Spurs v FC Basel: No Swiss Rollover

Time slows down and you feel your subconscious picking up on the more subtle aspects of White Hart Lane. The blue seat flexing under you as you strain forward, the faint whiff of coffee off the chap next to you and then bang, you come speeding back to a painful reality from which there is no escape.

Casting your eyes across the stadium you realise this isn’t a dream or a head rush, it’s Gareth Bale slapping the turf in agony, that possible trip to Amsterdam evaporating and the prospect of Champions League football slipping away again. Looking up at the scoreboard you remember that Its 2-2 against FC Basel a Swiss team who were supposed to just roll over, you take a deep breath and sigh. This is real life and it never goes to plan, especially when you are a Spurs fan.

FC Basel as we saw on Thursday night, are no Euro Lightweights, domestically they are on course for a back-to-back double and on the continent they have been troubling Europe’s big spenders for a few years. This season they dispatched multi-billionaires Zenit St Petersburg and last year qualified from a Champions League group at the expense of Man United.

At White Hart Lane they demonstrated all this and more.

Comfortable in possession, organised in defence and lighting quick in attack, it was painful viewing for Spurs fans at the Lane and at home. It was watching a team play your style, but with more confidence, skill, ability and most importantly the right players for the right positions.

[linequote]FC Basel as we saw on Thursday night, are no Euro Lightweights, domestically they are on course for a back-to-back double.[/linequote]

Murat Yakin the former Basel and Swiss international, who was appointed in October 2012, deserves a lot of credit for this Basel side, especially when you consider that like Spurs, the Swiss team lost key players last summer.

FC Basel lost two up-and-coming stars of the European game Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri to the Bundesliga and stalwarts Scott Chipperfield and Benjamin Huggel to old age. This set back rather than start a downward spiral has only reinforced the clubs desire to rebuild, and in their number 22, Egyptian international Mohamed Salah, they have found the perfect player to replace the explosive left-foot of Shaqiri.

The Swiss Super League leaders were assisted in their dominance by Spurs offering up acres of space behind the back line, but their chances at goal were not all laid on by Spurs and the Titus Bramble Doppelganger William Gallas.

The selection of the former French international in a competition which AVB continues to say is a priority is mystifying. Away in Milan his attempts at defending almost resulted in a 3-0 first leg advantage being overturned and last night never before has a player an injured player walked off a pitch to such silence. Hopefully this will be the last time he is seen at White Hart Lane.

[linequote]Casting your eyes across the stadium you realise this isn’t a dream or a head rush, it’s Gareth Bale slapping the turf in agony.[/linequote]

Despite the faults in Gallas’ game, it would be unfair to lay the blame solely at his veteran feet. Spurs were sloppy in possession and as the game wore on certain players started to hide and move away from the man in possession.

Lewis Holtby a player in whom I have a great deal of hope battled hard and was a willing recipient of the ball, even in an unnatural wide right position, but his replacement on 63 minutes, Clint Dempsey was totally anonymous. Spurs were on top pushing for a third, but AVB’s change unbalanced the team and played perfectly into Swiss hands.The American continues to baffle, what exactly is he? A central midfielder, a winger or a striker?

The defining moment of the game however shall be that roll on that ankle.

Time was ticking away; a large portion of the crowd had left or were in the process of leaving, but when Bale picks up the ball and runs, White Hart Lane stops. As he ran round the outside of his opponent I hoped this would be the starting move of a glorious goal, I was wrong and I could do little but hope my eyes had deceived me and it wasn’t Bale…

The optimist in me believes this is a turning point. Its time for the rest of the team to stand up and prove they are more than just chorus parts in the Bale Extravaganza. Perhaps though now we will finally see Holtby or Glyfi Sigurðsson in their natural central positions, behind a striker who finally remembered how to score and on occasion head the ball.

All is not lost for Spurs, three points on Sunday against Everton will go a long way to prove that we are what we say we are, more than a one man team.

After all it wasn’t that long ago when we couldn’t buy a win with him in the team.