The Fleeting Joy of the Champions League

Spurs Men nearly overcome a slow start against Sporting but are thwarted by VAR | Ellie Brazil injury update | Previewing the weekend fixtures

I usually give myself a day to chew over the previous game(s) so I'm not tempted to be too reactionary, but full disclosure:  there will be some blatant reacting going on in this recap.

Tottenham 1 - 1 Sporting CP

But before we get to That Moment, let's back up and begin with the starting lineup.

Antonio Conte had previously said he was reluctant to roll out the 3-4-3 formation to start without Kulusevski fit for the right winger spot, but he did just that for the Sporting match with Lucas Moura getting the nod over Bryan Gil. Otherwise, you could argue that this was pretty close to our ideal 3-4-3 lineup, unless you're a Ben Davies hater (couldn't be me) or an Ivan Perišić skeptic (also not me). Hugo Lloris and Eric Dier were both looking to redeem themselves for recent shaky performances—more on how effective they were in that effort later on—Cristian Romero was back from a one-match rest/"knock", and Matt Doherty got another start. I don't need to tell you who the remaining players are, you already know.

To be perfectly honest, I have very little memory of the first half except for Sporting's goal in the 22nd minute, because the ending of the second half overshadowed everything else. But speaking of the goal, I literally yelled out loud "not the narrative!" when Marcus Edwards scored. Of course the former Tottenham academy player would open the scoring at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Of course. The current Tottenham players did little of note in the first half to get us back in the game and it was yet another slow start amongst many so far this season.

Thankfully, they stepped up the intensity in the second half and we looked more like the home team. Rodrigo Bentancur was particularly lively, so it's only right that he was awarded with a goal in the 80th minute assisted from a corner by Perišić. There was some grumbling about a potential foul on the keeper to disallow the goal, but from my perspective, it was just poor keeping from Sporting's Antonio Adán; it's not Bentancur's problem that Adán waited too long to jump for the ball. Bentancur won it fair and square and converted with a forceful header.

Another Spurs player, Dier, was also doing his best to score a goal and probably had the most chances out of the squad. Unfortunately, he couldn't find the back of the net, and only one of his numerous attempts was on target. I'm not being sarcastic when I say that I appreciate Dier's willingness to get involved in the attack, but he has to be more efficient than he was against Sporting. He could have won us the game twice over or even managed a hat trick with more clinical finishing.

As for the other player who was looking to rehabilitate his reputation after a couple of poor performances, Lloris was also a bit of a mixed bag. There's definitely a chance he could have reached Edwards' shot considering how far out it was, and he had one other terrifying moment when he came out far too early and was only bailed out by an offside call. But besides those two moments, he made a few decent saves. I am very curious to see if we get our first glimpse of Fraser Forster in competitive play soon, not because I think he's a legitimate threat to Hugo's status as first keeper, but simply because our captain could probably use a rest, mentally as well as physically. The last group stage match would have been the perfect time to rotate, but alas, that game is not going to be a dead rubber after all.

While Lucas had been largely ineffectual, Bryan was a breath of fresh air when he came on in the 71st minute for Doherty, pushing Lucas back to right wingback until he finally subbed out ten minutes later. There was a lot more intent behind Bryan's movements in this game than we've seen in his other CL cameos this season, which were more, shall we say, vibes-based. He wasn't involved in the final play that nearly saw Spurs pull off a comeback victory, but his presence was integral to the overall improved press in the late stages of the game. If Conte insists on sticking with the 3-4-3 on the weekend, I don't see how he could leave Bryan on the bench. He earned a chance at extended game time.

Okay. Let's go there. We must.

Harry Kane scored a perfectly valid goal in the dying seconds of stoppage time, and we should have won the game 2-1. You will not convince me otherwise, and I genuinely feel that we have been cheated out of a) clinching top of the group along with advancement to the knockout stage and b) the invaluable opportunity to rest players in the last match that such a clinching scenario would have afforded. UEFA benefits from our now-stressful final matchday because it means they have some drama left in one of the few groups where that was still possible. I will briefly summarize why I believe the offside call was the wrong decision, with the VAR image following below:

• Just look at it. You cannot tell me that by any reasonable margin of error, Kane is objectively offside rather than level or onside. You also can't tell from this specific image whether he was even offside vis-a-vis the defender behind him. And of course, we are only ever shown one angle of the play.

• And no, the lines don't prove anything. A person in the VAR booth placed those lines; it's not the new-fangled precision technology view that the CL is supposedly using now but, conveniently, we do not get to see.

• Those lines took almost three full minutes to be placed. Also conveniently. Not at all sketchily. They definitely weren't trying to find any way possible to rule out the goal. Nope.

• Then there's the whole matter of the ball deflecting off the Sporting defender near Emerson Royal and somehow being deemed "unintentional contact", and therefore not changing the phase of play, despite the defender very obviously running towards the ball and trying to get involved in, you know, defending. Fine. Whatever. I remember Real Madrid being denied a goal in a similar manner in last season's CL, so this is not a new excuse for UEFA.

• I'm perfectly aware that the rule is that a player must be behind the ball to be onside, and that the direction of the pass/header is irrelevant (in other words, "back pass" is a somewhat meaningless term). See bullet point #1 again. He's at the very least level with the ball, if not fully onside.

• And just to reiterate, level is onside for all intents and purposes in the rules. Because when an attacker is level with their defender or with the advanced ball (as in this case), they are not gaining an advantage. In this particular play, Kane definitely didn't have an advantage. It did not end up being an easy finish, especially since he actually took a slight nudge from behind by the defender next to him before he was able to get a touch on the ball and slot it past Adán. And trust me, if this goal had stood, it would have been a textbook example of clever play from a striker coming back onside from an offside position at just the right moment. This kind of movement and timing is Kane's bread and butter.

•Sometimes you also just need a little bit of luck as an attacker to get on the end of a ball that wasn't even intended for you. That's exactly what happened here (unless Emerson was just being very incompetent, he was aiming his header into the space behind the defensive line for Bryan to run into), and Kane had every right to capitalize on that good luck—because he was not offside.

And you know what, I am angry about it. I celebrated this goal like it was important because it was. Yes, Spurs had a poor start to the game, but by the end of the second half, we had done more than enough to deserve a game-winning goal. It wasn't a smash-and-grab. This was the kind of moment that is supposed to be a "magic of the cup" type situation, the kind of beautiful chaos that the Champions League is—and would like to be—known for. What I have a problem with is that we were cheated out of the moment by a VAR decision that was so far from being clear and obvious it's actually laughable. Or would be, if I could find any humor in it. I could not, and I was more upset after this game than I have been in a very, very long time. There have been Spurs results recently that made me sad, even disappointed, but this one had me genuinely seething and overcome with emotion.

I've seen enough ostensibly neutral pundits and fans of other clubs express similar disbelief that the goal was chalked off to feel justified that it was the wrong decision. And although this call makes for a tense and meaningful final matchday in Group D, I don't think anyone could say this was a satisfying or fair outcome to the Spurs vs Sporting match. Nobody wins when this is the standard being set for VAR.

And since I've seen some suggestions that UEFA is inclined towards this kind of dodgy officiating because it makes for better entertainment for fans watching on TV/streaming, I want to say unequivocally that—as a fan who watches all of Spurs matches from afar—I was not entertained, just frustrated and angry. And I'm not sure what kind of fan could find these interminable VAR delays and decisions that go against the spirit of the game to be remotely entertaining. I don't think those fans actually exist except as a bogeyman, or as wishful thinking for the decision-makers of UEFA, FIFA, etc. In reality, match-going fans and global fans alike are united in our exasperation with VAR as it is currently being used.

No, but seriously. I don't like to get into the weeds like this unless it's absolutely necessary, but it felt important to do so this time. Hopefully, this will be the last time that I'm compelled to break out the bullet points to discuss a VAR decision this season 😬. I won't hold my breath.

The worst possible news

Since we're already in a downer mood after all that, I may as well take this time to break the news if you haven't already heard:  Ellie Brazil tore her ACL in the match against Manchester City.

First and foremost, this is a crushing diagnosis for Ellie, who has suffered an ACL injury before. I can't even imagine how demoralizing that must be as a player to know you're going to be missing the entire rest of a season, again. We can only hope that she has as smooth a recovery period as possible and comes back stronger.

It's also a harsh reality for the club, which has now lost two players to ACL injuries just over a month into the season. To add to that misfortune, both players (the other being Kyah Simon, who was injured in the NLD) are forwards, and one of the primary goals for the season was to increase the team's attacking output. Signing Ellie was a big part of that strategy, and she was arguably one of the most exciting transfers from the summer window, considering her young age and untapped potential, as well as her reputation as a rising star from the England youth setup. Now, we won't get to see her at her best until next season.

Ellie and Kyah join two more players with the same injury from last season on the long-term injury list, Kit Graham and Ria Percival—the former is thankfully almost back to full training with the squad.

I thought Rehanne Skinner had some interesting thoughts in her pre-match press conference on the troubling trend of increased ACL injuries in women's football and how the international schedule could be contributing negatively. On a positive note, we learned from the same press conference that Kerys Harrop will be in the matchday squad on Sunday to face Brighton (though presumably not ready to start). It also sounds like Rehanne is already thinking ahead to the January transfer window regarding squad depth. That's never an easy thing to manage in the WSL, and this season's abnormally bad injury luck hasn't helped.

Weekend match previews

In the interest of time, I'm condensing the previews for the weekend matches to one section. This is partially because tomorrow is the start of playoffs for my local USL club (#Defend210) and I know this issue won't get finished if I leave it until tomorrow, but it's also partially because I just don't know that much about the Bournemouth team the Men are playing on Saturday.

This should have been another Scott Parker reunion, but alas, he was sacked after Bournemouth's 9-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield. Hard to argue with that.

When I look at the Bournemouth squad, I think to myself, "Yep, those are some names of people who are definitely football players." Some of them are even familiar names! But I honestly can't recall if I've watched a single minute of Bournemouth since their promotion back to the PL. After a quick glance at the table, I can see that only two teams have scored fewer goals than Bournemouth this season and they have the worst defense (not for lack of trying from Leicester, mind you). So in other words, probably the perfect team to face when you need to get back on track in the league.

(Side note:  it's cracking me up that the injury report for our matchup on FotMob has one of the Bournemouth players out due to "lack of fitness." Feels harsh!)

If our match against Marseille had ended up being a moot point, that would have been the ideal time for some squad rotation, but dare I say it probably has to happen against Bournemouth now. The Marseille match is now too important to gamble with. And if ever there was a time to risk rotation in the PL, it would probably be against a newly-promoted team that's barely above the relegation zone on points.

Moving swiftly on to the Women's match on Sunday, we face a struggling Brighton team. In fairness, their three losses in WSL play have come from top 3 teams as the table stands, and nobody is having much luck against those teams at the moment (fluke Liverpool win over Chelsea aside). They did also lose to a Championship team in Conti Cup group stage play, however, and their one league win so far this season was a narrow 2-1 home win over Reading. They've conceded 14 goals across both competitions. So not to repeat my point from the Men's preview, but... not a bad opponent to face when you need to get back to scoring ways.

Last season we registered our highest win margin of the season against Brighton, a 4-0 win at the Hive (memories!). We can only hope it'll be another multi-goal affair for Spurs, and another clean sheet would also be welcome—don't look now, but our goal difference is already not great.

Brighton do have some very promising young players, like Poppy Pattinson, Elisabeth Terland, and Veatriki Sarri, as well as an experienced defender in Swedish international Emma Kullberg. But on the balance, even with our injury crisis, Tottenham should have the talent advantage in this matchup.

My personal wishes for this game:  a goal from at least one of our true forwards (no offense to Ash Neville and Drew Spence, who are more than welcome to keep scoring), a clean sheet for Becky Spencer to boost her confidence after the City game, and some quality minutes for Kerys Harrop on her return from injury.

COYS

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