This report is courtesy of Jan Juhlin, to whom I owe many thanks

Falkenbergs FF – Tottenham Hotspur FC 1-1 (0-1)

Goals:
0-1 21’ Barnard
1-1 68’ Carlsson

Line-ups: Falkenbergs FF: Karlsson, Persson, Carlsson, Lundgren, Gustafsson, Karnell, Josefsson, De Stefano, Svensson, Sandquist, Larsson.
Subs: Sorensen, Bergstrand, Berta, Sundqvist, Rosen, Moller, Kameraj, Egenwall, Olsson, Mehmet, Elm.

Spurs: Burch, Kelly (Ifil, 45), McKie (Slabber, 45), O'Donoghue, Bunjevcevic (Doherty, 45), Hughes, Marney, Jackson, Ricketts (O'Hara, 45), Yeates (Price, 67), Barnard (Malcolm, 67).

And so the season that many have branded “the most important ever” has kicked off, even though that is actually saying a bit too much. After having arrived in Sweden on Sunday the team has done a lot of training and for the game against a rather mediocre Falkenbergs FF, currently in the lower regions of Swedish Division 2, Jacques Santini opted to field a very young side. The general consensus of the fans in the stands was that it was actually Spurs U19/Reserves vs. Falkenberg.

It was the home side that started best and after just 6 minutes flair midfielder Daniel De Stefano flicked the ball over Burch from 20 yrds, only to see it hit the post. After that situation Spurs started getting the upper hand lead by Rohan Ricketts, Mark Hughes and a lively Lee Barnard.

With Spurs starting to dictate the pace Falkenberg became more and more vulnerable and after 21 minutes Marcel McKie crossed the ball in from the left wing to Lee Barnard. The young striker made no mistake as he thumped the ball home from 8 yards.

Spurs continued to control the game but failed to get any real control of the game. For this to happen the young Tottenham side would have needed a lot more confidence and pace. The only times this really happened was when Ricketts or Jackson got control of the ball.

Falkenberg had a good chance to equalise after 34 minutes but Burch did well to tip the ball over the bar. Just a minute later Barnard once again began to celebrate as he got to the end of another McKie cross, but the goal was unfortunately ruled offside. A slow 10 minutes followed before the referee blew the whistle for half time.

The second half started with Spurs having made 4 substitutions. Johnny Jackson was pulled back to play to the left in defence with Ifil replacing Kelly to the right. In the middle Goran Bunjevcic made room for Gary Doherty. Mark Yeates was played to the left of the midfield, while O’Hara and Hughes camped together in the middle, with Marney to the right. Slabber played alongside Barnard up front.

A nail-biting freezing wind swept over the pitch and no one could imagine that it was indeed the middle of the summer, but the match was accompanying the weather well enough. Spurs reserves at times looked like a schoolboy team, lacking both pace and constructive ideas. This meant that Falkenberg managed to get the upper hand during the first 20 minutes of the second half, but good goalkeeping by Burch saved the team on a couple of occasions. In the 68th minute Ifil tried a tackle in the area, but just lost out and the ball was played into the middle where De Stefano picked it up, and ran towards the Spurs goal, he there encountered Doherty, but still managed to pass the ball back to Björn Carlsson who chipped Burch, much to the pleasure of the home fans.

The last 20 minutes made no-one happy. Falkenberg had a couple of chances to seal the game, whilst Hughes came close for Spurs, but the game ended in a draw.

It’s always hard to draw any conclusions from a game like this but Barnard played well, as did Ricketts and Hughes. Slabber came on in the second half but showed nothing of worth, whilst the same could probably be said about Ifil, who looked scared and out of position for much of the game.

According to Santini, Tottenham will field a fully strength side against FC Copenhagen on Thursday in Gothenburg

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