EYEWITNESS: Tottenham Hotspur 4 FC Twente 1, Champions league group stage
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE: SPURS 4 FC TWENTE 1
EYEWITNESS REPORT from WHITE HEART LANE
By DAN CARRIER
I AM still getting used to the feel of European football.
It’s not so much the accented chants coming from the away fans, it’s the chitter-chatter in the press box that I don’t understand.
Whereas I can usually earwig a bit of BBC Five Live as a Premier league game is on, tonight I had an excited correspondent using a frankly baffling central European lingo giving his dedicated listeners over the Channel blow by blow updates right behind me.
It feels marvellously romantic.
Then there was the smartly dressed Belgium football correspondent speaking better English than I do sitting next to me instead of the usual scruff-bag from the Tottenham Herald: his name is Kristoff Terreur, and he works for Belgium’s biggest selling Flemish language daily, ‘Het Laatste Nieuws‘.
He tells me that he has the enviable job of covering FC Twente in Europe, despite the fact they are Dutch.
We’re follow Twente every where because they have a Belgium coach, Michel Preud’homme,’ he reveals, pleased as punch with his expenses-paid beano to White Hart Lane.
When Kristoff isn’t covering Twente’s Euro games, he is traipsing around Belgium league matches.
I always cover Genk - they are the leading team at the moment,” he says with a sense of pride.
We pass pleasantries about Nico Clausen, the Belgium forward who played for Spurs in 1987 (he is the only Belgium player apart from Jonny Method and the one who looks like a Wolfman that I can remember in my Champions League excitement).
I want to share with him some interesting asides about the Premier League, gush some nonsense about the cradle of football, etc, etc, but he reveals he comes to English games regularly, and visits other European leagues as well, as the very best Belgium players do not ply their trade in their domestic competitions any more.
All our best players move away when they are younger,” he says. “It is why our club football has gone down - the same as in Holland. But it means I do some travelling and see lots of different styles.”
He tells me who to watch in the Twente team The heart beat of the team is Bryan Ruiz and Theo Janssen,” he says, and then apologises politely, saying he can’t guarantee them having a good game on my behalf. How very polite.
I found it hard to pick a player in white for him to watch, feeling slightly disloyal, as if any information I gave away may some how come back and bite Spurs on the backside: maybe he’d shout something Flemishy to the coach a few feet away, and Alan Hutton’s disguise would be discovered! (he was pretending to be a flat footed full back from Rangers, not the fleet heeled Glaswegian answer to Roberto Carlos we know lurks within).
Not very sporting of me, I know, so I allowed myself to share the knowledge that our Dutch midfielder Rafael Van Der Vaart was pretty hot stuff, figuring he’d probably be gemmed up on that one already anyway.
We smiled weakly at each other as our teams traded attacking punches, apologetically urging our sides on: when Jank, the beefy number 21 for Twente, nearly fired a shot goal wards on 30, Kristoff turned to me and said: that’s the first time he’s touched the ball, as if he were apologising for his side nearly taking the lead.
When Bale skinned three of his mob, I grinned the type of grin you use on people who give you a box of cheap off-licence chocolates to say thanks for feeding their cat for a weekend, and when Van Der Vaart‘s first half penalty was saved, instead of the usual curses, I congratulated the keeper for making a ‘rather wonderful save,’ which is what I imagined European football writers reckon English fans say in such situations.
It may have been a long way for Kristoff to travel, but it ended up being an enjoyable game - open, flowing, and 4-1 win for my boys.
Bale had shown his opponents a clean set of heels whenever the ball was played out to him, and he gave both full backs the run around as Harry kept swapping him and VDV, as if playing against a Dutch team called for some kind of N16 version of total football.
What a crazy game,“ Kristoff said at the end, and we shook hands, and wished each other luck. The journey home from Upton Park at the weekend felt like a long way home after we lost one-nil, so I expressed my sorrow for Kristoff and offered him a lift to the tube. It’s easy to be gracious when you are four - one to the good. I have to say: I’m thoroughly enjoying playing Euro host at the moment. Let’s hope it lasts into the Spring.
Spurs:
1. Gomes (g), 7.Brilliant one handed stop on 11, bossed the box. Welcome back.
2. Hutton, 7. Steady at the back and good getting forward. His pace makes him more of a threat than Corluka.
3. Bale, 8. Can’t think of a side he wouldn’t get into on this form. Took on three players not once, twice, nor even three times: he did it all night, and scored a wonderful fourth at the end when every one else was thinking of nice hot showers and a Wag rub down.
6. Huddlestone, 7. Calm, considered. The pace of European games suits his thoughtful style. 50 yard ball for Hutton on 73 was incredible, as was the dash for the return.
9. Pavlyuchenko, 8. Calmly taken penalties and hustled like a Sunday league old timer when it was needed.
11. Van Der Vaart, 8. Superb to watch while on the pitch, shame he allowed a spot of tempestuousness to earn him a double booking.
14. Modric, 7. It is always surprising to watch his fearlessness in the tackle, as so much of his game is guile and skill. Yet when he needs to win the ball, he can. Sub: Lennon.
15. Crouch, 6. Not his best display, but worked his marker and his height made him a pain in the neck for his opposite number. Great knock down for VDV”s opener. Sub: Jenas.
19. Bassong, 7. Looks so comfortable when he has a couple of games on the bounce. Physically commanded the not insignificance presence of Janko.
20. King, 7. A skippers performance. His shuffling gait hides hidden speed. Takes forwards down cul de sacs and commands his team.
26. Assou-Ekotto, 7. Brilliant first time through ball for Van Der Vaart at the end of the first period showed a different side to him. In the second, he looked like he was relishing every challenge on the greasy pitch.
27.
Man of the Match: Bale – handful does not do his performance justice – simply, Champions League standard all the way.
Subs:
23. Cudicini
7. Lennon
8. Jenas
10. Keane
12. Palacios
21. Kranjcar
22. Corluka
FC Twente
13: Mihaylov, 3. Kuiper, 4. Wisgerhof, 6. Brama, 7. Landzaat, 8.Janssen, 10. Ruiz, 11. Bajrami, 15. Rosales, 19. Douglas, 21. Janko. Subs: 1. Boschker, 5. Bengtsson, 9. De Jong, 14. Parker, 22. Chadli, 27. Vujicevic, 36. Schimpelsberger.