Placed fifth in the recently-completed Premiership log, Tottenham Hotspur provided scant evidence of challenging the big four of English soccer for major honours in the coming season while completing a comfortable enough 2-1 victory over Kaizer Chiefs in the opening Vodacom Challenge game at King’s Park in Durban on Saturday afternoon.
Certainly there was little to suggest the North London club were anything like ”the Invincibles” who toured South Africa 35 years ago, or could match the class of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool at this time — although their expertise and experience proved a little too much for the aimless Chiefs to handle.
The Amakhosi briefly raised the expectations of a simmering 40 000 crowd when veteran former Bafana Bafana striker Shaun Bartlett scored a 50th minute equaliser with an angled header after Robbie Keane had scored an equally impressive opportunist goal for Spurs in the 40th minute.
But the Chiefs’ defence, over-playing the off-side trap and generally appearing vulnerable, paid the price in the 61st minute when Spurs’ record signing, Darren Bent, demonstrated his mettle five minutes after coming onto the field as a substitute and initiated a simple, close-range goal for Bulgarian international Dimitar Berbatov.
And for Chiefs’ loyalists, who were looking for signs of a significant revival after what chairperson Kaizer Motaung described as ”a living nightmare” during the 2006/07 season, there was nought for their comfort — even though coach Muhsin Ertugral expressed satisfaction afterwards.
With a dose of wishful thinking and starry-eyed Walter Mitty imagination, Ertugral suggested afterwards that his team had been up against ”not only one of the top teams in England, but also one of the best in the world”.
And were this true, the game globally would have to be considered to be in a state of dire danger of disintergrating.
In truth, however, the uninspiring spectacle in Durban bore little comparison to the high-class international club friendly at Loftus last month when FC Barcelona shaded PSL champions Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 in what was truly a game of high pedigree.
But with injured English internationals Ledley King and Aaron Lennon back in harness, Spurs might well be able to muster the touch of class that was lacking in Durban.
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect to emerge for Chiefs was the performance of Zimbabwean international left-back Onismor Bhasera in what has been a problem area for Amakhosi for some time.
Spurs now go on to play Orlando Pirates in Cape Town on Tuesday in a continuation of the series of friendly Vodacom Challenge fixtures, with Chiefs and Pirates meeting in a derby encounter in Port Elizabeth on Thursday for the right to have a second bite at Spurs in what is labelled a final of some sort or another. – Sapa