"Not impressed with Vigouroux then" Understatement of the year. Miles is not legible for the Nextgens now. I joked to somebody the other week that the reason the U21s lost 4-3 to Wolves the other week was that Miles was not playing. As it appears that Vigouroux was, I think I can make 2 + 2 = 4 (goals conceded at least) . Other than that, Sporting did all the basics right, and Spurs did not. For the first 75 mins of normal time, when the roles reversed. However, once they realised Vigoroux was baby Gomes, their subsequent long ball play was intelligent to attempt to exploit it.
goalkeepers and defenders tend to mature (in a game sense, not saying they're all childish) later than other positions so i personally, from having not seen ANY of it, wouldn't read too much into the number of goals scored/conceded in games where there is an upper age limit.
In my view, he made 6 mistakes at least in the game. Of these, 3 resulted in goals and he was very fortunate to get away with the other 3. He didn't get off to a good start because the goal they scored in the 5th minute was already his second error of the evening. To say he had a nightmare is frankly being rather generous because he really did have the mother of all stinkers. it was hard to believe this was the same goalkeeper who had performed so well in the previous round of this competition, in fact he looked last night as if this was the first time he had ever played in goal, such was his nervy manner. There was no communication whatsoever with his CB's, although to be fair, three players in the back 4 also had poor games. The only decent spells we had all game were just after we first equalised and then just before the end of the 90 minutes. The Sporting players were physically stronger, were technically superior and tactically more aware and there can be no doubt they fully deserved to proceed into the semi-final.
They should have been more than 3-1 ahead before the Spurs comeback. At 3-3 they looked like their bottle had gone though. But in our keeper they trusted. Do you know what happened to Courthirst ?? Spectators were struggling to work out what happened.
He has been with us over a year now, he joined in January last year. He's another of these diminutive midfield players that Tim Sherwood likes to collect, still very slight yet good at keeping the ball in tight situations. He's not featured for the NextGen before last night, as he's younger, but he has been playing regularly for our under 18 side, usually on the right in a midfield 3. The other two in this midfiled are Harry Winks and Ruben Lameiras who have both had training sessions with the first team recently.
I didn't see him go down, so I assumed it was the same injury for which he needed treatment a few minutes before, when he definitely got clattered. I thought he did ok last night, he's having a good season so hope he's not out for too long.
"I didn't see him go down, so I assumed it was the same injury for which he needed treatment a few minutes before, when he definitely got clattered." He was animated though during the treatment for the first one. The second time, he just did a slow-mo slump to the ground like a faint. I couldn't worked out whether he had been hit in the head during a melee in the box.
Sporting's 5th goal: [video=youtube;1PYMAzG49jQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PYMAzG49jQ[/video] Great strike. Clear foul though, as you can see by our player's reaction.
Spurs U18s drew yesterday 2-2 at Liverpool. That means they are top of group 1 on GD (the winner of group 1 will go into a playoff game to get a season finale SF slot) . The U21s are still top of the elite group. Shame the Nextgen squad could not make it into the SFs.
An all English final tomorrow in the NextGen competition as both Chelsea and Aston Villa came through their semi-finals in extra time. Chelsea beat Arsenal and Villa beat Sporting. Our somewhat depleted under 21 squad will also be playing tomorrow with another away game, this time at Anfield against Alex Inglethorpe and his Liverpool side. Kick-off is at 2pm and is being screened live on Liverpool TV.
The play off for 3rd and 4th place in the Nextgen was played this afternoon and the result was Sporting Lisbon 3 Arsenal 1.
Villa have done well in the Nextgen these past two seasons. Someone told me the Sporting team that played Spurs was far from their best lineup (so not sure what the lineup Villa faced were like) .
Villa win the Nextgen, beating Chelsea 2-0 in the final. That'll put them in good stead for the Championship next season. Two penalties for the goals and a red card for Abramovich's kids, too. Dirty bastards.
Watched the U21 game on Liverpool TV. We were way better than them in the first hour or so and deservedly went 2-0 up with two good goals from Ceballos. Then lost a bit of concentration and gave away a poor goal and nearly a couple of others before getting things together and scoring near the end (McEvoy). Ceballos looked very good as did Bentaleb. McEvoy and Dombaxe also impressed. The defence included Hall and Fryers at CB and was mostly good but Fryers looked unsteady at left back once Barthram went off. Edit - Just spotted the other thread on this - happy if a mod wants to move the post
The first booking for the Chelsea lad that got sent off was this delightful move: [video=youtube;Xvs1U8x0exQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvs1U8x0exQ[/video] He's been watching Ivanovic in training, I guess. Chris Kiwomya's nephew.
Man Utd have moved our U21s game against them on Monday 15th April from their usual location, Altrincham's Moss Lane, to the Salford City Stadium. It's twice as large, so that might be why, but it's also home to two rugby sides. Doesn't bode well for the surface, does it?
"Doesn't bode well for the surface, does it?" After seeing how the U21s got on with it against WBA in the blizzard, I'd expect them to win playing on a pitch made of setting concrete.
U18s apparently drew 0-0 yesterday against the Poool. Now 2 pts behind Sunderland. The last game of the season against them way well be the group winner decider.
