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No one's ever captured a trophy or fourth place in preseason, gang. With that said, I invite everyone to not feel bad at all about Tottenham Hotspur's 3-1 loss to Sunderland in the first game of the Barclays Asia Trophy. Spurs struck first, but conceded three unanswered. As a result, they're heading for the third place game where they will face the loser of Manchester City - South China on Saturday.
Kyle Walker set up Gylfi Sigurdsson for the opener, beating two men down the right flank before cutting the ball back towards the penalty spot. The Sunderland defense had followed Clint Dempsey and Emmanuel Adebayor forward, leaving Sigurdsson unmarked, and he had no problem finishing. It was all downhill from there for Spurs.
Sunderland drew level before halftime through Cabral, thanks to Tom Huddlestone. He touched the ball directly into the path of Sunderland's new signing and he took advantage by splitting the Tottenham center backs and finishing impressively. Wes Brown put Sunderland ahead in the 64th minute, winning a header on a corner and powering the ball into the back of the net. With Spurs pushing everyone forward for an equalizer in the dying minutes, David Moberg Karlsson took advantage of the available space on a counter and finished Spurs off, scoring Sunderland's third.
Lineups
Tottenham: Gomes (Friedel, 41), Walker, Rose, Dawson (c), Caulker (Vertonghen, 41 [Fryers, 51]), Huddlestone (Carroll, 70), Parker, Lennon (Defoe, 41), Dempsey (Townsend, 70), Sigurdsson, Adebayor.
Subs not used: Lloris, Naughton, Assou-Ekotto.
Sunderland: Mannone, Gardner, Colback, O'Shea (c), Brown (Roberge, 77), Cabral, Larsson (Ba, 62), Johnson (Moberg Karlsson, 62), Giaccherini (McClean, 78), Sessegnon, Altidore (Wickham, 74).
Subs not used: Vaughan, Mandron, Cuellar, Westwood, Pickford.
Notes
- The halves were shortened to 40 minutes each because of weather.
- Holy hell was that pitch a disgrace. I know the organizers of the tournament can't control the weather but that was dangerous. And now City have to play on it after we did? I'd refuse to take the pitch.
- If Jan isn't okay burn down everything
- The team called the lineup a 4-3-3 with Dempsey left and Lennon right.
- Kyle Walker's assist on Gylfi Sigurdsson's goal was so hot.
- A terrible touch by Tom Huddlestone led directly to Sunderland's first. Bad pitch or not, it was a horrendous play.
- On the move before that goal, Danny Rose and Steven Caulker derped together, leading to a chance.
- Clint Dempsey and Emmanuel Adebayor were, by all accounts, working their tails off. They seem to realize that they have an opportunity to get into the team regularly at this juncture, but only if they perform consistently.
- Zeki Fryers got burned badly on the corner that Sunderland scored their second goal from.
- Danny Rose got torched on Sunderland's third.
Highlights
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