Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou defended his comment about "always" winning trophies in his second season after their defeat to Arsenal last weekend.
Despite Arsenal missing several of their key players, Spurs were undone in familiar fashion as Gabriel Magalhaes nodded home from a set-piece to secure the North London bragging rights.
Spurs last won a title back in 2008 in the League Cup and currently occupy 13th in the early-season standings, having picked up four points from their first four Premier League games.
Postecoglou was left confused and amazed by the negative reaction to his comments and is still confident that he can lead Spurs to a trophy this season.
"It's amazing, isn't it? I just stated a fact. Am I supposed to just lie or just say it never happened,” Postecoglou said. “But do you really think it's me sort of boasting? It's just confusing to me that people are making a big deal out of something. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to answer something that is true.
"I've just said something that's true, and it seems like it's upset a lot of people for some reason. In my 26 years of managing, I’ve had success and most of that has come in the second year, not all of it. Sometimes it’s happened in the first year, sometimes in the third year.
“I don’t see why that puts extra pressure. It doesn’t put extra pressure on me because I love the fact that I’ve done that. It’s what I want to do here.
“I’d like to think that just saying the truth is the way to go forward but I think sometimes that’s too confronting for people, they’d much rather I didn’t."
Brentford, meanwhile, were involved in Carabao Cup action in midweek and booked their place in the next round with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Leyton Orient.
Fabio Carvalho starred for the Bees, notching a goal and two assists as he continues to find his feet under Thomas Frank since his move from Liverpool during the transfer window.
Frank was pleased his side were able to avoid an early exit from the competition, saying the level his players reached on Tuesday is something they must maintain if they are to return to winning ways in the league.
“It’s job done. I’ve said it many times: we want to go on a cup run, we want to go as far as possible and potentially win it - we know it’s difficult but that’s the aim,” Frank said.
“In these games, I need to find the perfect balance between putting a strong team out there, the mix of freshness but also with the game on Saturday in mind, and then also using the squad, because players need that to develop and also want to be included.
“We hit the level today; credit to Leyton Orient, they did well in the first 20 minutes, we didn’t get enough control, but then we got our goal, and from there we were in control.
“3-1 ahead at half-time; second half, I wanted us to be even more on top, but it’s not easy, they gave everything. But I'm pleased."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Tottenham – Pedro Porro
Only Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White (11) has created more open play chances in the Premier League this season than Tottenham’s Pedro Porro (10).
The Portugal international is the only player to have created four or more open play chances in two different games this season (four against both Leicester and Arsenal).
Brentford – Mark Flekken
Flekken has made 22 saves in four Premier League matches this season, six more than any other goalkeeper, and he may be needed once again in North London.
Since 2003-04, only one goalkeeper has ever made more saves in a team’s first four games in a season – Tim Krul for Newcastle in 2015-16 (23).
MATCH PREDICTION: TOTTENHAM WIN
Many say the first goal is the most important one, but that has not proved to be the case in this fixture. The team scoring first has won none of the last four Premier League meetings between Tottenham and Brentford (D2 L2).
Spurs have won just four points in the Premier League this season (W1 D1 L2), their fewest at this stage since 2015-16 (3). They haven’t lost three of their opening five games since 2008-09 under Juande Ramos, who left the club eight winless games into that season.
The hosts will also need to improve from set-pieces. Only Nottingham Forest (27) have conceded more set-piece goals (incl. penalties) in the Premier League since the start of last season than Tottenham (25).
Among all managers who’ve conceded more than 50 goals in Premier League history, only four have a higher percentage of goals conceded via set pieces than Ange Postecoglou (25/65, 38.5%).
Brentford have also won just one of their six Premier League meetings with Tottenham (D3 L2) and have struggled away from home, losing 12 of their last 16 matches away from the Gtech Community Stadium.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Tottenham – 58.8%
Draw – 20.5%
Brentford – 20.6%
Campion College, Hydel book quarterfinal berths as former champions STGC, Wolmer's Boys, STATHS miss out
Campion College and Hydel High booked their spots in the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel Manning Cup quarterfinal round after both registered 1-0 wins over St Jago and Wolmer’s Boys in their respective second round group encounters on Friday.
The win for Campion College saw them finish second in Group One on six points, behind reigning champions Mona High, who blanked many times champion St George’s College 3-0 to finish on maximum nine points.
St George’s placed third on three points and missed out on the quarterfinal along with St Jago, who ended without point. However, both will have a shot at the Walker Cup knockout title.
The same is true for perennial semi-finalist St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) and 10-time winners Wolmer's Boys, who were both eliminated from the Manning Cup.
Wolmer’s Boys’ loss to Hydel saw them finish at the foot of Group Three with a point, while STATHS’ 1-0 win over group winners Kingston College was not enough to see them through. They finished third on four points, as Kingston College and Hydel took the top two spots with six points each.
Kingston College, Campion College, Mona High and Hydel are joined by Group Four leaders St Catherine (six points) and Group Two leaders Excelsior (six points) in the quarterfinal, with Jamaica College, Tivoli Gardens and Eltham on the hunt for the other two spots.
Friday’s results
Campion College 1, St Jago 0
Mona High 3, St George’s College 0
Hydel High 1, Wolmer’s Boys 0
STATHS 1, Kingston College 0
Saturday’s fixtures
St Catherine vs Jamaica College
Calabar vs Charlie Smith
Excelsior vs Jonathan Grant
Tivoli Gardens vs Eltham
*All games are scheduled for 3:00pm
Sounders in control of their playoff destiny but must find ruthless edge, says Schmetzer
Brian Schmetzer believes the Seattle Sounders are in control of their playoff destiny after edging out the Houston Dynamo in Game 1 of their best-of-three series.
After a goalless encounter, the Sounders held their nerve in the shootout, scoring all five spot-kicks before Erik Sviatchenko's miss proved costly.
They also stopped their opponents from registering a single shot on target, marking the fourth time the Sounders have achieved that milestone in a playoff match, and will be looking to do the same in their second encounter.
"Right now it doesn't matter how we played, really. We're in control and we won,” Schmetzer said. "This was going to be a tight series because the two teams are very good defensively.
"We've had our challenges this year sometimes scoring goals. Did we create enough? Those are all valid questions. Again, I would just repeat that those guys put the effort in. We were close on a couple of occasions."
Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei is also on the verge of history, with his shutout in the first game his 14th playoff clean sheet, needing one more to go level with LA Galaxy’s Kevin Hartman for the MLS record.
"Stef has an opportunity in Houston to tie for number one [all-time]," Schmetzer pointed out.
"So that's a goal that he can reach, he can attain, and let's see if he can do that. Because that would give us the best chance of ending the series in Houston."
For Houston, meanwhile, their cruel defeat in Game 1 was partly down to their own doing, so says head coach Ben Olsen.
The Dynamo boss acknowledged his side did not do enough in the final third, not helped by Adalberto Carrasquilla’s red card, which will see him miss the upcoming encounter.
Though the performance did not come as a surprise to Olsen, given the two sides’ defensive record in the regular season, he wants to see improvements at the Shell Energy Stadium this time around.
“It was hardly surprising. They are the best defensive team in the league. We are also one of the better defensive teams in the league, but then you add the playoffs to it,” Olsen said.
“It’s a heightened game of being alert defensively. You have these kind of games in the playoffs. We didn’t do enough to create better opportunities for ourselves to win that game.
“Some of that is our doing, some of it is that we’re playing a good defensive team. I said this leading up to the game, we are not going to get a lot of chances.
“We may get a few big ones and you have to finish them. It will be a similar situation at home, they are not going to turn into a bad defensive team overnight.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Houston Dynamo – Amine Bassi
In a team that is not filled with goals, Bassi has impressed for Houston, with his 10 goal involvements (three goals, six assists) in the regular season, a total only bettered by Ibrahim Aliyu (10) for the Dynamo.
The Moroccan also created more chances (79) than any of his team-mates, and his creative flair will be needed to unlock the Sounders’ defence.
Seattle Sounders – Albert Rusnak
Rusnak has played a starring role for Seattle this term, with only Jordan Morris (17) scoring more goals in the regular season for the Sounders than the Slovakian.
Despite not hitting the back of the net in Game 1, Rusnak notched four goal involvements (two goals, two assists) in three games heading into the postseason.
MATCH PREDICTION: HOUSTON DYNAMO WIN
The Dynamo have lost only two of their 18 all-time home playoff matches (W12 D4), though one of those defeats was against Seattle in the 2017 Conference Finals. Houston won nine of their first 10 home playoff matches but have won just three of eight since (D4 L1).
Seattle, however, have won six of their last seven away matches, including the last three in a row, all with clean sheets. This is the second time they have kept three straight away clean sheets in all competitions since joining MLS in 2009, also doing so between June and July 2011.
They have also lost only two of their last 23 matches against the Dynamo in all competitions, including securing a shootout win after a scoreless draw at home in Game 1. Houston have also failed to score in 12 of their last 18 meetings with the Sounders.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Houston Dynamo – 42.1%
Draw – 26.7%
Seattle Sounders – 31.2%
Stuttgart stalemate delivered 'most complete' display, insists Alonso
Xabi Alonso believes Bayer Leverkusen delivered their most complete performance in the Bundesliga despite being held to a goalless draw against Stuttgart on Friday.
Leverkusen missed the chance to close the gap at the summit of the league table, despite dominating proceedings at the BayArena throughout.
The hosts twice struck the woodwork in either half through Edmond Tapsoba and Victor Boniface, while Florian Wirtz was denied by a wonderful stop from Alexander Nubel late on.
Leverkusen ended the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.19 compared to Stuttgart's 0.28, further emphasising the superiority they had over their opponents.
The result saw Alonso's side produce their second-highest underperformance in terms of their xG since the Spaniard took over the club in 2022, though the Leverkusen boss was happy with his side's display.
"We are unhappy. We thought we had done enough to win it," Alonso said. "We pressed well. Our players showed a lot of energy to press a lot.
"We created a lot of chances in the first half. But we also had chances in the second half."
"Maybe the most complete performance from us even though we did not score. It was a top game.
"From Monday we focus on Liverpool. A big game, to play in Anfield," said the former Liverpool player.
But Leverkusen's struggles away from home continued. Alonso's side have now just won one of their last five league games, drawing the other four.
They remained third in the Bundesliga table, but are now four points behind RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich, who now both have a game in hand.
"It is still early in the season," Alonso said when asked about the growing gap with the league leaders. "There are enough games. We want to keep going."
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