany just being that good. But Morocco started to turn things around in the second game, eking out a 1-0 win over South Korea. The early goal did not come from Ros, because she was on the bench. She only ended up playing the last 15 or so minutes. She also started the third game on the bench and only featured for four minutes plus stoppage time against Colombia, another 1-0 win for the Atlas Lionesses. Interestingly, Morocco's captain, Ghizlane Chebbak, had missed a penalty in the first half, and we all know Rosella is something of a penalty specialist.

We'll see if she continues to be out of favor in the next round, a daunting matchup with France. It could be that she's carrying a slight knock and is on managed minutes.

Fun fact: Morocco was the only nation to advance to the knockouts with a negative goal difference. On the flip side, Germany missed out despite having a +5 GD.

I do think it's worth noting that while many teams performed well in spite of their federations, Morocco has benefited from increased investment and promotion, leading to several historic moments for their program in the space of the last year. You actually love to see it.

Honorable mentions:

• Former Spurs player Kyah Simon hasn't gotten any minutes yet for Australia despite being on the bench for all three games (I suspect she's not fully ready to go yet after her ACL injury recovery), but they ended up topping their group and face Denmark in the first knockout round.

• Another former Spurs player, Tang Jiali, only got two minutes of regulation time for China, who are now out of the tournament after finishing third in Group D.

• Cho So-hyun, currently without club after the expiration of her Spurs contract, scored the opening goal in South Korea's 1-1 draw with Germany. Unfortunately, that was South Korea's only goal of the tournament and they finished in last place for Group H.

In conclusion:

New Zealand and Haiti were two of the many national teams who proved that even the "underdogs" who don't end up reaching the knockouts can still make a tournament interesting by causing trouble for the rising nations and established powers. It was well worth expanding the Women's World Cup to 32 teams. The traditional contender nations in the women's game are officially on notice and no one's legacy is safe. And with teams like Jamaica, Colombia, South Africa, Nigeria, and Morocco reaching the knockouts, there need to be some serious questions asked about just how those FIFA rankings work, as well as how many automatic qualification spots should be awarded to each region.

And I disagree with the suggestion many pundits have made that the path to the title is now much easier for nations who were already favorites coming into the tournament. If anything, the group stage results should be a wake-up call that no matchup can be taken for granted.

I'm afraid to make any more predictions at this point for that very reason, but I will say that whoever does end up winning it all can be incredibly proud of winning the most competitive World Cup to date. And before this edition is even over yet, I'm already looking forward to the next tournament, at which point some of these up-and-coming nations will have (hopefully) closed the investment gap that's been holding them back in the past. It's certainly not been a lack of talent—that much is abundantly clear.

News from around the Lane

Just a quick bullet points wrap-up this week since I'm trying to get this issue out before the WC knockouts begin!

• Rosella Ayane signed a new contract keeping her at the club until 2025.

• Vicky Jepson will be staying on at the club as Senior Assistant Head Coach, while also working closely with the Academy to support the development of young players into the First Team environment.

• Similarly, Robert Vilahamn's coaching staff was announced, and Anton Blackwood will be transitioning into a new role titled Women's First Team Transitional Coach, also helping those young players make the leap from Academy to First Team. The announcement noted that youth development is integral to Vilahamn's philosophy. Lastly, Perry Suckling was named Women's Goalkeeping Coach.

• Our opponents have been drawn for the Conti Cup group stage:

• The club worked with Leyton Orient to secure a grant to have a new hybrid pitch installed at Brisbane Road. Fingers crossed we don't have as many pitch-related match postponements for Spurs Women this season!

• Spurs Women players who are not on international duty will be starting pre-season on August 7.

• Dele's interview with Gary Neville was released after the last issue, and I would be remiss not to commend him for his bravery in speaking out. I wish him only the best as he works to get his career back on track, but the most important thing is that he actually seems happy and healthy now.

• Bryan Gil underwent surgery for a groin issue, while Alfie Whiteman had surgery for an ankle issue picked up on the Men's pre-season tour.

I'll close with a photo of the lovely Spurs mural in Perth.

COYS

Thank you for reading!

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