Spurs under 19’s 0-3 Flamengo: (match report)

Our under 19’s final game of the 2019 Terborg tournament ended in a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Brazilian club Flamengo in the third/fourth place play off. Wayne Burnett’s side struggled to get their passing game going in the boiling summer heat in eastern Holland, and Flamengo were able to pick a lacklustre Spurs side apart by playing some good passing football of their own. Spurs lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation as Kacper Kurylowicz started in goal while a back four of Jubril Okedina, Brooklyn Lyons-Foster, Luis Binks and Dennis Cirkin lined up in front of him. Armando Shashoua and Harvey White lined up in central midfield while Rayan Clarke and J’Neil Bennett operated out on the flanks either side of CAM and captain Jack Roles. 17 year old striker Kion Etete led the line for Spurs. Flamengo got the game underway and after a quiet start the Brazilian club managed the first goal attempt of the game through their number 18, who after going on a promising run down the left flank forced a save out of Kurylowicz from his powerful low effort. Spurs attacked down the other end of the pitch through the tigerish Shashoua who gave the ball to J’Neil Bennett down the left flank however, the wingers resulting cross just evaded Kion Etete inside the penalty area. A corner kick from Harvey White was met by Etete shortly afterwards but he headed the ball against a Flamengo defender. Luis Binks was on hand to clear number 11’s cross at the other end of the pitch as Spurs continued their fine start to the game. 16 fired wide from long range for the Brazilians before Brooklyn Lyons-Foster managed to clear number sixes cross into the Spurs penalty area. Goalkeeper Kacper Kurylowicz then managed to get a finger tip on number tens powerful effort from long range to force the ball behind for a Flamengo corner kick. From the resulting corner kick number three tested Kurylowicz after he connected with number tens corner kick. Kurylowicz was called into action again a matter of moments later this time to save number fours header after he had connected with a corner kick from number ten. Flamengo continued to threaten the Spurs goal. Number tens powerful low effort was parried by the Spurs goalkeeper and ten latched back onto the ball inside the Spurs box before laying it off to number 18 whose low sidefooted effort was superbly cleared on the line by Lyons-Foster.

Number ten fired a low effort wide from the edge of the Spurs box before Harvey White whipped a free kick narrowly over the Flamengo goalkeepers crossbar before number four flicked over twos corner kick at the other end of the pitch, before the referee sounded his whistle for halftime. Spurs got the second half underway but it started in the worst possible way for Wayne Burnett’s side who conceded soon after kick off. After Harvey White had been dispossessed by number ten he gave the ball to number 11 on the edge of the Spurs box and his powerful low drive at goal took a hefty deflection off of Lyons-Foster before beating Kurylowicz and going into the back of the net,  0-1. 11 blasted an effort over Kurylowicz’s crossbar after going on a surging run down the right wing before Burnett made a double change as he brought off both Rayan Clarke and Jack Roles for Phoenix Patterson (who took the armband) and Dilan Markanday. Flamengo doubled their lead shortly afterwards, after Dennis Cirkin had cleared number tens cross the ball came to 11 on the edge of the Spurs box, and he curled an unstoppable effort into the top right hand corner of Kurylowicz’s goal, 0-2. Spurs tried to respond and they came close to pulling a goal back after Dennis Cirkin found Markanday down the right hand side of the Flamengo penalty area however, the Spurs winger squeezed the ball a fraction wide of the goal. Flamengo settled the game a couple of minutes later after their goalkeepers long kick up field bounced over the Tottenham defence and into the path of number 11 down the right hand side of the Spurs box. And the Flamengo winger made no mistake as he calmly slotted the ball into the bottom left hand corner of Kurylowicz’s goal, 0-3. A cross from Phoenix Patterson stung the palms of the Flamengo goalkeeper shortly after the restart before he managed to gather a cross from Harvey White. Kion Etete dragged an effort wide of the Flamengo goal before Harvey White powered a low effort a fraction wide of the mark. After being stepped on by a Flamengo player Brooklyn Lyons-Foster had to be replaced by Jamie Bowden for the final moments of the game. Spurs did manage two late goal attempts, first through winger J’Neil Bennett who tested the goalkeeper with a low effort from the left flank, and then through Dennis Cirkin who nodded J’Neil Bennett’s cross wide.

It was a sad end to the tournament for a tired looking Spurs side, thankfully the lads will get the rest of the month off before they report back to training at the start of next month for the beginning of the 2019/20 season.

My man of the match: Goalkeeper Kacper Kurylowicz made five saves in total on Sunday afternoon as the 17 year old put in a strong performance for Wayne Burnett’s side by making a string of good saves. The goalkeeper from County Bedfordshire  also dealt well with crosses and set pieces, and his distribution was impressive on the day.

The Superhotspur player of the tournament: Brooklyn Lyons-Foster. For his five solid performances at RCB I am going to give this award to the 18 year old who I thought was our best player at the tournament. The Islington born defender put in a number of very impressive and solid performances in the four games in which he played. He saw the danger, kept good positioning throughout and he impacted games with his positive forward passing. In addition he made many important defensive interventions and he was not at fault for a single goal that Spurs conceded. It has been a great season for the second year scholar who overcame injury problems during the first part of the season to enjoy a very solid campaign for both our under 18’s and 23’s.