Our 3-2 victory over Juve was pretty damn enjoyable and gave us a first-hand look at the readiness of a few key players for the new season.
It's always difficult with these friendly games played in front of 10s of thousands of "fans" who watch the entire game through the tiny screen on their smartphone rather than actually adding to the atmosphere to get a real sense of what is what. However, there were several plus points to take away from the win.
Spurs definitely started the brighter of the 2 teams with young Troy Parrott and Oliver Skipp leading a high press that put Juve's midfield and defence under pressure throughout the early stages. That pressure ultimately lead to the opening chance of the match as Skipp bundled Blaise Matuidi off the ball in his own half, fed Parrott who in turn found Son with the South Korean drawing a save from veteran goalkeeper Buffon.
In the stifling heat, it was the younger legs of Spurs that gave them the advantage over their Juventus peers and ultimately lead to the opening goal. Tony Parrott collected the ball near the half-way line and fed Son who was allowed to run at the Juve defense unchecked before feeding the ball back to Parrott who had busted a gut to offer the South Korean support on the overlap. Parrott's shot across Buffon was parried and Lamela was left with the simple task of slotting the ball home.
The future of Erik Lamela seems to be one topic that is never really up for discussion. Coming into his 7th year at the club the former record signing has never made a notable impact despite having a couple of decent pre-seasons in recent years. Does Poch see a place for him in the team or is it more a case of him being practically unsellable given his woeful injury record?
Spurs looked a little vulnerable themselves at the back, routinely giving the ball away in dangerous areas and generally needing to scramble back in defence. With Toby Alderweireld the only first-team regular starting in the back 4 it's probably not too surprising and it was he who came to Spurs rescue when he blocked a Cristiano Ronaldo shot following sloppy play from young Anthony Georgiou who was essentially playing out of position at left-back. In the normal course of events you would have put your mortgage on Ronaldo to have buried the chance but it seems even the greats need a little time to get up to speed.
Elsewhere Juventus started Gonzalo Higuain upfront as the Argentine looked to secure his future following his return from a fairly uninspiring spell with Chelsea last season. Higuain looked as rusty as an abandoned oil tanker in the Premier League last year with a turning circle to match but yesterday's friendly played at a more sedate pace suited him far more, suggesting that the 31 year old may still have something to offer in Serie A. He scored a beautifully worked goal to equalise involving all 3 of the Juve forward line and perhaps has given the manager something to think about as rumours of another loan move this season abound.
It was noticable that Juve celebrated that equaliser quite vigoursly and this friendly had a little more bite in it than you might usually have expected from a pre-season game played in draining conditions. Cristiano Ronaldo then gave the fans of both teams what they had been waiting for with a 2nd Juve goal followed by his trademark celebration - que a thousand flashes of the camera phone.
As is often the case with these games, a heap of substitutions followed in the 2nd half and while that fractured the play a little we did get to see our first sight of Spurs new record signing Tanguay Ndombele and what an introduction it was. I wrote a blog about the best debuts in football and while I don't really consider a pre-season friendly to be a proper debut, this was still some show from the muscular French midfielder.
In true Oliver Twist style, Spurs fans have been left asking "please sir, can I have some more?"
Of course, the crowning moment was still to come. Harry Kane had by his standards a fairly quiet season last year, interrupted by injury and no doubt affected by his World Cup efforts last summer, the striker returned his lowest goal tally in 2018/19 since he became a first-team regular for Tottenham. As committed as Kane is to the club on and off the pitch, sometimes we all just need a break and if this piece of instinctive play is anything to go by then that break has done him a world of good. Let's hope this can continue in the games that actually mean something .......
