Lion City Sailors (Singapore) 26.07.2023

Tottenham set their stall out from the start with an attacking intent that saw the full backs becoming wing-backs, with Yves Bissouma holding.  Dejan Kulusevski won a corner in the second minute that came out to Pape Matar Sarr, whose shot sliced away and then James Maddison linked well with Destiny Udogie on the left before pulling a low ball back that caught a defender’s arm that was out-stretched on the ground.  When the ball did come through Harry Kane volleyed it narrowly wide with his left foot, then there was another penalty shout when Maddison played a smart pass straight through the middle of the defence for Deki to run on to, but the keeper took him out, with both laid on the turf, but as in the West Ham game, no VAR means no penalty.

It was all Spurs, but Guglielmo Vicario had to come out of his area and dive forward to head the ball away when it looked looked a ball played into space might and in the fourteenth minute, a ball in behind Pedro Porro and between him and Vicario found Anuar creeping in and his scuffed touch into the ground bounced up and over the diving Spurs keeper to give the home team the lead with their first effort.  It was a sleepy moment when Porro lost the man he was supposed to be defending, meaning we let in another soft goal that should have been easily prevented.

Spurs looked to get even with Maddison having two efforts from around the edge of the box, with the first deflected wide and the second pushed away to his left by the keeper.  From Porro’s corner kick, Romero headed over the bar and the same happened when Sonny’s run at a defender in the box won a corner that Maddison swung in from the left side.  Tottenham’s tempo and pressing was good and another potential penalty appeal came when Pires blocked off Kulusevski without getting close to the ball, while Maddison made a great dribble that took him past four players into the box, but his pull-back across goal was put just wide by a defender.  Then from the corner, he drove a shot at goal after Zharfan had flapped at it, but he got back up to kick it away with his shin and Kulusevski tried to bend a left foot shot into the opposite side of the goal when he came in off the right wing. 

Spurs looked to have equalised in the 26th minute, when Kane was alert to taking a quick free-kick and Son ran onto the ball in the box to head low past the keeper, but the linesman’s flag went up to rule it out for offside.  Lestienne was the maker of the first goal and he created a chance for Zivkovic at the far post with a cross from the right and he got above Porro, but the Spaniard was close enough to block his header out for a corner.  When the ball came back to to Lestienne from it, Sarr took the ball off him and played a fabulous ball down the line for Deki to run into space, but the Sailors quickly got bodies back and he won a corner that Sarr met at the near post, but just got too much on it being unable to glance it at goal.

After a long passage of passing, Son played the ball back from the left to Maddison two yards outside the box and he flashed a shot just wide of the keeper’s left hand post.  When Spurs were looking to work the ball into the box, Porro went down holding his stomach as he ran past a defender, but play went on and Kulusevski’s low ball was gathered by the keeper.  Then Zharfan got behind a low shot when Maddison was played in inside the box, although he couldn’t hold it and Kane blazed a volley well off target from the rebound.

It was difficult to find a way through the numbers of players that Lion City got back behind the ball when Spurs attacked (usually all 11 in their defensive third or even their penalty area), but with the amount of possession and the number of scoring opportunities made, we should have done better than being a goal down.  Sarr showed that we were without our shooting boots when the ball was laid back for him and he put the ball high and wide, but got a lot closer with another effort five minutes before the break, when Kane nodded a ball back and Pape chested the ball down and hit a volley that grazed the top of the bar before it went over.  Ben Davies put a cross over from the left that Kulusevski got it at the far post and drove a low shot in from a narrow angle that the keeper got behind.  Son then shot inches over when a patient build up saw him pop up just outside the box in the inside right position.  Towards the end of the half ended with Porro’s cross just too far ahead of Sonny as he ran in behind the defence, but the last action was a penalty to Tottenham when Sarr came in to take a loose ball and Pires kicked through him and luckily the referee saw this one.  Harry drove it to the keeper’s left, with Zharfan going the other way to make Spurs level at 1-1 as they went back into the dressing room.

A new eleven came out for the second half, facing a new eleven for the Sailors and it was clear that the home team would have plenty of defending to do.  However, two minutes into the half, they didn’t do it very well, with a stray Tottenham pass leaving two blue shirted players leaving the ball for each other.   Giovani Lo Celso was alert enough to pick the ball up, come inside and he shot into the back of a defender with the ball kindly popping up in front of Richarlison, who side-footed a volley home for eight yards out to put Tottenham in front.  

Perisic was a threat down the left, Solomon having been put out on the right on this occasion, with the Croat liking well with Reguilon, who got played into the area and was caught late by a defender, but again the standard of refereeing was poor, as he had no idea what had happened.  It was Perisic’s long throw that caused panic in the Sailors defence when Richarlison couldn’t get to it and Pedro Henrique tried to head it back towards his keeper from the penalty spot, but didn’t get enough on it, allowing Richi to move onto it and head it past the keeper from point blank range. 

The Brazilian then almost got a hat-trick from Reguilon’s cross, but his header was saved low down to the keeper’s left.  Lion City had a break forward when Lo Celso was fouled, but the referee thought it was a fair tackle, but Spurs cut out the cross and Reguilon headed the ball back to Austin.  Spurs were easing their way through the home team’s back lien, with Lo Celso taking the ball to the dead ball line before firing it into the six-yard box, where a defender got the ball over the bar, but it hit him rather than knowing anything about it.  Gio then linked with Persic, with the winger pulling his low shot wide of the far post.  

Twice Richarlison twice had the ball in the net again.  Firstly he volleyed in after Skipp had nodded the ball over the Sailors defence coming out after a corner and then Richi headed the ball wide of the keeper and in off the post from Lo Celso’s cross, but again he was offside.  Manor Solomon rattled the post when he volleyed Reguilon’s cross against the near post as Spurs were totally dominant, as they were in the second half against West Ham in Perth.  And it was the Israeli, who did well down the right and from just inside the penalty area on that side, pulled a low ball back across goal.  A defender tried to cut it out but only put it into the path of Gio Lo Celso.  With Richarlison stepping out of the way, Gio lifted his shot over the keeper from the six-yard line to make it 4-1.

Regi had two pops at goal, one way too high from just outside the box and the second from around 30 yards hit a defender’s back which took it over, otherwise the keeper would have been struggling to get to it.  Hami Syahin had a chance when Skipp’s poor header out from a corner dropped to him, but he leant back and skied it over the top.

The referee showed how incompetent he was as the game towards the end with Richarlison having his ankles taken away from him outside the box as he ran for a ball and then a free-kick given to Lion City when Solomon was being held and the defender going to ground.  An ability to read the game appears to have passed this official by.  He couldn’t do anything but award a goal when a ball played up to Emerson Royal with his back to goal, 25 yards from goal, clipped a pass through that Oliver Skipp left and Richarlison took the ball into the box, held off a defender and dinked it over the keeper’s dive at his feet to claim his hat-trick three seconds after the ninety minute mark was past.  Having been kicked around the pitch, his goals gave him the revenge he wanted.

The second half XI again looked more dynamic and clinical, as the first half saw lots of chances created, but not many getting close to scoring.  They packed the defence more in the first half and the keeper did well, but the second half, there seemed more intelligent movement in the box and while Lion City didn’t attack as much, the goal conceded in the first half is still of concern, as that XI seems to be Ange’s first choice.  I guess the team he puts out against Shakhtar might be close to his starting XI, with the Barcelona game coming along quite close to the away game at Brentford.

A good run-out for all the players and a game that was guaranteed to go ahead, as the stadium had a roof, so the end of the Asia-Pacific tour ends won one, lost one and maybe not too much learned.

Jason Mabey