It was a case of "Crisis? What crisis?" today as our lads saw off the Bucs to win the prestigious Vodacom Challenge - otherwise dubbed the Tottenham Hotspur Trophy.
Our route to the final was brief and simple, as a 1-0 loss to Kaizer Chiefs and a 1-1 draw with the Orlando Pirates were enough to see us qualify for the showpiece final. Qualify? Who are we kidding? We recieved a bye to the final based purely on the fact we are the mighty Tottenham Hotspur - maybe we should have tried that in the Champions League.
The Kaizer Chiefs were less than chuffed that, despite managing what we hadn't - a victory - they were still knocked out of the competition. Rough justice, but that's the way it goes. Money talks, as do shirt sales, corporate identity and household names.
Most Premier League teams seem to win more silverware in pre-season than during the full season and everyone seems to have at least one title to their name come opening day. But, whilst it's easy to mock a competition organised purely to give our squad a full-ego massage, it did signal distinct progress in our pre-season preparations.
Rafa Van Der Vaart scored twice, including his second free-kick of the tournament, so we know where the goals are coming from in the event that we continue to make no signings whatsoever. Defoe scored a poacher's goal, of which he was incapable last season. And Gareth Bale can still do what he does best, as Defoe's goal came from a pinpoint Bale cross.
So far so good. Add to that a clean sheet for Hilarious Gomes (we're calling him this until we're proven wrong) and a smile, a real displaying of teeth from captain Luka Modric as he lifted the trophy.
See Luka, that's exactly what you can expect next season if you stick about, plenty of goals, plenty of silverware - plenty of smiles. Honest.
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