Tottenham Hotspur Women fell 4-2 to fellow midtable standout London City Lionesses in last Sunday’s highly anticipated matchup. Spurs matched London City for two goals but were unable to prevent or respond
to 81st and 84th minute strikes.
Martin Ho, as he has done recently, selected a relatively unchanged side – Ashleigh Neville started in place of Josefine Rybrink at right back, and Tinka Tandberg came in for Beth England up top.
Despite a strong start, we conceded early–nearly on London City’s first opportunity for attack. The goal came on a corner when the Lionesses’ corner fell to their talented, young center back Sangare, who played it top of the box to Freya Godfrey. Godfrey’s finish was one touch, and nobody managed to react in time to clear. The sides traded attacks for much of the half – London City found joy down both wings, particularly through Imuran, Parris and Godfrey, while Spurs made headway in the middle. Eventually, Spurs found an equalizer through an attack orchestrated by Olivia Holdt. After a number of blocked shots, the ball fell to Drew Spence in the box and she was fouled for the penalty. Tinka Tandberg took the penalty and made no mistake. (Sidebar – Tinka Tandberg is a lifelong fan of Harry Kane. Watch the pen and tell me whether you see the stylistic resemblance. I sure did.)
The Lionesses struck again early in the second half. Drew Spence lost the ball in midfield and the Lionesses broke down our left side. Amanda Nildén and Ash Neville had both committed too far forward to be much help stopping the counterattack. Nikita Parris tapped it in at the far post, and possibly broke Lize Kop’s nose in the process. Lize wasn’t substituted, but I’m not sure she looked right for the rest of the game.
Eveliina Summanen equalized from a spectacular free kick in the 69th minute after Matilda Vinberg was brought down just outside the box (ICYMI, you can find the good stuff here). But Spurs attempts to press on deflated due to an unlucky own goal in the 81st minute. Amanda Nildén was rushing toward the endline and could only put the ball in her own net when Asslani’s deflected free kick fell unexpectedly at her feet. Moments later, Tōko Koga gave the ball away in midfield. Spurs scrambled to stop the resulting counter, but nobody could stop Freya Godfrey from cutting inside and shooting past Lize Kop. Spurs failed to take a couple half-chances to reduce the deficit, and that was that.
Substitutions
Martin Ho made a number of substitutions in an attempt to either shore things up or change the game. Martha Thomas replaced Jess in the 61st minute, Beth England replaced Tinka Tandberg in the 71st minute, Lenna Gunning-Williams came in for Matilda Vinberg in the 89th minute. I found some of these choices a bit odd – Jess and Matilda were only having OK games, but Martha and Lenna haven’t shown anything to make me think they might do better. That said, I’m not sure who I would’ve brought on in their stead. I also would’ve liked to see Martin substitute Amanda, who looked very tired, or Eveliina, who is possibly still carrying those broken ribs.
Other Thoughts
It was a demoralizing end to the game, and an uncomfortable reminder ahead of the North London Derby that this Spurs side has not entirely ironed out the sloppiness and haplessness that plagued the side last year.
Between the set piece routines, the midfield marking, and the speed up and down the wings, it was obvious London City came prepared for this game. I’m not sure we had a good enough plan in return. Most of our attempts to progress the ball seemed to run through Olivia Holdt. London City marked her out of the game for the first 30 minutes, and even once she got going, well, one person probably shouldn’t be doing everything. To be fair, it was pretty congested in the center of the pitch, and Olivia is a player who really shines holding on to the ball in tight spaces. I wasn’t a fan of our attempts to progress the ball down the wing into space since London City’s pacy fullbacks were easily able to match even Jess Naz, who is quite quick.
Martin Ho has given me no reason to think he won’t address the tactical issues in the coming weeks. But this is the thing – Godfrey and Rofiat Imuran both had monstrous games in attack, as did some of the big names in midfield like Asslani, Geyoro, and Kumagai. London City and Michelle Kang have truly invested. We’ve looked awesome under Martin Ho so far, but we still have mostly middle of the road attacking talent. I can only hope our club will address the depth and talent issues in the January transfer window.
Up Next
I’m sorry to report that we face Arsenal next. However, there could be worse times to do it! Arsenal trailed us in the table until last week, and now they’re only ahead on goal difference. They’re coming off a 3-2 defeat to Bayern Munich midweek in the Champions League in which they blew a 2 goal lead. They might be tired, they might be demoralized! Personally, I’m hoping we reprise our famous 1-0 2023 victory against them. Wouldn’t that be nice?
