Tottenham Hotspur Women lost 4-2 to the London City Lions standouts in last Sunday’s highly anticipated clash. Spurs tied London City on two goals, but were unable to prevent or respond to goals in the 81st and 84th minutes.
Martin Ho, as he has done recently, selected a relatively unchanged team: Ashleigh Neville started in place of Josefine Rybrink at right-back, and Tinka Tandberg replaced Beth England up top.
Despite a good start, we conceded early, almost at London City’s first attack opportunity. The goal came from a corner when the Lionesses’ corner fell into the hands of their talented young central defender Sangare, who played it from the top of the box to Freya Godfrey. Godfrey’s shot was a one-touch shot and no one managed to react in time to clear it. The teams traded attacks for much of the half: London City found joy on both flanks, particularly through Imuran, Parris and Godfrey, while Spurs advanced in the middle. Finally, the Spurs found the equalizer through an attack orchestrated by Olivia Holdt. After several blocked shots, the ball fell to Drew Spence in the box and he was fouled, resulting in a penalty. Tinka Tandberg took the penalty and made no mistake. (Sidebar: Tinka Tandberg is a lifelong Harry Kane fan. Look at the pen and tell me if you see the stylistic resemblance. I bet you do.)
The Lionesses scored again at the beginning of the second half. Drew Spence fumbled at midfield and the Lionesses broke down our left side. Amanda Nildén and Ash Neville had gotten too far forward to help stop the counterattack. Nikita Parris hit the far post and possibly broke Lize Kop’s nose in the process. Lize wasn’t subbed, but I’m not sure she looked good for the rest of the game.
Eveliina Summanen equalized with a spectacular free kick in the 69th minute after Matilda Vinberg was brought down just outside the box (ICYMI, you can find the good here). But Spurs’ pressure was deflated by an unfortunate own goal in the 81st minute. Amanda Nildén was racing towards the byline and could only put the ball into her own goal when a deflected free kick from Asslani unexpectedly fell at her feet. Moments later, Tōko Koga gave the ball away in midfield. Spurs were quick to stop the resulting counter-attack but no one could stop Freya Godfrey cutting inside and passing to Lize Kop. The Spurs failed to convert a couple of half-chances to reduce the deficit, and that was it.
Martin Ho made a number of substitutions in an attempt to 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 replaced Matilda Vinberg in the 89th minute. Some of these options seemed a little strange to me: Jess and Matilda were just having good games, but Martha and Lenna haven’t shown anything that makes me think they could do better. That being said, I’m not sure who I would have brought in his place. I would also have liked to see Martin replace Amanda, who looked very tired, or Eveliina, who may still have those broken ribs.
It was a demoralizing end to the match and an uncomfortable reminder ahead of the North London Derby that this Spurs team has not fully addressed the sloppiness and misfortune that plagued the team last year.
Between the set piece routines, the marking in the midfield and the speed up and down the flanks, it was obvious that London City came prepared for this match. I’m not sure we had a good enough plan in return. Most of our attempts to advance the ball seemed to go through Olivia Holdt. City of London left 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 quite congested in midfield and Olivia is a player who really shines holding the ball in tight spaces. I didn’t like our attempts to advance the ball down the wing into space, as London City’s quick full-backs were able to easily match even Jess Naz, who is quite fast.
Martin Ho has given me no reason to think that he will not address tactical issues in the coming weeks. But here’s the thing: Godfrey and Rofiat Imuran had monster games in attack, as did some of the big midfield names like Asslani, Geyoro and Kumagai. The City of London and Michelle Kang have really invested. We’ve looked incredible under Martin Ho so far, but we still have mostly mid-attacking talent. I can only hope that our club addresses the depth and talent issues in the January transfer window.
I regret to report that the next match will be against Arsenal. However, there could be worse times to do it! Arsenal were behind us in the table until last week and are now only ahead on goal difference. They are coming off a 3-2 loss to Bayern Munich midweek in the Champions League in which they blew a 2-goal lead. They may be tired, they may be demoralized! Personally, I hope we repeat our famous 1-0 win in 2023 against them. Wouldn’t that be nice?