WEST HAM UNITED LONDON 3 (2) | TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2 (0) |
Date : – 18th July 2023 | Kick off : – 11.08 (UK time); 18.08 (local time) |
Competition : – Friendly | Venue : – Optus Stadium, Perth, Western Australia |
Crowd : – 42,266 |
Referee : – Kurt Ams (Australia) | Linesmen : – ?? |
Fourth official : – ?? | |
Weather : – Rain before the game, warm and then rain in the second half | |
Spurs kicked off the first half. | |
Playing time : – 90 + 8 minutes |
WEST HAM UNITED LONDON | TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR | ||
GOAL-SCORERS | |||
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Ings 17m 16s | ![]() |
Lo Celso 67m 55s |
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Mubama 22m 35s | ![]() |
Udogie 70m 44s |
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Scamacca 77m 37s | ||
CARDS | |||
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Royal (foul on Scamacca) 60 | |
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WEST HAM UNITED LONDON | TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR | ||
1. | Lukasz FABIANSKI | 13. | Guglielmo VICARIO ( 40. Brandon AUSTIN 46) |
53. | Levi LAING | 23. | Pedro PORRO ( 12. Emerson ROYAL 46 ![]() |
21. | Angelo OGBONNA (c) | 17. | Cristian ROMERO ( 6. Davinson SANCHEZ 46 ![]() |
4. | Kurt ZOUMA ( 51. Dan CHESTERS 69) | 25. | Japhet TANGANGA ( 73. Destiny UDOGIE 46 ![]() |
33. | Emerson PALMIERI ![]() |
3. | Sergio REGUILON ( 33. Ben DAVIES 46) |
20. | Jarrod BOWEN ![]() |
4. | Oliver SKIPP ( 18. Giovani Lo CELSO 46 ![]() |
62. | Freddie POTTS | 38. | Yves BISSOUMA ( 5. Pierre-Emile HOJBJERG 46) |
12. | Flynn DOWNES ( 51. Dan CHESTERS 69) | ||
8. | Pablo FORNALS ![]() |
21. | Dejan KULUSEVSKI ( 45. Alfie DEVINE 46) |
71. | James MADDISON ( 29. Pape Matar SARR 46) | ||
18. | Danny INGS ![]() ![]() |
72. | Manor SOLOMON ( 14. Ivan PERISIC 46 ![]() |
45. | Divin MUBAMA ![]() |
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10. | Harry KANE (c) ( 9. RICHARLISON 46) | ||
Substitutes | Substitutes | ||
55. | Jacob KNIGHTBRIDGE | 41. | Alfie WHITEMAN |
49. | Joseph ANANG | 42. | Harvey WHITE |
3. | Aaron CRESSWELL | ||
32. | Conor COVENTRY |
= Assist
= Goal scored
= Own goal scored
Manager : – David Moyes | Manager : – Ange Postecoglu |
Kit Supplier : – Umbro | Kit Supplier : – Nike |
Shirt Sponsor : – DT38 | Shirt Sponsor : – AIA |
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – JD Sports | Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – cinch |
Colours : – All claret with light blue sleeves and light blue hoops on socks |
Colours : – All white with navy blue cuffs |
MATCH REPORT |
The first game in Ange Postecoglou’s reign as Spurs manager ended in a 2-3 defeat to a West Ham side, who looked happy to sit back after going a couple of goals ahead and the positive things arising from the match was the amount of opportunities we created, although the sceptre of conceding goals still hangs over the team.
Going into the game, Spurs lined up with a 4-2-3-1 formation having left Forster, Bentancur, Sessegnon, Parrott and Gil at home, while West Ham had a more traditional 4-4-2. Postecoglou decided to leave Rodon, Spence and Ndombele out of the match-day squad, but there will be chances for them to play in the other two games on the Asia-Pacific tour. The rain that fell before the game made the pitch fast, but it had stopped by kick-off. Six minutes in there was the first chance of the game and a ball into the box to Skippy saw the Spurs striker take it on past a defender, but Fabianski gathered it in and then three minutes later it was Dejan bursting into the box to the left of the goal who tested the Irons keeper with a shot to the near post that was beaten away. In between, Ogbonna needed a moment to recover after taking an elbow to the top of the head when Vicario came to punch out a corner. With 17 minutes gone, a cross from the right from Bowen saw Ings getting in ahead of Reguilon to stoop to head low past Vicario from a couple of yards out. It was a goal that Ange would not be happy about conceding, with it being an error from a player getting the wrong side of the defender. The same could be said for the second Irons goal, with a left wing corner headed home by Mubama, who was left by Tanganga. Stiffening up the defence will be seen as a priority and you can see why. Maddison had his first go at a free-kick in a Spurs shirt, but hit the wall and the ball went away for a corner that came to nothing. While Tottenham’s play up to the penalty area was good, the final pass inside the area was not accurate enough and was usually picked off without too much trouble. Surprisingly, it was Ollie Skipp who was the player more often attacking the ball in the opposition box, with Bissouma playing the anchor role. The first real threat on the West Ham goal came in the 37th minute, when Solomon came in from the right to curl a shot towards the top corner, but Fabianski fisted the ball away diving up to his left. When the ball came back in after a corner, Maddison was on the end of cross from Porro on the right, but his header was straight into the hands of the keeper. Five minutes before the break Tottenham put together a nice move through the centre of the West Ham defence, with Skipp feeding the ball on to Kane inside the area and his little touch saw Bissouma in on goal, but his shot was smuggled wide for a corner by Fabianski. Kulusevski put in a wicked ball from the right and Japhet got in at the far post, but could only put it back across goal. Luckily, Kane picked it up beyond the far post and drilled it back across the face of goal, where Romero couldn’t make contact with it. Then Kane laid the ball back to Maddison inside the box, but he was eased off the ball. A couple of minutes before half-time the ball was worked left to Solomon inside the left side of the box and he got his shot away, which was saved by the keeper, but Bowen cleared took his ankles away after the ball had gone. Unfortunately, the crap local ref was unable to understand the laws even though he made it clear that he saw the tackle. Only a sharp low save down to his left by Vicario stopped Bowen adding to the lead. So, we were two down at half-time, but there had been the majority of play with us, but not enough of the finishing troubling Fabianski, with most of the shots being within his reach. There was a lot more movement and inter-changing of positions during the first half, but stopping goals going in the other end is going to be key to any success we might or might not have. A new eleven took the pitch for the second half, making a difference straightaway as Hojbjerg’s pass inside the full back put Richarlison into the box on the right and he tried to find Perisic coming in from the left, but Laing got there first towards the near post. It was all Spurs at the start of the half and a couple of corners were won, but we weren’t able to make much from them and Giovani Lo Celso looked sharp, playing some neat passes through the opposition’s defence. Pape Matar Sarr had a couple of shots, one a tentative one that went a long way wide following a corner and the second dragging it low to the keeper’s right when inside the box on the right, with Richarlison wanting a pass slid across the last defender, which Pape might not had made. Richi nearly opened Tottenham’s scoring for the season when Lo Celso played him through and he tried to lift and curl the ball into the keeper’s top left hand corner but was unlucky to see it graze the post on it’s way off. The Brazilian then lifted a header over the top from Perisic’s ball in. In between Royal was booked for a foul on Palmieri that was nothing worse than Bowen’s on Solomon, but because Ogbonna made a big noise about it, the referee was persuaded to bring out a yellow card. As the rain started to fall, Richarlison was found in the box and he knocked it to his left for Gio, but it was just behind him, so he played it back to Richi and his shot hit Palmieri as it was heading for the bottom right corner and we had nothing more than another corner. There was another after Perisic’s low ball across the goalmouth went all the way through to Devine at the far post and his shot was on target, but the keeper stopped it at his near post. From the corner, we worked the ball to the left where the taker Perisic tricked the defender, chopping the ball onto his right foot and swung the ball into the middle of the box. Sanchez got to the ball with his head and put it into the path of Lo Celso, who drove a low volley through Fabiasnki’s legs to make it 2-1. That was in the 68th minute and in the 71st we were level. As the rain got progressively worse, the score-line didn’t. Scamacca was too keen on pushing Udogie in the six yard box to make an effort for the ball when Perisic played the corner in from our right and the new Italian signing glanced the ball into the far top corner with a really clever header that foxed Fabianski. With Tottenham having 72% of possession, it showed that it counts for nothing, as a straight ball through the middle of our defence saw Scamacca sent clear and with their first effort on goal in the second half, he slipped it past Brandon Austin to make it 3-2. To say it was against the run of play would have been quite the understatement. As the clock ticked over to ten minutes remaining, a left wing cross was met by Richarlison with an overhead kick, but he shinned it and the ball went over the top. Spurs tried something different from a corner, with Perisic pulling the ball back outside the box for Hojbjerg to shoot. It was blocked and went to Devine on the right, producing a dinked cross that Sanchez flicked on to Richarlison at the far post and his downward header lacked power, allowing Fabianski to take the ball to his chest on the line. Another corner ended with Devine pulling a low ball back for Sanchez, but his shot was scuffed and easy for the keeper to gather. A clear pull on Ben Davies’ shirt by Luizao as he ran into the box was once more missed by the hapless referee and West Ham were making the most of his ineptitude and the lack of VAR. The game ended with Spurs on the attack, in a match where no Spurs player had a real stinker. Brandon Austin had nothing to do in the second half apart from pick the ball out of the net, while Vicario looked a sound keeper on his debut. Reguilon and Tanganga need to sharpen up when defending, as they cost us goals in the first half and it was a simple pass that undid the defence in the second. Lo Celso looked sharp and inventive, with the player he replaced – Maddison – looked to get in and around the box, trying to make things happen. Perisic showed he can still conjure up a yard to get a decent cross in, with him playing a more advanced role than under Conte and Udogie looks a real prospect with some good runs as well as his well-taken goal. Porro looked a little quiet, although he was always keen to get into wide positions, while Skipp’s role saw him allowed to make more advanced runs. Sarr, Hojbjerg and Devine all enjoyed the space in midfield, with each making good passes into the box and Richarlison was getting onto the end of things, without finding the net. Harry Kane was happy to pull the strings and play others in, but with only a few training sessions under his belt and potentially other things on his mind, he didn’t get as many clear scoring chances as he might have hoped. Solomon looked useful on the left wing, with options to come inside and have a pop at goal. Romero and Sanchez were OK at the back, with Cristian looking to be first to the ball and Sanchez not really under much pressure in the second 45 minutes and Ben Davies was solid at left back. Yves Bissouma seemed to enjoy himself in his first half performance, dropping deep and then popping up in the West Ham penalty box so his new role allowed him a lot of scope, other than just being viewed as a ball-winner. In truth, West Ham were poor and concentrated on not letting goals in, while Spurs did all the attacking, but they took their few chances and we had many, but not enough that were likely to result in goals. We saw a lot of crosses into the area, with Ange probably wanting the ball in the danger areas as much as possible, but our forte is not winning headers in the box, so it was encouraging that we were finding space in wide positions, but the ball needs to be accurate as we don’t really have a target man for those sort of crosses. Being the first match of pre-season, it was more about players getting minutes into their legs and with some more to come into the team, the following matches might give us more of a clue how things might shape up by the start of the season, with other players getting a run-out. Steve Ingleton |