Modric Gets New Team Mate: Pavlyuchenko

Just now, Tottenham confirmed the rumours that 26 year old forward Roman Pavlyuchenko (22 caps for Russia) signed for them. He was mainly contracted as a replacement for the leaving Berbatov. The signing fee to buy him from Spartak Moscow is believed to be in the region of £14 million. However he won’t get into action this Sunday yet, since he is away with the Russian national team.

Another excellent addition to the team in my opinion! I was greatly impressed with Pavlyuchenko during the European Championship. I can’t wait to see him in action, in tandem with Luka Modric.

Luka Modric called up for World Cup Qualifiers

As expected, Luka Modric has been called up by Slaven Bilic, coach of the Croatian team. Croatia is going play against Kazakhstan and England in the World Cup Qualifiers next month. Worth noting is that Bilic will miss Kranjcar, one the key players, because of injury. The game against England will be especially tough since Croatia beat them twice in the European Championship qualifying games, surely the English team will do anything to try avoiding a third defeat in a row. Read the rest of this entry »

Tottenham 1-2 Sunderland, unlucky Modric

Unfortunately for the Spurs fans, the second game of the season resulted in a second loss as well. This was in large part thanks to Sunderland ’star of the day’ Djibril Cisse. He scored the winning goal at the 83th minute with a header. Earlier Tottenham Hotspur managed to draw level after Luka Modric, fed by Jermaine Jenas, had a long shot blocked but showed class in accelerating to the rebound, dribbling past two men in the box and trying again, but this time - despite Gordon’s parry - Jenas was on hand to score.

Preview: Spurs versus Sunderland

Tomorrow we have the Spurs and Sunderland going head-to-head in the first home game for Tottenham at White Hart Lane. It’s their second game of the season, having lost 2-1 at the opening game.

Spurs fans will see their nearly new team in action again with hopefully a solid performance. It will be another chance for Luka Modric, Dos Santos and David Bentley to prove their worth to the team (and their high transfer fees!). They will get better and better by playing matches together, however wins are needed early on as well if one wants to challenge for a top Premiership finish!

Likely line-up:

Tottenham: Gomes, Bale, Zokora, King, Woodgate, Jenas, Modric, Dos Santos, Bentley, Berbatov, Bent

Sunderland: Gordon, Chimbonda, Nosworthy, Collins, Bardsley, Malbranque, Whitehead, Reid, Richardson, Diouf, Cisse

Middlesbrough 2-1 Tottenham

Unfortunately for Tottenham Hotspur, Middlesbrough beat them 2-1 in their opening game of the 2008-09 Premiership.

The new signings David Bentley, Giovani Dos Santos and Luka Modric showed some individual brilliance, but they failed to click together, while Aaron Lennon was work hard but didn’t yield the desired result yet either. However after they will have played a few games, that will get the opportunity to glue together, don’t forget this is almost a whole new team!

Middlesbrough: Brad Jones, Andrew Taylor, Gary O’Neill, Emanuel Pogatetz, Jeremie Aliadiere, Afonso Alves (Mido 83), Robert Huth, Mohamed Shawky, Tuncay Sanli (Didier Digard 72), Stewart Downing, David Wheater.

Tottenham: Heurelho Gomes, Didier Zokora, Benoit Assou-Ekotto (Jamie O’Hara 77), Michael Dawson, Jonathan Woodgate, Aaron Lennon (Gareth Bale 66), Jermaine Jenas, Luka Modric, Giovani dos Santos (Dimitar Berbatov 65), David Bentley, Darren Bent.

Spurs dominate Roma

Today the final pre-season friendly for the Spurs got played… and what a game! Tottenham dominated and destroyed the Roma squad who were helpless, resulting in a 5-0 victory. They started with all their major signings of the summer - Luka Modric, Bentley, Giovani dos Santos and Heurelho Gomes - in a strong line-up which also included Dimitar Berbatov. It looks like Modric has overcome his knee injury and performed well. With this quality line-up we can expect the Spurs to go for a top-three position in the league table!

Modric: injured knee, Corluka joining Spurs?

Yesterday, Luka Modric was to play against Dortmund in a friendly, but rested the whole game instead. Earlier during warm-up training, Modric broke down with a knee injury. It’s likely that the injury was caused during the Celtic game and now just got worse. However the injury isn’t believed to be all that serious but he will still get checked out by a specialist.

The match ended with Tottenham Hotspur winning with a comfortable 3 to nill from Borussia Dortmund.

It is also believed that Tottenham Hotspur will close the £7 million deal taking Vedran Corluka to White Hart Lane anytime now. Corluka is a versatile defender (but usually playing right back) and a Croatian National Team mate of Modric.

Bilic will rest Modric tonight

Since Croatia has already qualified for the EURO 2008 quarter finals, coach Slaven Bilic will rest some key players, including Luka Modric. Not so much because they are tired, but because they are threatened by suspension by having been yellow-carded earlier in the tournament. This might be good news for Poland who will thus play against a B-team of Croatia. If the Poles can win against Croatia and Germany doesn’t win from Austria, they can still qualify as well. Nevertheless, Bilic has stated although some key players won’t take part, they are still going for the win.

The next important game for Modric and Croatia will be the quarter finals match against Turkey, who won from the Czech Republic yesterday in a thrilling match. Although first behind 2-0, Turkey still managed to claw back and win the game 2-3!