Tottenhams historischer Sieg
Goal Fest
Text: Titus Chalk Bild: Imago
So etwas hat die Insel lange nicht gesehen. Tottenham schoss Wigan mit 9:1 ab, alleine Stürmer Jermain Defoe erzielte fünf Tore. Unser englischer Mitarbeiter Titus Chalk über das Schützenfest und die Bedeutung der Spurs-Stürmer.
As the attritional second half of Bayern Munchen v Bayer Leverkusen dragged on, my colleague Jens broke the news of an all together more entertaining game played on Sunday afternoon back in London. »Guess the Tottenham v Wigan score,« he said. Hoping for a humiliating Spurs defeat, I replied: »3-1 to Wigan«. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Goal fest or rout?
The scoreline was in fact 9-1 to Tottenham. 9-1! That is the sort of scoreline that has journalists desperately scrabbling round for a suitably hyperbolic description and always provokes tongue-in-cheek debate in the office about which kinds of colourful clichés can be heaped on such a result – is that technically a »goal fest«, »a cricket score« or a simple »rout«? If any readers could teach me the German equivalents, I would be very grateful.
Although the thumping win will renew Tottenham’s belief that they can grab a UEFA Champions League place this season, the real winners might be Jermain Defoe, Aaron Lennon and Peter Crouch, all players who have had questions asked about their suitably for England’s World Cup squad. Aaron Lennon was a livewire throughout, scoring once and getting three assists, Jermain Defoe became only the third player after Alan Shearer and Andy Cole to score five goals in a single Premier League game, and even the sometimes puzzling Peter Crouch grabbed a goal. Though one performance against a bewildered Wigan side doesn’t quite book you a seat on Fabio Capello’s flight to South Africa, it can certainly push you into the spotlight.
It was notable meanwhile, that earlier in the same weekend Michael Owen had made a rare Premier League start for Manchester United, failed to click with England’s one confirmed striker Wayne Rooney, and lacked the sharpness to take the chances presented to him in United’s 3-0 win over Everton. Owen was already well behind in the race for the single ‘fox in the box’ berth in the England squad and can consider himself pegged back even further by Defoe’s headline-grabbing performance.
Redknapp: »An amazing finisher«
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp is certainly bullish about Defoe’s credentials: »He’s an amazing finisher,« he says. »Wayne Rooney’s fantastic – a complete all-round player – but as a finisher, Defoe is the best out there. I’m sure he’ll go to the World Cup. Fabio will see the goals he’s scored, the way he’s got stronger this season and is using his upper body strength a bit more and holding people off, and he will be impressed.«
With a total of four strikers likely to figure in The England squad this summer, that would leave two spots behind Rooney and Defoe. One seems somewhat improbably reserved for Aston Villa’s Emile Heskey, a player Cappello feels makes the team tick, but who has only scored twice for his club this season – and not at all for England. Behind him include pretenders Crouch, hitherto regularly in the squad, Darren Bent, who did little in his recent outing against Brazil, West Ham’s Carlton Cole, powerful but raw, and possibly Aston Villa’s Gabriel Agbonlahor, another player who has failed to seize his opportunities with England.
