Still 1-0 in the 53rd minute. Goal description from the text updates: Newcastle 1-0 Tottenham. Goal by Gary Speed (Newcastle) drilled right-footed (bottom-left of goal) from centre of penalty area (18 yards).Newcastle 1-0 Tottenham. Assist (header) by Andrew O'Brien (Newcastle) from left side of penalty area. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/engl...atistics/teams/n/newcastle_united/live_hi.stm
Watched on FSW First half was really entertaining. Spurs should have scored in the first 10 minutes, but failed. NU then got back into the game and it was up and down, even after the Torrico/Solano head clash (incedentally, Solano was sent to the hospital due to that collision). Speed's goal was simply poor defending by Spurs and Keller, partially screened, had no chance. The second half was more NU, and not as entertaining, but still fun to watch. But, again, Keller was not any fault for Shearer's goal as Shearer sliped his mark at the far post to head in. I turned it off after that and started to watch that Beckham video-ography - pretty cool, really. Thus, I missed the Spurs...I mean NU own goal. All in all, Spurs poor play in both penalty areas led to a deserved loss. Keller had a fairly good match, but his distribution was not as good as it has been most of the season. But that seemed to be because neither Ferdinand nor Teddy were in for most of the game. Well, off the the New Dell at Southampton for the new year.
the sad part. shearer was standing at the far post for about 8-10 seconds while bellamy was toying with the ball, before he finally made space and crossed it over to him...you'd think a spurs defender would have gotten back to cover him, instead, he was standing there all alone waving his arms like a wild man much to the ignorance of the spurs defense... it was a beautiful diving header by the newcastle defender, rivaled the agoos own-goal in the world cup against portugal as one of the prettiest own goals i have ever seen
I agree that it was poor defending, but I think Keller's positioning was poor as well. From the replay from behind the goal, you could see that the defender was not between Keller and Speed, but off to the side. The defender would have stopped any reachable shot to the far post (meaning that if Speed had hit side netting, it wouldn't have been blocked, but Keller couldn't have gotten to it anyway), so IMO, Keller should have cheated near post. If he had, he would have stopped the shot. From Speed's run-up, it was clear he was going to shoot, so Keller should have sold out to stop the shot. As fidlerre, notes, the defending on this goal was laughable. Was that Ledley King? Anyway, King was determined that one of the blades of grass about 3-4 yards from Shearer was not going to score, as he stomped that sucker into oblivion. He marked that blade of grass as if the fate of the world depended on it not scoring. If he had been at all aware of his surroundings, he would have backed up a few steps and at the least challenged Shearer on the header. When I played church league basketball, even at that level, the coach told you that if you're in a zone defense, you're not just guarding the floor, you're guarding a player in your area. If King had played on my church league team, Spurs might have gotten a point.
The funny part is the nice flick on that King gave to Bellamy early in the game that sent Bellamy clear. Geez, I could have played better than King did yesterday.
You are a better goalie than me, I will say that. The ball was left at a spot a few yards to the left of the penalty spot. It was left there for something that seemed like 5 seconds -- not really of course, but I don't see how the Spurs defense could let a ball sit that close to the goal for that long. Anyway, while at first glance I thought that Keller's positioning was a little off, once I looked at it several times I saw that Keller was in the right place when Speed finally took the shot. It was just ripped with power from close range to a spot outside Keller's reach. Not much to be done in my view. As fidlerre, notes, the defending on this goal was laughable. Was that Ledley King? Anyway, King was determined that one of the blades of grass about 3-4 yards from Shearer was not going to score, as he stomped that sucker into oblivion. He marked that blade of grass as if the fate of the world depended on it not scoring. If he had been at all aware of his surroundings, he would have backed up a few steps and at the least challenged Shearer on the header. When I played church league basketball, even at that level, the coach told you that if you're in a zone defense, you're not just guarding the floor, you're guarding a player in your area. If King had played on my church league team, Spurs might have gotten a point. [/QUOTE] As bad as the Spurs defending was on the first goal, King's "guarding the grass" was even worse. I can't recall worse marking.