Photo by Don Mullon/Getty Images
0$ transfer season? Check. Best player injured? Check. Down a goal with seconds to go? Check. Tottenham looked at their cue cards, and only found the end of the road. No more time, no more surprises.
Well, maybe there’s time for one more surprise.
Audere est facere – to dare is to do. These are the words written on the steps of White Hart Lane, the motto that has defined the Tottenham Spurs since their conception. Quite frankly, it was a motto more fit for underdogs than champions, and that’s how anybody would describe the Spurs in their history – the Spurs were always underfunded, underperformed, underachieved. The trophy cabinet was empty, and with it, their hopes.
But not their desires.
Let me set the stage. UEFA Champions League. The most prestigious competition in any sport bar the World Cup. The contenders? Well, a lot, but I can list some for you: Real Madrid. Barcelona. Juventus. Bayern Munich. Even if you’re not a soccer fan, you know these names. They carry alongside their names, context – the context of winning. Championships, league titles, ballon d’ors, cups, the list goes on and on. These teams compete in the Champions league, these teams year after year add on to their already long lists of achievements and honors, another Champions League title. These teams win.
The Spurs don’t win. They are as far away from winning you can describe. It was decades since they won their last league title, much less the greatest competition in sports. It would have been outrageous to call them UCL contenders, much less semi-finalists.
Well, here we are. Despite all odds, the Spurs somehow made their way into the semi-finals, dismantling Dortmund in the round of 16 and a predicted final-bound Manchester City in the round of 8. But unfortunately, their time was up.
Game 1 of aggregate went Ajax’s way, with Van de Beek’s 15-minute goal lasting till the whistle blew. Game 2 would have to be the difference for the Spurs, and if not, they could pack up their bag of false hopes and dreams and go home.
Before the 1st half whistle blew, Ajax was two goals up. With aggregate, it was three. Tottenham somehow needed to score three goals within the next 45 minutes – all without their world-breaking striker Harry Kane who was injured for the most important game in his team’s history.
“Anything can happen in 45 minutes.”
Not really. This isn’t American football or basketball. “Any given Sunday” doesn’t apply to the game of football, and even if it did, it most certainly doesn’t apply to the Spurs. Between an already overachieving team and a history of mediocrity, nothing could possibly happen between now and 45 minutes that could muster meaningful change.
Lucas Moura happened.
Lucas Moura, a failed Paris Saint Germain striker. The 3rd string backup. The definition of a Spurs striker – somewhat formidable, but at the end of the day, incapable.
Not today.
Lucas Moura came out blazing the 2nd half, scoring a brace in quick succession to give Spurs fans the most painful, disgusting emotion of all – hope. Hope that we could come back, hope that we could reach the promised land. However, we couldn’t get too ahead of ourselves. With aggregate, we were still down a goal, and time was winding down. Still, we held hope. Foolish hope, that somehow this historically poor excuse of a team could conjure comebacks, miracles.
Soon, we were to be proven right. The regular 90 minutes was up, and the given five minutes of extra time was too little, too late. Spurs weren’t even pressing anymore, and Ajax multiple times came a crossbar away from extending their lead.
Final 30 seconds. Spurs corner. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris runs up for the final roll of the dice.
Snake eyes.
10 seconds left, Ajax has the ball in the Spurs’ half. The clocks ticks down ever too fast.
5 seconds. Moussa Sissoko punts the ball to the Ajax box, accompanied by a prayer.
4 seconds. The ball flies through the air, seemingly in slow-motion.
3. Fernando Llorente gets a touch in the box.
2. Dele Alli puts in a pass.
1. Moura makes contact.
0.
AFC Ajax – Tottenham Hotspurs
2-3.
Spurs win.
Tenny Kim 