Tottenham Hotspur vs South China Match Review

Spurs took on South China in Hong Kong today in the third and fourth play off for the Barclays Asia Trophy. After a very disappointing semi final against Sunderland AVB lined up a slightly better team of Lloris, Rose, Walker, Dawson, Caulker, Dembele, Parker, Sigurdsson, Dempsey, Lennon and Defoe. This team payed off as Spurs completely humiliated South China in a 6-0 thrashing.

Once again they had to play on a poor pitch but AVB's risky decision of playing a short passing game payed off and Spurs started incredibly brightly and it looked like a different team from the game just a few days ago. Spurs were very impressive all round and in the 12th minute they got what they deserved, a goal. Dembele, Dempsey and Sigurdsson played some lovely football together and played it out wide to Rose who drilled the ball across the box and South China defender Tse knocked it into his own net. Spurs carried on the impressive play with Dembele ruling the play and with Dempsey and Defoe coming very close to scoring our second until on the 33rd minute Defoe took it passed the South China defence and cut it back to Dempsey who side footed it into the bottom right hand corner. Spurs kept the pressure on and in the 44th minute they put the game to bed when Walker drilled his free-kick into the wall and it deflected straight into Defoe's path who slotted home from close range.

The second half began with two Spurs substitutes of Carroll and Naughton on for Dempsey and Walker. Despite Spurs being three up they didn't ease off and in the 53rd minute they went four up when Rose played the ball over the top and the keeper went to clear the ball but it rebounded off of Defoe who ran on to the ball and just had to tap it in. Tottenham then seemed to ease off and made four changes of Townsend, Huddlestone, Livermore and Fryers for Dembele, Lennon, Parker and Rose. Despite easing off Spurs still managed to score on 79 minutes when Defoe got his hat-trick from a perfect through ball from Sigurdsson and he slotted home into the bottom left hand corner. But Spurs still weren't finished and on the 86th minute Townsend scored a great free kick. Lloris had nothing to do the whole game but in the 88th minute he was forced into a great save.

I was really impressed by Spurs' performance this afternoon and to be honest I couldn't fault a player. I was very impressed with Dembele and Carroll in the middle who were pulling the strings in the middle. Walker and Rose were brilliant bombing forward and created numerous problems for the South China defence and finally the Man of the Match, Defoe who scored a great hat-trick and hopefully this is what we are to see in the coming season.