Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Borussia Dortmund

I know it's hard to assess these things without intimate knowledge of a club (or bothering to use Google) but you could say that we were missing 4 potential first-teamers last night (Rose, Lamela, Wanyama, Alli).

 

What a great game. Especially superb from Kane, Davies, Eriksen, Vertonghen and the Beekeeper. We won because our defenders and attackers outplayed theirs, even while their midfield dominated. It's a great win not only because of the opponent and the Wembley hoodoo but because a new approach to playing a top team who pressed us worked extremely well--and that that approach is one that a team which isn't deep may be able to use to compete successfully on multiple fronts this year. It's funny also that the approach was a bit like making Wembley away.

 

Mainly first team.

 

I'm glad you said potential because you can take Lamela out of the equation being a long term injury and has played no part. Even though they had top men out they could have drawn level but for official incompetence.

 

In football at the highest level these days I think at the top clubs of which Dortmund are certainly one, there is not really a difference between first choice and squad players. Teams have large squads of elite players in order to be able to deal with losses due to injury or suspension. As an example you could point to the absence of Marco Reus from their starting 11 as being a big miss, however if had played one of either Pulisic or Yarmolenko misses out and they were both excellent on the night.

 

I visited a Dortmund forum and read their match thread. Yes, they had injuries, but they all seemed very happy with their first XI suggesting it was their bench that was depleted. As you say, with the players we had ourt for different reasons, it could be said that we weren't at full strength either.

 

Reus isn't in their CL squad

 

Not clear why that is so, but based on the past 2+ days
you are going to be spending a lot of time repeating the fact
(introducing your head to a brick wall might be the most
time-efficient solution ) .

 

Not all 7 were starters though, only Reus, Weigl and Schmelzer would've likely been in the starting XI if fit.

Let's not forget we were missing a few as well, so we could say our win wasn't even with the top Tottenham team.

 

Spurs beat the Dortmund team that was fielded.
Just as they dealt with the Spurs teams fielded in the EL
games in 2016.

Dortmund will get another bite at Spurs in a few weeks
time. Meanwhile, there is plenty for the Spurs coaching
staff to forensically analyse from the game in readiness
for that time.

 

I believe those "other" Dortmund players were really up for this game,probably a little more than the regulars they replaced,so...GOOD ONE,SPURS!

 

The same would apply to Reus, Guerreiro and Rose though, wouldn't it?
As for their wrongly disallowed equaliser, their first should've been flagged for an offside in the buildup.

Got a cruciate ligament rupture in May and isn't expected to return until January.

 

Ja, der Mannschaft war in der Nahe der vollen Kraft, war nicht?
Ein sehr gutes Ergebnis fur Spurs.

 

Given the hissy fits thrown by Burki and the club's own Twitter after the game, I can't see myself being too sympathetic to the club when Bayern inevitably come along to help themselves to another one of their players...

 

Weds night, Vertonghen gets red for an accidental flailing arm.
Today in the Palace game, McArthur quite deliberately forearms Shane Long and Long gets told to get up by the ref!!

Don't we just love the consistency of officials??

 

It's something that we have to be very aware of in Europe, though.
Each country seems to have a bunch of unwritten rules about what's acceptable and what isn't.
The Italian ref from this game also took charge of our home game against Monaco last season and we had similar issues.

What flies with the officials in Holland or Germany might not pass with those from Spain or Italy.
The club really needs to be scouting the ref for each match and tailoring our approach based upon what they find.
I dread to think of what some on the continent make of our representatives when they take charge of their games.

 

I have a suggestion for what those on the continent should make for our refereeing representatives...

please log in to view this image

 

Totally agree in principle, but whilst at a push Verts could have been more aware, that wasn't really an incident/decision that could be planned for.

 

ALSO (and I know I go on about this but...): How about we focus (as we would have done just 15 years ago) at least a little bit on the fact that a grown man was grazed in the face by another man's hand and he therefore fell screaming to the floor clutching his face? I mean - that is still notable, isn't it?! It's so depressing that that behaviour isn't even noted nowadays. Not even (really) by me until my wife came in as the incident was on the action replay and I saw it through her eyes and realised "Oh yeah - they're doing their weird cheaty, pathetic pretendy stuff. I'd not really noticed because I'm so used to it"

Any normal game of football between amateurs and an accidental hand on the face gets recognised for what it was immediately, no-one would make a big deal of it and CERTAINLY no-one would be rolling on the ground clutching their face. It really does makes me embarrassed to be a football supporter.

 

From the BBC website a couple of hours ago...........

Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been dropped for disciplinary reasons.

The 28-year-old will not be considered for his club's next Bundesliga fixture against VfB Stuttgart on Friday.

Dortmund announced the suspension in response to a supporter's question on Twitter, but did not elaborate on the reasons behind it.

It comes after Dortmund have lost three of their past four league games to drop to third place in the Bundesliga, six points off leaders Bayern Munich.

The rumour is that Aubameyang was visiting Ousmane Dembele in Barcelona and may have 'done a Coutinho' and been caught in the act of whoring himself out to the Catalans. I suspect that another back problem is in the offing.

Last week, I heard Raphael Honigstein say that all is far from well in Dortmund right about now. There is a good deal of concern that they've cocked up their recent managerial appointment and Peter Bosz is running out of chances to put things right after just a few months in charge and that the players just aren't having him.

I'm really torn. I'd love to beat the no good, arrogant ****ers but I'd like us to rest a few after the NLD and take advantage of our fantastic points haul from the Madrid games.