Top Stories

Americans Abroad: Dempsey scores in Spurs win

American star Clint Dempsey has worked his way back from a groin injury, and today he showed that he is back healthy after scoring his first home goal for Tottenham, helping Spurs post a 3-1 victory against Reading on Tuesday.

Dempsey’s deflected goal, which came just three minutes after he entered the match, gives him four league goals on the season, and marked his first goal for Tottenham at White Hart Lane.

While Dempsey still has to establish a regular starting role, he now has four goals and three assists in 16 appearances, starting in 12 of Tottenham’s 21 matches.

Here is Dempsey’s latest goal:

Comments

  1. Bale and Defoe are both having strong “individual” seasons. IMO,they both have been remarkably selfish this season and the Spurs have essentially bullied there way to a top four spot on individual talent alone.That won’t hold up unless they can really start playing more team football. (I’ve been a Spurs fan for a while and am pretty sure Defoe and Bale do not get along. They had visible arguments on the field last season)

    As for Dempsey, he struggled early and often and it was tiresome to see him go to ground so often. However, in the the four or five games before his injury he was critical to Spurs success because he is unselfish. Note the Stoke game without Dempsey and the inclusion of Dembele as an indicator of his importance. Spurs created no real chances in that game. Dembele was never a goal scorer at Fulham nor much of an assist man. What he is fantastic at is transitioning the ball out of the defensive third.

    Reply
  2. He is on pace to score 8 to 12 goals and have 7 assists this year for Tottenham. That would be a good year for a new club in my opinion. People can talk all they want about him not having a good year, but he seems to be doing just fine to me. 16 appearnces with 12 starts with 4 goals and 3 assists while not having a pre-season with Spurs. Not bad at all.

    Reply
    • +1 Again people failed to realize he was late getting started playing football this season; not saying he was great but need to look at the whole picture and give him the benefit of the doubt.

      Reply
    • +1 I would say thats a pretty good year too. Not bad when there are so many quality options for his position at Spurs. People just need to realize that Tottenham is not Fulham, he is not going to get every goal scoring opportunity on the team. Overall he is in a much better position right now, allowed to refine his game and contribute in a more meaningful way instead of carrying the entire attack at Fulham.

      Reply
  3. I have to disagree with a quite a few people on this site who have implied Dempsey has not performed well since being in a Spurs uniform. People have to remember Dempsey in reality had no preseason w/any club even though he was on the books at Fulham. His first few games were getting his feet wet on a new club and battling against opposing players already in game shape form. You can tell AVB has full confidence in Dempsey and seeing him day in and day out proves that theory and he’s been giving him plenty of minutes. Within the last few games before his injury in the Europa League and BPL, Dempsey has been argubaby w/Lennon and of course Bale been the best all around players for the Spurs.

    Reply
    • Dempsey has definitely been improving for Spurs, but i disagree he has been their best all around player, that goes to Dembele. I am a Spurs fan and have seen almost all of their games. When he is in the game they play so much better. I notice they seem to lose when he doesn’t play so I looked up the stats with and without him:

      With Dembele Tottenham are 11-2-1
      Without Dembele Tottenham are 1-1-5

      So the only loss with Dembele is the Everton game where they let in 2 stoppage time goals and the only win was against Southhampton 2-1.

      He is definitely there most important player

      Reply
    • Dempsey has definitely gotten up to speed and is playing like the player we all know he is, but take off the blinders – he was mediocre at best for the first couple months he was with Spurs (and that’s being kind). Not just with Tottenham, he endured a poor stretch with the national team, too. The reason, of course, is that he didn’t get a real preseason in. Now that he’s match-fit he’s playing well, which we all expected to happen.

      But regardless of how good he is and how well he’s playing now, he had a rough start in North London. Why are so many posters around here so reticent to admit that? If anything overcoming those struggles as he has speaks well for Dempsey. And as kmac014 said, claiming that Dempsey has played as well as guys like Defoe, Bale, and Dembele is just silly. He hasn’t, but that’s not a knock against him. I mean, Xavi hasn’t played as well as Messi this season, but that’s not a criticism of Xavi.

      Reply
      • Cmon u guys didnt read the post; before responding maybe take the time. I indicated the few games before his injury he was ine of the top performers. Of course he wasnt playing well in the beginning; that was mentioned as well; SMH

      • My reply was in part addressed not only to you but to all of those who in blindly rooting for all things Dempsey refuse to acknowledge any shortcomings. Your main point, if I’m not mistaken, is your first sentence: “I have to disagree with a quite a few people on this site who have implied Dempsey has not performed well since being in a Spurs uniform.” My contention is that he did indeed have a poor run of games upon joining the team. We all agree that he has turned it around and is playing well now, but you (or at least people of your ilk – I don’t want to put words in your mouth specifically, Alex) deluded yourself into thinking that he was playing well early on, and while you now acknowledge that that wasn’t the case, gloss over that rough patch when discussing his season. But being only at the midway point, that rough patch makes up a sizable chunk of his season. If he carries on playing well for the rest of the year, then fair enough, we can say that Dempsey had a successful year. But as of now it’s been a mixed bag.

        As for Dempsey being one of Tottenham’s top players, yes, there was a run of maybe three or four games before his injury where he was in that discussion. Personally, I think that’s far too small a sample size to say that he was one of his team’s top performers. I expect by the end of the season people may very well look at him as being one of Spurs’ better players, but not yet. I guess we just disagree on how long a player has to play well to be considered one of his team’s top performers.

        The snarky attitude doesn’t help, nor does it strengthen your argument. SBI is one of the few civil forums on the Internet, let’s try to keep it that way.

      • Dont include me with the others as dempsey was playing well from the start; not me Michael. Dont interpret my comment as snarky; it seems that my initial comment suggested hes been playing well since the start; not the case and obviously factors were involved. Read Ives’s response yesterday from the Q+A regarding Dempsey’s time so far, as ive totally backed up his statement. As a whole yes i agree with Demps has not been one of the better players; however recent form suggests otherwise. I guess we agree to disagree. Good discussion my friend..

      • lol @Michael, Dempsey playing spot duty at the end of the last 2 matches following a groin injury doesn’t equate “gotten up to speed”! I’m as big a fan of Clint Dempsey as any(all) US Soccer fans but I’m certainly not going there. Deuce’s day will come if he stays healthy for both ‘Spurs and the Nats. You’re right, we must take our blinders off, but still root for him and not expect a hat trick every time he plays.

    • Dempsey has played much better in his last 4-5 games, but let’s be real – Dembele, Vertonghen, Sandro, Bale, Lennon, Defoe – these are the guys who have been indispensable for Spurs, for the season and lately as well. Actually, Dempsey has been outshined by Siggurdson, who has been playing really well of late and who obviously competes with Clint for playing time. Siggurdson had another great game today and he showed again today that he’s by far Spurs’ best option for set pieces, which is going to give him a boost in the playing time battle.

      Dempsey is playing well right now – fans should just let him be without heaping such high expectations on him. If he makes an appearance in most games and gets a handful of starts for a team seriously challenging for a Champions League place, that’s pretty excellent. That’s a very crowded and talented midfield he’s trying to find a place in. (Actually, his best hope for minutes might be if Adebayor continues to play listlessly and AVB opts to go with Clint in the hole behind Defoe in a 4-5-1. But right now he seems to be trying to make the 4-4-2 with Defoe and Adebayor work.)

      Reply
      • You lost me at Siggurdson…. and Lennon. Neither have had good years. Lennon will be kept because they need his speed, but he has been far from a top player so far this year.

      • Agree, lost me on the Icelandic however we can all agree as a team esecially defensively everyone has stepped up; hence Spurs in the top 4

      • Siggurdson started out worse than Dempsey, but he has been tremendous in his last 4-5 appearances. My comments about Gylfi were restricted to what he’s done lately.

      • How exactly has Dembele been indespensable for Spurs? The guy has some serious dribbling skills and tackles well, but he doesnt do much more than that, certainly not as well as others in their midfeild, Demps included. He also relies far too much on his left foot, part of the reason coaches have realized they need to play him deep in the midfield rather have him as a forward or attacking mid like he played before coming to the premier league. Both Dembele and Dempsey were far more effective players with Fulham. As for Dempsey’s form, his first two games for Spurs, especially the Europa game v Lazio, were excellent I thought. After those, his form started to lag likely because he was learning how AVB wanted him to play. The reason why both Dembele and Demps arent the players they were at Fulham? – Martin Jol is a better manager than AVB.

      • Scroll up and look at Spurs’ record when Dembele plays and when he doesn’t play. He’s their most important player. Without him, the attack tends to be without ideas. There’s pretty wide consensus on this from Spurs fans.

Leave a Comment