West Ham get a hiding from Beckham and his MLS pals while Spurs grind out a draw against the might of Spain’s Hercules. Here’s all the notes and teams from yesterday’s games.
MLS All-Stars 3 West Ham 2
A Dean Ashton brace wasn’t enough to save the Hammers from defeat against the MLS Glitterati. In truth West Ham surrendered control of the game in the second half, with MLS “MVP” and Mexican legend, Cuauhtemoc Blanco dealing the damage with a goal, an assist and some lovely touches throughout.
Things started positively for Curbishley’s men with Ashton benefiting from some good old fashioned route one stuff to fire smartly past the MLS keeper, Matt Reis. Blanco’ back-heel immediately set up an equaliser for Gomez at the other end however. Two minutes from half-time, Blanco struck himself, firing past Green into the top corner.
The Hammers battled back and drew level with a deflected Ashton effort but Lucas Neill was found out at the back and conceded a penalty just two minutes later.
Curbishley was without the likes of Upson, Dyer and McCartney who were all left in the UK to get over knocks and scrapes. The omission of Bellamy for this one was a mystery however and one that will worry West Ham fans given the recent speculation concerning a move to Man City.
Ashton’s goals earned him the West Ham man of the match award and will of course get him some attention from fantasy managers – quite rightly. With regular starts he will do the business and the second and third goals of the pre-season in this game proves he’s warming up for the kick-off rather nicely. With West Ham’s Premiership fixtures looking more than a little kind in the opening 6 weeks, a mid-price Ashton and maybe even some of his similarly priced team-mates are due to get a decent amount of attention.
We should no more on their potential very soon. The pace picks up for West Ham next week. They take on Peterborough on Tuesday and then travel to Cambridge the following night.
West Ham vs MLS All-Stars:
Green, Neill, Widdowson, Ferdinand, Davenport, Mullins, Parker, Etherington, Faubert, Ashton, Cole.
Hercules 1 Tottenham 1
Spurs followed up on a 4-2 win over C.D. Denia last Saturday by battling to a 1-1 draw with Hercules last night.
Darren Bent nodded in a Lennon corner to earn a draw for Spurs against their Spanish opponents. Ramos had seen his side fall behind after just 5 minutes but Spurs deserved their eqaliser with new signing, Giovani dos Santos, particularly impressing.
Keane’s absence from the squad last night appears to indicate that a move to Liverpool is immanent. In contrast, Berbatov completed the 90 minutes here so his proposed move to United or Barcelona is perhaps less likely at this moment in time.
I somehow missed the C.D Denia game in my round-up of the weekend games on Monday. Taarabt, Jenas, Bent and an own goal credited for that win and you’ll find the team lineup below.
Tottenham vs Hercules:
Gomes, Gunter, Assou-Ekotto (O’Hara 63), Dawson, Woodgate (Zokora 63), Lennon (Townsend 80), Jenas (Bostock 80), Huddlestone, dos Santos, Bent, Berbatov
Tottenham vs C.D Denia:
Gomes (Jansson 63), Gunter, Dawson (Zokora 63), Archibald-Henville (Woodgate 63), Townsend, Lennon (Bostock 63), Huddlestone, Jenas (Keane 46), Bostock (Giovani 46), Taarabt, Bent (Pekhart 63)