Here is a second report from Jonathan Adelman.
What an emotional evening, what a lovely performance - and oh, how fitting
that on the night Tottenham Hotspur showed its appreciation for its greatest
manager, over 35,000 witnessed the birth of a revolution which might restore
some of the footballing traditions of the club which have declined, (with
one or more notable exceptions over the years) since Bill Nick left the Lane
in 1974.
The 3-0 win was nice enough but as Spurs fans the world over will tell you
it is the style of play that matters almost as much and that a dreary
victory will rarely live longer in the memory than a pulsating 2-2 draw.
The Tottenham Way was born when Bill Nick was a player in the title winning
Push and Run team of 1950/51 and accentuated during Bill's tenure as manager
from the late fifties until the mid seventies. Style matters and on
Wednesday 8th August style came back to White Hart Lane. Passing flowing
football, craft and guile and thrills. Sure it was a friendly but the ball
slid along the slick surface pinging from pale blue Tottenham shirted player
to a team mate. Fiorentina were no doubt a few weeks behind in their
pre-season campaign but nothing should detract from the quality of Spurs'
performance and the newspaper comment on the game suggests that even the
chiseled old hacks felt privileged to have been at the game.
Although the back 3 of Bunjevcevic, Doherty and King were less than
authoritive early on and Gomes and Chiesa proved slippery customers, Sullivan
was equal to the efforts on target and perhaps fortunate to see two other
chances go past the outside of the post. One delightful half volley chip
from Chiesa was as sublime a piece of skill as one could wish to see. Yet
Spurs dominated the Italian Cup holder visitors and with Taricco and Ziege
providing width and tenacity down the right and left respectively Spurs were
also penetrating.
Freund played in the holding role with Clemence buzzing alongside him in possibly his most composed performance for the club. In front of them and supporting the front two of Ferdinand and Rebrov was the irrepressible Poyet. For most Spurs fans this was their first glimpse of the new boys, I had been privileged to see them on numerous occasions through pre-season but I was a keen observer of other fans views on the White Hart Lane debutants. Ziege certainly whips in a mean cross and his dead ball delivery is first class. Bunjevcevic is so composed on the ball
and made a favourable impression on those around me. Poyet though is the
kind of player the Spurs fans crave, a heart on the sleeve, infectious
character with super vision and a genuine eye for goal.
Indeed it was Poyet who picked out a right wing run by Taricco which saw a long deep cross fumbled by the keeper under pressure from Les Ferdinand. The man tipped to be skipper this term spun and buried the ball in the back of the net. Then it was Poyet's turn to turn from provider to poacher. Rebrov's near post left wing
corner was met deftly by Gus at the near post and his delicate yet powerful volley nestled inside the far post.
A half time score of 2-0 was justified and along with a lovely interview
with Bill on the Jumbotrons at half time the capacity crowd were treated to
a role call of former stars from the 1950's to the more recent past.
Massive cheers reserved for the likes of Dave Mackay and Gary Mabbutt and
the curious inclusion of West Stand season ticket holder Ronnie Rosenthal.
Half time saw the introduction of Iversen for Ferdinand. Steff can
undoubtedly score goals, it's just he appears lazy sometimes and maybe the
pressure of 4 strikers competing for two slots in the team will crank up his
performances, certainly he took his goal with class. Poyet had dispossessed
a Fiorentina player just inside the Viola's half and a surging run gave him
an opportunity to shoot, although this was blocked by a defender the ball
came back to Gus on the edge of the box. He feigned a shot and slipped a pass
square for Iversen wrong-footing the entire defence, Iversen looked up and
flicked the ball over the advancing Manninger who had also been a half time
substitute.
The game petered out somewhat as the two teams made a number of changes and
this allowed the cameramen to pick out Bill up in the director's box sitting
next to his wife Darkie and each time the broad smile of the Yorkshireman's
face lit up, the Jumbotron the crowd bellowed its approval.
By the time people made their way out of the ground there was a general
feeling that we had gone along way to getting out Tottenham back.
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