SOS
Friday, February 15, 2008 at 8:16AM
spooky in UEFA Cup, match report

Same Old Spurs

Prague 1 Tottenham 2


So, it’s simply a case of either playing our first team three days before a Cup final, or playing fringe players who run the risk of losing to a plucky team from Prague. The dilemma is consequence of a rather stupid second half performance. Look, basically, taking the first 45 Spur should have scored 4 or so goals. Steed left frustrated as nobody ever bothered to look to their left where he stood – on countless occasions – in space on his own with the goal in front of him.

It was easy, but that’s no excuse for losing that touch of professionalism required to put the tie of reach for the opposition. Instead we marvelled at their big-time Charlie swaggers and wasteful chances. You can’t afford to stroll. You lose the tempo and then it’s a struggle to recapture it. Which is exactly what happened in the second half.

Other worthy mentions go to the lack of true quality from the wings. I’m talking about crossing the ball in. To a white shirt. Tainio going off caused as all sorts of problems with the balance of the team. Chimbonda is a mess of a player with little discipline. TT is decent in possession. Chimbonda isn’t, in possession or otherwise.

Cerny’s blunder was bog-standard. He’s an average keeper who doesn’t really excel in any department. Anything after Robinson’s drop in form is always going to look good.

So we’ve got Prague up next and then three days of rest before we probably play a full strength Chelsea team at Wembley.

Bricking it?

Article originally appeared on Dear Mr Levy (http://dml23.squarespace.com/).
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