Tottenham Hotspur Draw Manchester United, Undefeated In 5
By Andy Pearson
Exciting? 0-0? Can those two phrases be used in the same sentence? In this case, yes they can. On December 28th 2014, a Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur played host to Manchester United at White Hart Lane. The two teams came into this game both in great form, and it was set up to be quite the spectacle.
Oh how these teams didn’t disappoint. Normally when someone sees a score that is 0-0, they think of a snooze-fest, a game in which nothing exciting happened and most of the game was played in the midfield. Not true when it came to the Tottenham-Manchester United game. During both halves, there were many chances created for both teams to try and break the deadlock, but no one was able to capitalize, and both goalies were in great form again.
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On the Tottenham side, Hugo Lloris showed why he is the captain of the club and why he is a big part of the team. He had many saves in this game and stood on his head in order to preserve the clean sheet and keep the tie. On the other end, in the Manchester United net, David De Gea showed why he is moving up the ranks to become one of the most prestigious net minders in the EPL. De Gea’s starting position was essential in a few plays, and he himself had tremendous saves.
On the attacking side of the game, there were plenty of chances for both teams. The game could have very easily ended in a 2-2 draw, as both teams had two chances that were not capitalized. Radamel Falcao, on loan from Monaco, received a great through ball and was alone on the keeper, but his shot came off as if it were either muffed or deflected as Lloris was grateful enough to gather the weakened shot in his big goalie mits. The other chance had van Persie in alone on Lloris. Van Persie thought that Lloris was going to charge him, but he didn’t. Due to this mix up, Persie had a missed touch which ended up turning into a weakened shot which Lloris saved with his foot, then caught the ball.
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On the other side, Tottenham had two great chances as well. The first came in the first half when there was a ball in the box, around the 6 yard box, and a Tottenham player attempted to volley the ball into the net, and miss timed his strike which allowed De Gea to grab the floating shot. Late in the second half, Harry Kane, the rising star for Tottenham, carried the ball down the left side of the field. After he cut in towards the middle of the field, he then laid off a perfect lay off pass for Ryan Mason. Mason was in alone one on one against De Gea with 5 minutes to go, the game on his foot. Any US soccer fan remembers the heart break that happened to Chris Wondolowski as he was alone in on net with less than 5 minutes and the game on his foot, and he missed terribly. The same thing happened to Mason, he one timed the shot and blasted it over the cross bar into the Tottenham faithful.
Speaking of being faithful, the atmosphere as outstanding at White Hart Lane this Sunday. The crowd was always making noise, often going with their known chants of “Oh when the Spurs go marching in,” and “Come on you Spurs,” often times having the entire stadium singing. The atmosphere and loyalty for the club was there and it was an outstanding game to watch, my early vote for game of the season.
Tottenham plays at home again next against London rivals and league leaders in Chelsea.