Tottenham Hotspur Women defeated Birmingham City in the Subway League Cup thanks to a brace and an assist by recent standout Olivia Holdt. The solid victory was only marred by Maite Oroz’s ACL injury. Spurs sit atop their Subway Cup group one point ahead of Aston Villa.
With a week to prepare and only international break to follow, Martin Ho sent out a relatively familiar-looking lineup. Notably, Maite Oroz started over Olga Ahtinen, Josefine Rybrink reprised her role at right back over Ash Neville, and captain Beth England began the game on the bench so Olivia Holdt could re-enter the lineup as the 10.
Spurs started the first half clearly stronger than our WSL 2 opposition, but were unable to turn the early dominance into any kind of lead. Birmingham’s Viatriki Sarri caused a few problems including a goal rightly ruled offside, but they left Lize Kop largely untroubled. Olivia Holdt continued her recent excellence and broke the deadlock in the 40th minute. Maite Oroz set up the goal with a lovely sidefoot pass to Matilda Vinberg. Matilda slotted in Olivia Holdt through the center, and Olivia calmly chipped Birmingham’s keeper despite the sharp angle. Incredible work by all three players to split Birmingham City down the center, and a wonderful goal to watch.
Ten minutes into the second half, Amanda Nildén continued the scoring with a Son-esque curling shot from a wide position inside the box. It was, once again, Olivia Holdt’s excellent work that set her up. The real low point of the game was Maite Oroz’s ACL injury in the 57th minute, which she sustained successfully challenging a Birmingham City player for the ball. I wrote about what a shame this is here. But to reiterate – it’s just devastating for this to happen when Maite was stringing a bit of form together, and I wish her a very speedy recovery.
After Maite’s injury, Ho made a triple change. Olga Ahtinen replaced Oroz, Beth England replaced Tinka Tandberg, and Martha Thomas replaced Jess Naz. Additionally, Charli Grant replaced Amanda Nildén in the 71st minute. These players helped shore up Spurs’ dominant performance without really changing the game too much. Holdt added a third goal in the 74th minute off another Vinberg line-breaking pass, rounding out yet another stellar player-of-the-match performance. The match left Spurs top of the group with one game left to play against Bristol City.
Thoughts
Olivia Holdt is so damn good. When we signed her, she was coming off a broken ankle and needed a bit more rehab before she was fully match fit. At the time, I thought that maybe, possibly, we’d be getting a real gem at a bargain due to her injury, but it didn’t seem likely. Olivia has been our stand out player since our defeat to Manchester City, and I have to say it’s pretty wild to see last season’s hopium actually come to fruition. Someone please bubble wrap her before she goes off to Denmark. We need her! I also particularly enjoyed getting to see more of Matilda Vinberg’s passing since Vilahamn primarily used her as a dribbler, and she came away with two assists for it. Jess Naz also put in a few dangerous crosses, and Beth England looked lively as a substitute.
I don’t really have too much else to say about this game. Many of our players had strong games, and I saw more of a cohesive attack. I’ll be optimistic and say I think this was due to the lower quality of opposition and the fact that Martin Ho’s principles are really starting to sink in. Nonetheless, I love a routine win and an identifiable style of football. Maite’s injury excluded, I think we can be pretty happy.
Looking ahead
We now enter international break, which will see some of our players head off on national team adventures. Eveliina Summanen, Olga Ahtinen, Olivia Holdt, Tinka Tandberg, Tōko Koga, Amanda Nildén, Lize Kop, Martha Thomas, Charli Grant and Clare Hunt will all head to their countries, as well as youngsters Sophie Jackson and Lenna Gunning-Williams for England U19s and England U23s respectively.
Spurs Women will return to action against Liverpool on November 1st. If you’re looking to fill the void between now and then, some of our players will actually be facing each other on international duty – tune in to Finland vs. Denmark or Norway vs. Japan both on Tuesday, October 28th to catch this.
In the meantime, cross your fingers that our internationals will stay healthy in this two week period!