Tottenham have not the largest involvement in the 2014 Brazil World Cup, but for what they do have there has been some exiting talent on display. The North London side see Nabil Bentaleb (Algeria), Paulinho (Brazil), Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele, Nacer Chadli (Belgium), Hugo Lloris (France) and finally Beniot Assou Ekotto (Cameroon) feature.
Starting with the youngest of the Spurs players and one of the youngest in the competition, Nabil Bentaleb began his World Cup with the opening game versus Belgium tonight in Group H. Hoping to kick start the tournament with a bang, he saw his country fail to succeed against a slow starting but effective and mature performance and came away with no points, as the Belgians top the group awaiting the other match in the group involving Russia and South Korea later this evening.
Paulinho will be featuring for this year’s hosts as he hopes to provide the balance of attack and defence for the South American side in the heart of the midfield. The hosts opened this year’s World Cup facing Croatia in Group A at the fantastic Corinthians, Sao Paulo. He saw his side take an early shock as Marcelo unfortunately saw his defensive work end up placing the ball in his own net. However, the hosts managed to pick themselves up and provide an electric flurry of attacking football in the second half to win 3-1 on the opening.
Belgium have the most players involved with the Tottenham Trio of Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele and Nacer Chadli as they all featured for the side in this evenings game against Algeria. Vertonghen did not have the greatest of starts, getting into a tussle racing back towards goal and fouling the incoming man in the box, giving the Algerians an early penalty and a surprising early lead, considering many are backing the Belgians as the likely “Dark horse” of this year’s tournament. With
Mousa Dembele adding his common pace and power ability to the side, being able to run at defenders and bringing the ball forward with ease, he played a respectable performance in the 2-1 win. This leaves Nacer Chadli, the young winger who raised a few eyebrows as he started before the likes of Mertens and Mirallas. Chadli failed to make any real impact and had a quiet game before being substituted for Mertens who scored the winning goal in the 80th minute to secure a fighting comeback and all three points, in the second half.
Hugo Lloris. what can I say about this man? Simply incredible between the posts of the goals at White Hart Lane, but could he do the same for his national side as he has done before? Facing Honduras, many expected the French to coast to victory, which turned out to be the case, only with some feisty tackles thrown in at the same time. Hugo managed to keep a clean sheet, not having a troublesome night to say the least. It was a simple night’s work for the Spurs goalkeeper, as the French comfortably won 3-0 during an occasion which saw goal-line technology being used to make a decision for the first time since being installed into the game.
All that is left is to discuss Benoit Assou-Ekotto. The left-back did not enjoy the greatest of loan spells at Queens Park Rangers with former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp, the liability that is Assou Ekotto re-joins a side for next season which has had many problems, but in particular at left-back. Starting for Cameroon against Mexico, after a long and tiring game he could not prevent the Mexicans from taking all the points as they lost 1-0.
Sadly there is no English involvement for Spurs this year in Brazil, so we will wait and see as to who will feature in 2018.
For me the Germans and Dutch have shown that they mean business this year with convincing wins against Spain and Portugal respectively, but Argentina remain my “Dark horse” in this year’s tournament, with Lionel Messi the one to look out for as his form may determine how far they really can go…
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