Spurs Women Back in the Top 3

The Champions League playoff spot is ours to lose (no pressure)

Spurs Women might have been the only Tottenham team playing this weekend, but there was enough action and drama in their 1-2 away victory at Aston Villa to make up for the postponed game on the Men's side.

(It was still a bummer not to get to watch the Men play, though. We can take comfort in the fact that we're still just three points off 4th place with two games in hand, but seeing other teams progress felt like being stuck in standstill traffic on one side of the highway while cars are moving freely in the other direction. Pain!)

Things got off to a lively start, with a great pass from Jessica Naz leading to an early chance for Rachel Williams, whose shot went just wide. Aston Villa kicked off the scoring through Remi Allen in the 19th minute. Molly Bartrip was caught ball-watching (a rarity for her) on the cross for Allen's goal. Just ten minutes later, Spurs were able to equalize after a stonewall penalty on Ria Percival. Kyah Simon converted the penalty for her first Tottenham goal, despite Villa's keeper Hannah Hampton guessing the right way for Simon's shot. It's nice to see Kyah finally get on the scoresheet! We'd go into halftime with the scoreline equal, but not before a little sideline scuffle over a disputed throw-in. Williams and Villa's Ruesha Littlejohn were both shown yellow cards.

After halftime, Maéva Clemaron would also pick up a yellow. Another superb linkup between Naz and Williams gave Spurs the lead, with a clinical finish from Williams. Angela Addison came on for the carded Clemaron to see out the match from the midfield, and we also had a brief cameo from Rosella Ayane in stoppage time, replacing Simon. Spurs had chances to increase the one-goal lead and definitely didn't let up in the attack, which is what you want to see from a team with Champions League aspirations. Addison in particular made a big impact when she came on as a sub.

There was a controversial no-goal decision for Villa late in the game, but without a goal-line camera angle, I feel like it's impossible for any of us watching from home to really have an opinion on whether the ball was over the line or not, and we just have to trust the in-game decision from the officials in the absence of goal-line technology. If it truly was a goal-line clearance from Bartrip, as it appeared, she deserves massive credit for that crucial block--and she redeemed her earlier slip-up for Villa's first-half goal.

A few more stray observations from the match:

∙ Jessica Naz was my personal vote for Player of the Match; she had several goal-scoring opportunities of her own and was unlucky not to find the back of the net, and she did contribute an assist for Williams' goal (almost registering another assist on their earlier linkup from the first half).

∙ Ashleigh Neville, a perennial PotM contender, displayed her signature progressive style of play. I always appreciate her bravery on the pitch, whether it's sliding in for a tackle (defensive or offensive), or not being afraid to take a shot from outside the box. She just might be one of the most underrated (or at least under the radar) players in the WSL.

∙ Clemaron also had a strong showing but was hampered by her yellow card, leading to a fairly early substitution in the second half.

∙ We witnessed a couple of rare errors from Korpela, just as I was starting to think that Becky Spencer will have a difficult time getting her first keeper status back right away (she was on the bench for this match). Luckily, the defense was able to bail Korpela out both times, including the Bartrip goal-line clearance.

∙ Simon still seems to be adjusting to the pace of the WSL (it doesn't help that she was coming off an injury at the beginning of the season). She isn't making bad decisions, per se, just making them a split second too slow. She's shown some encouraging signs in the last few matches, though, and hopefully her penalty goal will be the start of a goal-scoring run.

∙ Aston Villa's goal felt totally against the run of play, but it's good to see yet another example of our squad's improved mentality over last season that they were able to mount the comeback and secure all three points.

Thanks to Manchester United's 2-0 win over Brighton, we were able to leapfrog the Seagulls into 3rd place. Things are still pretty tight points-wise in the middle of the table, so we'll have to be vigilant to stay in that final Champions League spot. Our next league fixture is a home match against Everton, who are currently 9th. They have a lot of talented players, like Valérie Gauvin, Toni Duggan, Leonie Maier, and Hanna Benison, and going into the season they were the team expected to be challenging for top 3, not our dark horse Tottenham team.

Like Spurs, Everton haven't exactly been pulling up trees when it comes to scoring. Rachel Williams noted in her post-match interview after the Aston Villa win that the team has been focusing in training on improving in the final third, along with lots of shooting practice, so fingers crossed that this will be the first time this season that we finally score more than two goals in a WSL match. Side note:  Williams is quickly becoming one of my favorite players for post-match interviews. She always has an insightful little nugget to share, and you definitely get the sense that her experience as veteran player in the league is helping to lift up the younger players in the Tottenham squad. Big "fearless leader" vibes!

But before that weekend matchup with Everton, we have our final League Cup group stage match on Wednesday. I believe we have already de-facto secured qualification to the quarter-final, since the first tiebreaker is goal difference, and let's face it:  even if Coventry United were to beat us, I doubt it would be by a large enough margin to overcome our +12 GD coming into the match. So this is definitely an opportunity to rotate the squad and give some key players like Rachel Williams a rest. I haven't yet heard if this game is going to be broadcast/streamed anywhere for US fans, so there might not be a recap of that game for Spurs Across the Pond. If that's the case, I'll talk to y'all on Thursday after the Men's away match at Leicester, assuming it's still going ahead. I wouldn't even begin to predict the lineups for that match, since both teams have had multiple players test positive for COVID. Probably gonna be a weird game!

One last news item:  Spurs Women got drawn with Leicester at home for the fourth round of the FA Cup. Let's all pour one out for Leicester, who have zero points in the WSL thus far.

COYS