Assessment Of Tottenham Players At The World Cup
By Logan Holmes
Prior to the start of the World Cup I wrote of the 7 current Tottenham players in Brazil with 11 former players also at the tournament. Your assessment of who the Tottenham players at the World Cup.
Present Tottenham Players at the World Cup
The seven current Tottenham players in the World Cup were Paulinho, Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele, Nacer Chadli, Hugo Lloris, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Nabil Bentaleb. At the semi-final stage of the World Cup, that number has been reduced to one. Paulinho with Brazil is the lone Tottenham survivor.
Paulinho has started 4 of Brazil’s 5 matches on the road to the semi-final against Germany. With the injury to Neymar, he will be hoping to retain his place in the team even though his performances have been disappointing.
The quarter-final defeats for France and Belgium brought to an end the World Cup challenge of Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Demblee and Nacer Chadli.
Of the Belgians, Vertonghen made the greatest contribution and has been rated the 6th best defender at the World Cup by FIFA’s Castrol Index. All three Tottenham players started in Belgium’s opening game but since then Chadli’s contribution has been from the bench while Dembele has started two games.
Hugo Lloris captained France to the quarter-finals but could do nothing to prevent the single goal defeat by Germany.
Nabil Bentaleb played in Algeria’s three group games but was unfortunate to be left out for the last-16 match against Germany.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto played in Cameroon’s first two matches but after two defeats and a head-butting incident with a team-mate in second game against Croatia, he was left out for the final match.
Former Tottenham Players at the World Cup
Of the 11 former players, none remain. The Round of 16 was as far as any of the former players got. Clint Dempsey saw his US team defeated in extra-time by Belgium despite a late a gallant attempt to take the game to a penalty shoot-out. Mexico and Switzerland put up equally brave performances in defeat.
Clint Dempsey scored two goals in the US team’s opening games. The first came in the first minute of their win over Ghana.
Mexico lost to two late goals against Holland with Giovani dos Santos scoring their goal in the last-16 match. He impressed in the opening win over Algeria when he had two goals disallowed wrongly for off-side and in the scoreless draw with Brazil.
Reta Zeigler didn’t play in any of Switzerland’s games at the Finals.
Group Stage Exit
Helder Postiga’s World Cup was brief, playing only 16 minutes before going off injured against the USA as Portugal went home early.
Wilson Palacios was sent off in the opening defeat by France, missed the next match and came on as a substitute in the final match to be booked again.
Didier Zokora was booked in both group matches for Ivory Coast and was suspended for the final game.
More from World Cup
- 3 Americans Tottenham should consider in the transfer market
- Uneven Day 3, for Tottenham Hotspur players at the World Cup
- Scans for Tottenham, England star, highlight worst possible scenario
- Tottenham international roundup – Kane connects, Reguilón competes
- How short-handed will Tottenham Hotspur be Saturday at Palace?
Kevin-Prince Boateng started one match and came on as a substitute but by the third group match had been sent home in disgrace.
The Croatian trio, Luka Modric, Vedran Corluka and Stipe Pletikosa exited the World Cup after the group games. All played in Croatia’s three games in which they achieved only one win, losing to Brazil and Mexico.
Massimo Luongo was an unused substitute in Australia’s three matches in Brazil.
Of the players with Tottenham connections, past or present, who reached the last-16, who impressed the most?