Spurs, Louisville Style

Spurs Legends Night with Ledley King | Chelsea vs Tottenham Men Watch Party with Louisville Spurs and Jenna Schillaci | Tottenham Women vs Club América at the Women's Cup

I have been having the time of my life in Louisville this past weekend! I've gotten a few incredulous looks when I've told people I drove up from Texas to be at the Women's Cup tournament, but truly, it was worth it.

Spurs Legends night featuring Ledley King

The weekend kicked off with a special event at Vernon Lanes, coordinated by the club and the Louisville Spurs supporters group. Ledley King was there to answer some questions from Spurs presenter Matt Tarr about his career with Spurs, and then fans were able to ask questions of our own. It was so interesting to hear about his journey from playing on a Sunday league team (which coincidentally featured five future Premier League players, himself included) to winning the League Cup with Spurs in 2008. When you hear him speak, it's easy to understand why he was made captain of the club, and he really is as humble as people say despite his status as one of the best English defenders.

I of course had to ask him a question about Spurs Women, since he's been such a huge supporter and ambassador for the Women's team. I asked him why Spurs fans at large should be excited to watch and support the Women's team this season, and he had a great answer with a variety of points:

• the team exceeded expectations last season with a 5th place finish, challenging for Champions League qualification for a large portion of the season

• this is the time for the club to really back the women's squad with investment and further support

• we have an excellent manager in Rehanne Skinner

• the Women's team, as well as the England national team, have been hugely inspirational to a lot of young kids, including Ledley's own daughter

Besides getting to hear Ledley speak, I also enjoyed getting to know a few of the members of Louisville Spurs as well as some other out-of-town folks like me. I also get to meet up with a couple of friends in person for the first time, Harsh Mishra (follow him for Spurs tactical analysis!) and my N17 Women co-host, Abbie Rose. The wonderful thing about meeting Spurs friends for the first time offline is that it feels like reconnecting with family.

Spurs Men watch party featuring Jenna Schillaci

The next day I would get to meet another legendary skipper from Tottenham, Jenna Schillaci. We're hoping to get her on the N17 Women podcast soon, so keep an ear out for that! She and the rest of the Spurs contingent were so lovely to meet, and it sounds like they're having a great time in Louisville so far. I should also say that the Louisville Spurs supporters group have been such welcoming hosts during this tournament week, and I appreciate all the hard work they put into making the special events happen! Another shoutout to William, who came on N17 Women to talk about the local Spurs community for our Women's Cup preview.

(PSA, the "I 💙 Eric Dier" shirt I'm wearing is available from Digital Spurs.

On a similar note, I have a few Spurs t-shirts in different sizes that didn't fit me or other members of my family, so if you see me on Wednesday at the stadium, ask me about shirts! Free to a good home.)

As for the Men's game itself, this is a prime example of why I don't normally go to watch Spurs somewhere other than my own home, because I'm not able to focus as much on analyzing the game when I'm getting caught up in the excitement of the watch party. The atmosphere at Saints Pizza and Pub was really fun though! There was a great turnout for the watch party.

So I don't have a ton of granular insight to share on the Men's game this week, but here are a few general thoughts.

Chelsea 2 - 2 Tottenham

I thought we had a pretty good start to the match and the press was looking very strong initially, but for the majority of the match, Chelsea were in firm control, and not just in the basic possession sense. We couldn't seem to get out of our defensive third.

The Koulibaly goal was a tough one to concede, because he was given far too much space to work with for his shot. Thank goodness Højbjerg had his shooting boots on today (and kept his shot down for once, no offense PEH!). I don't think Richarlison was interfering with play from an offside position personally, based on the replay angle we saw, and I guess VAR agreed. Looking at the score rundown just now, I had no idea Ben Davies was credited for the assist. Love that for him! I have very little memory of the James goal that took Chelsea back into the lead, but then there was the controversial not-a-foul decision from Bentancur's tackle on Havertz. Again, from the last replay angle we got from NBC it certainly looked like Bentancur got ball, but I can understand why Chelsea fans might be upset, since we scored so soon after it. I also somehow didn't even notice the Romero hair pulling controversy in all the excitement at the watch party, so I will just decline to get involved in that debate. And wow, what a perfect time for Kane to get his first goal of the season! The corner assist from Perišić is a great example of the quality he brings to the team.

Considering that we were struggling to get anything going for most of the game, a draw definitely feels like a good result, especially with this being the away fixture and knowing our historic lack of success at Stamford Bridge. Plus, that's a point we didn't get last season in the same fixture. I appreciated the show of mentality from the team to grind out the result, and a set piece goal is always reason for celebration.

The main event:  Spurs at the Women's Cup

I got to Lynn Family Stadium early to get settled in at the press box and get the lay of the stadium. I was able to catch most of the AC Milan vs Tokyo Verdy Beleza match, which was a good watch, especially once Swedish star Kosovare Asslani came on for her AC Milan debut in the second half. I watched a little bit of that game from the stands, and she was such an exciting player to see up close. There was a section of AC Milan fans next to me that were clearly thrilled about the newest addition to their club!

Then finally, it was time for Spurs Women to play. Before we even get to talking about the match, we need to talk about the kit game. The squad was wearing brand new warmup kits (which I sadly didn't get a good picture of, and aren't on the Spurs online shop yet!) and got to debut the new third kit! It looks so beautiful in person. It also made for a lovely kit matchup with our opponents, Club América Femenil, who played in a pale yellow color.

Tottenham 1 - 2 Club América

It's hard to know if this starting XI is one we could expect to see for the first regular season match against Manchester United, considering that there are quite a few injuries in the squad right now. From my view, it looked like we lined up in a 4-1-2-3 that shifted to a 4-2-3-1 at times, with Eveliina Summanen typically playing the farthest back as a holding midfielder. I'm sure Rehanne chose this formation because Club América are known for their attack-heavy playing style. More on formation tactics when we get to the second half action.

Unfortunately, after a bright first few minutes, we conceded two early goals to Club América, the first a close-range shot from Kiana Palacios after a poor clearance from Drew Spence, and the second after Scarlett Camberos beat out Amy Turner and Molly Bartrip to get into a one-on-one situation with Tinni Korpela, who had no choice but to come out of her box early. Live by the high press, die by the high press.

Already in a two-goal hole within the first fifteen minutes, we tightened up defensively to ride out the rest of the first half. It's not surprising that there was some rust to work off since this is the first match for many of these players in quite a while. Meanwhile, Club América are already mid-season and it showed in their assured performance. There were also some signs of miscommunication, which is natural with so many new signings coming into the squad. They weren't quite in sync for that first half, but there was a lot of improvement in the second half—which shows that the mentality to finish strong is already there, at least. We were also missing the usual center back partnership of Molly Bartrip and Shelina Zadorsky, since Bartrip was pushed out to right back, with Amy Turner next to Zadorsky in the central roles.

Speaking of the second half, we saw a shift in the formation with a move to a back 3. Along with that change, Ash Neville moved from the left flank (where she has traditionally played) to the right flank (where she played more often towards the end of last season). Personally, I prefer her playing on the right side, and it was nice to see her in a more attacking wingback role. There were also a few personnel changes in the second half, including my personal favorite on the night, Angharad James. For a player that I knew embarrassingly little about before we signed her, she is firmly on my radar now. She was superb on the ball, and her passing vision is going to be a great asset to the team.

We continued to grow into the game in the second half and were rewarded with a goal in the 64th minute, courtesy of a combination from three of our new signings: James, Celin Bizet, and Nikola Karczewska. I was especially impressed by Bizet's cool composure in the box to square the ball to Karczewska, after having received an excellent through ball from James. It should also be mentioned that Celin just arrived as a new signing from PSG on Wednesday, and she already looks comfortable in this Spurs side.

I honestly thought we were going to pull off an equalizer late in the match, but although we had grown into the game mentally, we diminished physically. Closer to the regular season, fitness won't be as much of a concern, and we'll be seeing the "hardest working team on the pitch" that we're used to seeing under Rehanne Skinner.

Spence picked up a knock in the match that hopefully won't prove to be anything serious. I also learned after the match that Kyah Simon wasn't in the squad because she is currently rehabbing an injury, and the same goes for Cho So-hyun.

Along with my N17 Women co-host Abbie, we were able to interview a few of the players as well as Rehanne Skinner post-match. I'll share the interview with Rehanne below, which is packed full of insight from Spurs Women's gaffer, and you'll have to tune in to the tournament recap episode of the podcast to hear the player interviews!

One thing I have always appreciated about Rehanne is her insistence on building a strong team culture to lay a foundation for the performances on the field. I think that really shone through against Club América, with the team digging deep in the second half to show that Spurs are never going to give up on a result. We were unlucky not to find the equalizer this time, but that grit and determination are sure to prove vital in the WSL season.

The stadium was still pretty noisy when we talked to Jessica Naz, and it's difficult to hear her on that video, so I've transcribed the interview below instead.

N17 Women:  We're excited to have y'all come over to the states for the first time. What has your response been from the fans here?

Jess Naz:  It's been great, it's been loud. It's been good to come to a big stadium and see so many fans come to support us, a good experience.

N17: I bet it felt good to get the first minutes in for the pre-season. What do you think you learned from the performance tonight?

JN: I think it's about building relationships with players, getting used to playing on such a big pitch and against a different opponent. I think we learned a lot in the second half, I think we came out stronger. I think we deserved to get maybe a second goal. We can build on it.

N17: I know there have been a lot of new signings coming in, so are there any players in particular that you've been working with and hoping to link up with?

JN: Yeah, I think just the whole front line, so we have Celin [Bizet], Ellie Brazil, Niki [Karczewska], so just building new partnerships so we can get more goals and bounce off each other in training.

One thing I picked up on from Jess' answers is that the experience of playing in Lynn Family Stadium this week will be a good primer for kicking off the WSL season with a home opener at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It sounds like she's already building some strong relationships with the new attacking players in the squad, and I can't wait to see them linking up this season.

Big thanks to Lydia, Matt, and everyone with the club that helped make these interviews possible! I know I speak for Abbie as well when I say that we're excited to continue spreading the word about Spurs Women and do what we can to grow the fanbase, on both sides of the pond.

Up next:  Tokyo Verdy Beleza

I'm disappointed that we won't get to see Spurs Women take on OL Reign, but the matchup with Tokyo Verdy Beleza in the 5th & 6th place game will still be a fun matchup. Kickoff is at 2 pm ET.

After watching Tokyo play AC Milan, I would say that they are vulnerable in defense to a well-executed counter-attack, but they present an attacking threat of their own with their decisive passing and strong technical abilities. I don't expect this game to be as physical as the matchup with Club América, since Tokyo's players are smaller in stature overall than the Tottenham squad. I'm looking forward to seeing what players like Angharad James and Drew Spence can do with their defense-splitting passes, and we should be able to force some errors from Tokyo with our high press that the likes of Ramona Petzelberger and the forward line will be happy to exploit.

I'll be at the stadium again for this match (and also staying for the OL Reign vs Club América match afterward), so please feel free to say hi if you're there too! I'll probably be in the press box for most of our match, but in my regular seat in section 111 for the second match. Can't wait to see another great showing of Spurs support for our second and final match in the Women's Cup!

COYS

Thank you for reading! If you’re enjoying the newsletter, feel free to buy me a Ko-fi to support my coverage of Tottenham Hotspur.

Email subscriptions to the newsletter are always free, so make sure to subscribe and get every issue in your inbox!

You can also find me on Twitter and podcasting at N17 Women and The Tottenham Depot.