VIC SAVE AND A BEAUTY!

I’ll have the hamstring and Swiss cheese defending...

Spurs gritted out 3 points on Saturday hosting Everton on the strength of goals from Richarlison and Son, yet another strong showing from Deki, the steadying influence of Davies as all around him was falling apart, and a myth-making performance from Vicario.

The match highlights…

7’ EVERTON CHANCE Spurs should’ve been awarded a free kick just outside the Everton box. Instead, the referee bid them play on, and Skipp’s poor touch led to a counter.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s poor first touch allowed Romero to chase him down with a decisive challenge. Unfortunately, in doing so, it appears Romero might have aggravated his hamstring.

9’ GOAL SPURS 1-0 Once again, Spurs struck early as a rejuvenated Richarlison finished off a sparkling team goal, his fourth tally in three matches. Pedro Porro fed Sarr’s run forward, and the midfielder’s through ball found Brennan Johnson, whose neatly placed cross found our newly confident striker.

Richy showed poise in placing it past Jordan Pickford. In previous months, he might have dragged it wide or sent it over the bar…

12’ SPURS CHANCE …like Johnson did three minutes later. Emerson’s bouncing cross wasn’t the cleanest of passes, but it found Johnson in sitter territory and the winger would’ve scored with a stronger touch.

18’ GOAL SPURS 2-0 Johnson made up for his miss by playing a role in a corner sequence leading to Son’s 11th goal of the season. Our speedy right winger received a short corner from Porro, played give-and-go with Deki (is Gianni Vio secretly still working for us?) and fired a shot that Pickford made a meal of, deflecting it into the path of our captain.

I’ll never forgive Pickford for that dirty after-the-whistle challenge he made on Dele four years ago to the day in our 6-2 away win at Goodison Park, so I had a laugh at the keeper’s muff.

26’ ANGEBALL SKILLS! It’s amazing how well and how quickly we’ve learned to play out from the back under Ange. I watched a bit of the Liverpool match and found myself growing impatient with how inefficiently Klopp’s crew were doing the same thing. The one-touch brilliance from Romero to Davies to Son to Sarr to Richarlison to Emerson was a scintillating.

Who had Emerson drawing a yellow from attacking in the center of the pitch on their match bingo card?

45+1’ EVERTON CHANC Andres Gomes, a first-half injury substitution making his first appearance for Everton in a year and a half, sent Jack Harrison on goal, splitting Emerson and Davies. Harrison got off a low shot that Vic went down to his right to block.

HT: OH NO! Romero was subbed off for Dier. The Argentinian was later seen on the bench icing his hamstring. The second half would feel like driving down a mountain in a dune buggy.

51’ EVERTON GOAL DISALLOWED: Gomes had an eventful shift and, here, dispossessed Emerson and assisted Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but VAR correctly ruled Gomes had fouled Emerson. Oddly, as Spurs players surrounded the referee asked for the foul, the Peacock commentator said, “There weren’t many complaints, were there, from Royal’s teammates??”

62’ EVERTON CHANCE Jack Harrison’s clever pass from the outside of his left foot set up Everton midfielder James Garner, whose low shot clipped the outside of the right back. Had Sean Dyche told his boys to aim low to Vic’s right?

82’ GOAL EVERTON 2-1 The visitors finally broke through, and of course it was Gomes. The Portuguese midfielder had suffered that serious ankle injury back in 2019 as a result of a challenge from Son, who memorably cried on the pitch at the sight of it. Gomes was a persistent pest yesterday in his appearance off the bench. He was positioned outside the box as the ball fell to him, and James Tarkovsky’s cleverly blocked Deki from closing down Gomes, who struck one through traffic and past Vic.

84’ EVERTON CHANCE Arnaut Danjuma, recently and briefly of Spurs, came on late for Everton, and it seemed inevitable that he would come back to bite us. And Danjuma almost did in the 84’ minute, when Dwight McNeil’s dart of a pass set Danjuma running past Dier & Co. Beto wanted a pass but Danjuma shot and…WHAT A SAVE FROM VICARIO!

Just look at that. This photo reminds me of the description of the Belters in the James S. A. Corey’s Expanse sci-fi series, the blue-collar workers who’ve developed elongated bodies from working in low-gravity environments. Look at all the work Vicario’s limbs are doing to deflect that shot. It’s not even human. It looks more like the stuff of a mythical, winged mammal.

It was his save of the season to that point. Yet it might not even be his best save of the match…

84’ EVERTON CHANCE Ben Davies made a goal-line clearance off the resulting corner!

90+4’ EVERTON CHANCE There they were again, Gomes and Danjuma, with the former setting up a chance for the latter, who continued to find joy down the left. Danjuma had two strikers making runs, but with Davies racing back and Dier doing his best to cut down the angle, the Evertonian once again opted for a shot and skied it into the seats.

90+6’ EVERTON CHANCE Spurs were staggering. Danjuma again had a chance, this one from point-blank range. His shot ricocheted off the bottom of the crossbar down to our keeper’s right leg as the he stood partially behind his line. With only an inch or two of the ball still over the white line, Vicario’s subtle, split-second adjustment deflected the ball out.

Some will say the save was inconsequential because the offside flag had gone up, but the replay looked close and one never knows what will happen once it goes to the man behind the curtain.

FT 2-1 SPURS. In what was very much a “results” match, Spurs looked  more vulnerable than they have all season. Surely, the suspensions of Yves Bissouma and Destiny Udogie, the long-term injuries to Maddison, Bentancur, and vdV, and Romero’s exit have gutted the team’s core. We can only hope the issue with Cuti’s hamstring is not too serious, as he is the heart of our defense, and his presence brings the best out of Davies, our emergency CB who has proven himself quite capable as a complement to the world-class Romero. The January transfer window cannot get here soon enough.

UPSTATE SPURS MOTM: It’s gotta be Vic. I continue to wonder how we got him…and reportedly for less than 17M pounds! Lots of us had questions about him back in the summer. I even likened him to Heurelho Gomes, which in retrospect sounds like blasphemy. So far, he looks like Lloris in his prime but with the excellent passing skills necessary for Angeball. What a gem we have in Vicario.

SPUR OF THE MOMENT: I give this to the player who might not have won MOTM yet who did something special that might have gone under the radar. We don’t win that match without Deki’s presence across the pitch. I’m convinced he’s our most versatile player. He’s started as a RW and an 8/10 hybrid, and at one point on Saturday, he tracked back and helped play the ball out of the back like an LB. I’d even considered naming him MOTM before Vicario’s heroics. So step on up, Deki, you are the Upstate Spurs SOTM!

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One still wishes Levy had not waited until Kane was out the door before assembling a strong team around him. With him, we might well have been running away with the league. Absent our generational striker, many predicted Tottenham to tumble down the table. Their tears are our Christmas present. We’ll sit in the Top 4 on Christmas morning, above Pep’s quadruple winners for the moment.

Happy holidays from Upstate Spurs!