Tottenham Hotspur kicked off their pre-season fixtures on Wednesday with a 6-3 victory over Team K League in Seoul, South Korea.
Spurs opened the scoring through Eric Dier, with last season’s goalscoring of duo Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min both netting twice each in the second half after Kim Jin-hyuk’s own goal.
For Antonio Conte’s side, it was a first of four pre-season friendlies, with Spurs facing Sevilla in South Korea before ending their list of friendlies with meetings against Rangers and Roma in Glasgow and Haifa respectively. Here are five key moments from Spurs’ nine-goal thriller in South Korea.
Kane and Son in the goals
It took until both men were introduced in the second half, but both Kane and Son got themselves on the scoresheet twice to help Conte’s side to victory. Kane was among six players to come on at half-time and replaced Bryan Gil, while Son’s introduction in place of Emerson Royal came a couple of minutes later.
Kane ended the last campaign internationally with a goal against Germany for England, but failed to find the target during Nations League defeats to Hungary and the goalless draw with Italy, meaning his goals will come as a timely boost to Conte with only three friendlies remaining before their league season officially begins.
Meanwhile, Son’s double, which came in the space of 17 minutes, will have delighted him, Conte and the 64,100 strong crowd watching, as last season’s joint-golden boot winner dazzled on his homecoming in South Korea.
Double coronavirus blow
Two of Spurs’ summer signings Yves Bissouma and Fraser Forster missed out on making their Spurs debuts in the 6-3 win, with both men testing positive for coronavirus.
Tottenham paid £25m to sign midfielder Bissouma from Brighton and Hove Albion while goalkeeper Fraser Forster arrived on a free transfer following his exit from Southampton. Both men will now miss the meeting with Sevilla on Saturday and will have to fly back to London separately to the rest of the squad.
Fellow new signing and free transfer Ivan Perisic is with the squad in South Korea but was not involved in the squad as he continues to work on his fitness ahead of the new campaign.
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Ex-loanees given opportunity
Among those who featured for Spurs in the friendly were Gil and Pape Matar Sarr, who both played a half each during the tie, spent last season out on loan with Metz and Valenica respectively last term.
While Sarr spent the duration of the last campaign out on loan in Ligue 1, Gil only spent the final months back in Spain, with the win in South Korea giving both men opportunities to impress Conte ahead of the new season.
Also featuring in the game were fellow young prospects Brandon Austin, Troy Parrott, Havery White, Charlie Sayers and Malachi Fagan-Walcott.
Free-kick delight
For the first time since netting against Aston Villa in the Premier League in 2014, Kane scored directly from a free-kick for Spurs, boosting the likeliness that he will stay on set-pieces for the new season.
Often criticised for his free-kick abilities, the England captain saw a low effort deflect in just like his last free-kick goal for Tottenham, as Spurs rallied to a late romp of goals against Team K League, who played the final 19 minutes with ten men after Kim Dong-min was offside.
Son scored twice from free-kicks last month for his country while Kane’s English colleague Dier has also proved to be a dab hand from free-kicks in the past, but Kane is likely to continue as primary free-kick taker after his striker in Korea.
Richarlison's debut role
Club-record signing Richarlison got a run out and made his debut up front in the starting 11, spearheading a front three that included Gil and Lucas Moura.
Richarlison played the first half up front but moved to the right wing following the half-time changes, showing off his versatility as Kane entered the fray ahead of scoring.
Getting over 75 minutes into the £60million club record signing will no doubt be a massive boost for Conte, with Richarlison’s arrival bolstering a good set of attacking options that include Kane, Son, Lucas and Dejan Kulusevski.
