Tottenham Hotspur Women must’ve used up all their goals against Crystal Palace over the weekend, because the team found everywhere but the net in a quiet, Wednesday night stadium. Their unsuccessful attacking performance was rewarded with a penalty shootout. Spurs lost the shootout 4-3 and will take 1 point home for their showing, while West Ham will take 2.
Martin Ho chose a somewhat rotated lineup from the side that dispatched Crystal Palace 7-0. Selma Panengstuen got her first start in goal, and
Alice Sombath joined stalwart Amanda Nildén for her start. Ella Morris and Hanna Wijk lined up as fullbacks. Eveliina Summanen and Olga Ahtinen formed a Finnish double pivot ahead of Olivia Holdt, and Matilda Nildén and Matilda Vinberg were on the wings with Shekiera Martinez ahead of them.
The first half didn’t have too much action. Matilda Nildén had an excellent early interception that led to an Olivia Holdt chance that West Ham cleared. In general, the team maintained possession further back the pitch than I’ve seen in recent matches, which seems like a smart thing to when you’re facing a West Ham side with Vivianne Asseyi and Kelly Gago running counters. But as such, Spurs seemed to struggle to cap off all that excellent passing with attacking threat. Just at the close of the half, West Ham put one in the net via Vivianne Asseyi, but she was offside.
The second half went much the same way as the first, though Spurs’ later substitutes grabbed a bit more of a stronghold as the game went on. Both sides traded shots, though none were too threatening. The best chances fell late in the game as both sides tried to secure victory. West Ham nearly scored off a free kick that Selma Panengstuen couldn’t quite manage to clear, but Alice Sombath deflected the resulting shot. Shekiera Martinez put a cross off the post in the 87th minute, and West Ham got back to deflect Matilda Vinberg’s last minute shot on our free kick.
(Photo by Lewis Storey – WSL/WSL Football via Getty Images)
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The penalties in this cup are always a little funny – it’s not a knockout, so the stakes are lower. But the winner of the shootout takes home two points while the loser takes home one, so it’s not nothing! West Ham took their penalties excellently, and it was only through luck and skill that Selma Panengstuen managed to save Ebony Salmon’s. Our penalties seemed a bit less confident (although maybe that was just me). After Caitlin Dijkstra’s early miss, it fell to former Hammer Shekiera Martinez to send Spurs to the sixth penalty, and, well… she skied it.
Going home with one point is not an ideal start for a cup that is actually attainable for us given none of the champions league teams will be in this one. But there’s a long way to in the group stage, and we have plenty of time to win back points necessary to finish in the top 8 of the 23 teams so we can proceed. Our remaining group stage games are against Brighton, Bristol City, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, and Ipswich Town. Once we get through a few more of these games, we’ll have a clearer picture of what needs to be done.
Thoughts on the match
This was not the most exciting game. Nevertheless, we had a lot of debuts and first-in-a-while starts, so I have some thoughts. First of all, Alice Sombath looks good — her passing has a nice zip to it. She’s got attitude too, which I love. She got a pretty good boop to the knee at the end, so hoping she rests up well and we see more of her very soon. The more she plays and beds into this side, the better she’ll be.
Selma Panengstuen had a comfortable game except for a little shakiness on set pieces and that mistake at the end of 90. She maybe could’ve gotten a hand to one more penalty, but sometimes it’s just like that. It was an encouraging performance for a young newcomer, though I have to admit I did miss Lize Kop’s big personality in a penalty shootout. That kind of thing will come with time, too.
Matilda Nildén looks a bit more able to hold her own. She had some crucial interceptions and moments where she retained the ball super well, and she’s starting to turn it into end product. Ella Morris is looking like her old self more and more. I saw some attitude from her, even, making herself an annoyance to the opposition and generally putting herself about. I’d like to see her getting more starts ahead of Cailtlin Dijkstra (who is very solid, but not as exciting going forward as Ella).
Hanna Wijk looked more comfortable and dynamic than she did at times last year, though I would still like to see her improve her defending. I was interested to see that both she and Matilda Vinberg were on opposite sides of the pitch than they usually are. I was pretty cool with that – even though we had players out of position and a new keeper and centerback, West Ham didn’t manage to cause us too many organizational errors.
Shekiera Martinez is still looking promising. She’s getting into good positions, and I love her ability on the ball. She’s still looking a little more timid than I expected her to, but I think the more she gets used to the system, the better she’ll be. I came away from this game feeling like we didn’t get the ball to her (or Olivia Holdt or Kirsty Hanson) in good enough positions. I’m not sure if that was because West Ham were defending particularly well, if we were sitting back farther to anticipate their counterattacks, or because we didn’t have 100% of our best players on the pitch all at once. I feel like not scoring is a problem this team sometimes has. Maybe it’s one of those things, or maybe it’s just a thing that happens to teams – sometimes ball not go goal.
I did like to see, especially in light of all the rotation, that the players were super supportive of each other, even ones in direct competition for the same role. Lize Kop gave Selma Panengstuen a big hug at full time, and Tinka Tandberg did the same to Shekiera Martinez after she missed her penalty (as did most of the team). All very nice to see! I love what they’re building there, and despite this small setback, I have a lot of hope for the future.
Looking Ahead
Spurs face Aston Villa on Sunday at 7:00 AM. That’s the last game against a midtable side before a difficult run against London City, Chelsea and Arsenal. With a cup game against Brighton mixed in there, Martin Ho will want to continue to balance managing minutes while putting out the best side possible. Should be very interesting to see what he does, so stay tuned!!!
