Riding a roller coaster presents you with a variety of emotional experiences. There is that sense of trepidation as you are secured into the seat by a much too young looking attendant, the palpable dread as the car ascends a seemingly endless distance, and a stomach turning thrill as it harries wildly downwards.
The ride puts you through a series of these lifts and drops, and by the end, you feel a veritable buzz, a deep sense of satisfaction felt to your core, and a strong desire to do it all over again.
The second leg of the Champions League semi final featuring Spurs and Ajax played in Amsterdam provided exactly that experience.
I have supported Spurs for over a decade and have never experienced the full range of emotions I experienced during those 97 minutes on Wednesday. By the end, it was the best kind of thrill ride; one that takes you from the troughs of dread and despair to the heights of ecstasy and joy. It has me positively giddy for the next one, which will be played on the grandest stage of them all… (remarkably!) the Champions League Final, on 1 June in Madrid.
Certainly, by now, news of Spurs’ unlikely and miraculous 3-2 victory in Amsterdam, capped by a 96 minute winner (and hat-trick) by Lucas Moura is not news. In the hours that have passed, there have been excellent recaps of the experience written by some of my favourite journalists.
Jack Lang (The Athletic) wrote about how Mauricio Pochettino willed this rag-tag team to such immense glory. Rory Smith (NYT) in his excellent piece, which mostly describes the cruelty of the loss for a young and confident Ajax team (ever more so in the context of UEFA discussing the possibility of making the Champions League more exclusive for the elite clubs in coming years), also explains that Pochettino “now stands on the cusp of one of the unlikeliest, finest managerial achievements imaginable: winning the Champions League in a season with, by modern English standards, the scantest resources imaginable.” Finally, Kevin Clark (The Ringer) describes how the pejorative term “Spursy” is truly dead based on this most recent string of performances in the Champions League.
I certainly will not rehash the match events, as I have done in previous posts, but I do intend to share where my emotions were throughout the lead- up to the match and beyond.
In spite of losing the first leg at home last week 1-0, I initially felt slight optimism that Spurs would find a way to win in Amsterdam. For one, the pace of Son Heung-min would return to the lineup after suspension, and stretch the Ajax defense. He also would help provide a cutting edge, and the ability to turn the game on its head with a single counterattack as he had done so often this season. Secondly, it is a fact that Spurs played well in the second half of the first leg. This was powered largely by the substitution of Jan Vertonghen for Moussa Sissoko, and it was Sissoko who provided excellent transition play allowing Spurs to build confidently from the back.
Yet, all of that optimism was swept away as Spurs limply fell away to Bournemouth 1-0 on the weekend. It was a match Spurs should have won, to assure themselves of a top four finish, however, two red cards (to Son and Juan Foyth) proved too difficult to overcome. What should have been an aperitif, a light workout for the team prior to bigger matters in the Netherlands, turned into an energy sapping disappointment. It was just another loss in Spurs’ ongoing prolonged slump in the Premier League and raised questions about the team’s diminishing energy levels, lack of depth, and yes, its “Spursyness.”
As anticipation for the match grew, I sensed the dread that this would be Spurs’ last European match of the season. However, that negative tide was gently swept away the night before, as Liverpool incredibly overturned a 3-0 deficit in the first leg in Barcelona, and came out as 4-0 victors at Anfield. It was a profoundly inspirational performance, one which saw Liverpool play the perennial favourite for the Champions League off the park, and which gave even non-sports people the belief that anything is truly possible. Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, was quite calm the day prior to the match, well aware of the difficult situation the club was in with a 3-0 deficit. Yet in a contemplative and pragmatic manner, he said defiantly that Liverpool would give it all they had, and that “[they] win tonight or fail beautifully.”
After watching Liverpool rise up to his words, it felt like Pochettino and Spurs’ were also lifted by it. Despite the poor pattern of play in the Premier League in recent weeks, there was a sense of optimism and hope.
It may not have seemed that way, when Ajax went up 1-0 in the fifth minute on a Matthijs de Ligt goal, or after the 35th minute after the brilliant Hakim Ziyech put the hosts up 2-0. In fact, it seemed like Spurs were done and dusted at that point. I myself lost hope and in dismay texted a few colleagues at half time “it’s over.”
Yet, in the second half, Spurs demonstrated such a fierce and incredible fighting spirit that has rarely been seen in previous iterations of the team. Lucas Moura, became a club legend and scored all three goals to give Spurs the win, but it seemed like all his teammates also deserve a share of the credit as well. Whether it was Fernando Llorente who provided Spurs with an aerial threat throughout the second half, keeping Ajax’s defenders on edge, or Dele Alli who played more forward up the pitch than in recent matches, and who made several key runs, feigns and flicks, which directly led to two of Moura’s goals. Mention must also be made of Jan Vertonghen who played courageously with a face mask after breaking his nose a week earlier, and Hugo Lloris, who even when Spurs looked to be taking over the match, was forced to make several game stopping shots, including one from Ziyech in injury time.
After the match had ended, the emotional scenes that played out on the pitch were a culmination of the intense drama and theatre that we were privy to watch. Pochettino, with his jacket far flung and necktie unfurled, was overcome with emotion, collapsing to the ground and then when lifted up, applauding the traveling fans and imploring them to give the hosts a round of applause. He embraced his players, with tears streaming down his face, proud of the fight and courage they showed. Clips emerged from the change room, where the club triumphantly and openly drank Heineken, and where the celebrations were punctuated with a stirring and slurry rendition of Oasis’s Wonderwall. Social media was littered with clips from supporters groups all over the world, where supporters celebrated in ever more wild and surreal ways, never really seen previously amongst the current generation of Spurs’ supporters. And of course, there was a great clip of Steve Nash, forever a Yid, brought to his feet with a jolt of excitement and then a face full of tears after the Moura winner.
I have long wondered whether my obsession with sport, particularly football is healthy and productive. There is no question, that it may detract from other aspects of my life. But every so often, you are afforded with moments like what we felt on Wednesday. Moments that make you feel like the end of the world is near, situations in which there is no hope to be found. Yet with a bit of human skill, ingenuity, inspiration and of course, a bit of luck, you are reminded with the flick of a ball, that everything is okay, and that everything is indeed possible.
Onto the final then.
Jaideep Kanungo
Jaikan Sport 