Fernando Llorente netted twice for Spurs in the first half
Photo: Ali Gilmore / Prost Amerika
Cockerel Chorus! Londoners blow away Champions League semi finalists in San Diego
AS Roma 1 : 4 Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham’s first friendly of their US tour went according to plan after they blew away AS Roma in the first half after going behind to a Patrik Schick goal in under three minutes. The Czech forward’s effort was soon countered by a Fernando Llorente header before the Basque doubled his total in the 18th minute. Brazil’s Lucas Moura took over and netted twice more for rampant Spurs before the interval.
No further goals were added in a second half whose flow was wrecked by countless substitutions as is normal on these occasions, but by then Spurs had proved themselves deserved winners. They now head up the I-5 freeway to play Barcelona at Pasadena’s iconic Rosebowl Stadium on Saturday.
Patrick Schick opened the scoring in three minutes. After he turned well inside the penalty area, he hit an admittedly weak shot but it took a deflection and and rolled past the wrong footed Michel Vorm. Perhaps in a more competitive environment, he might not have had the space to rotate 180 degrees, never mind fire in a shot. However Spurs reacted well to the shock to the system.
A looped header from Fernando Llorent equalised matters quickly after good work down the right. Nine minutes later, Llorente scored his second after Antonio Mirante punched weakly and created havoc in his own defence. His failure to clear chances to safety was a feature of the night and his shakiness seemed to affect those in front of him.
Spurs celebrate Llorente’s goal
Photo: Ali Gilmore/ Prost Amerika
It took ten further minutes for another header to beat Mirante, this time from Lucas. The Roma defence should hope not to draw English sides in Europe for a while until they sort out this weakness. A minute before the interval, Lucas added his second after a sweeping Spurs move ended with the first effort being saved, but again not with any finality and the attack was allowed to continue.
The match lasted till the 58th minute before Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco swapped out six of his starters bringing on Daniele De Rossi, Kevin Strootman, Edin Dzeko, Lorenzo Pelligrini, Ivan Marcano and Ante Coric.
Soon after, Spurs responded in kind with young Totttenham Under-23 and Academy product Oliver Skipp, Korean international Heung Min Son and keeper Paulo Gazzaniga replacing Christian Eriksen, Llorente and goalkeeper Michel Vorm.
Not much of note happened thereafter except more changes but Serge Aurier showed his reading of the game well to break up an attack then unfortunately misdirected the pass having done the difficulty part so well. For Roma, William Bianda replaced the yellow card winner Luca Pelligrini.
The top highlight of the second half came from Spurs’ Argentine keeper Gazzaniga who defied Edin Dzeko with a twisting one handed save that he had no right to make. From that absolutely sublime moment, the game succumbed to the ridiculous minutes later when Roma’s Lorenzo Pelligrini hit his own head with an attempted bicycle kick. That really summed up Roma’s night.
Colombian international Davinson Sanchez was given a 14 minute run out replacing Lamela. Ten minutes from time, Dzeko blasted way over from a wide angle.
It was a wretched first half for Roma’s keeper Antonio Mirante
Photo: Ali Gilmore /Prost Amerika
The final raft of substitutions saw Tottenham introduce Anthony Georgiou and Frenchman Georges-Kévin N’Koudou recalled from his Burnely loan spell. Lucas received a well earned applause of his own and Kyle Walker-Peters joined him on the bench.
Roma finally changed keepers with Daniel Fuzato putting Mirante out of his misery. Roma’s Alessandro Florenzi and Spurs George Marsh were the last men to enter with Santon and Luke Amos making way.
While Spurs can lick their lips at having a go at Barcelona, Roma must wonder about life now that inspirational goalkeeper Alisson has joined Liverpool and become the most expensive keeper ever. Robin Olson has arrived from Denmark just in time as the answer to their vacancy was not on show tonight. Their next opponent is also Barcelona on August 1st in Dallas.
Attendance: 18, 861
