AwayGoalsRule.com - Football Forum

Tottenham Hotspur Without Wilson Palacios Because Of Honduran World Cup Celebrations

Spurs star under request by Honduras President.

For the first time in 28 years, the World Cup will welcome Honduras to the finals, yet the celebrations in the Central American country have threatened to conflict with Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League schedule, as Wilson Palacios will be unavailable for selection this weekend.

Palacios is, according to The Mirror, under order by the "military junta" that has taken power in Honduras, as the interim president - Roberto Micheletti, who overthrew Manuel Zeleya - hopes to use the World Cup fever in a bid to win support for himself. The celebrations will be held in the capital city; Tegucigalpa.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp was expecting Palacios to be reporting for domestic duty, as Tottenham travel to Fratton Park to take on Portsmouth.

"We’ve no choice but to go to Portsmouth without Wilson," Redknapp conceded.

"There’s nothing he can do either.

"I guess when the president tells you to do something you can’t do much about it."

That should be Honduras thrown out of the world cup then as Fifa law states governments aren't allowed to interfere with football, clearly they are by not allowing him to come home and should be dealt with

He's apparently on a plane that will arrive right before kick off...if the story on Goal.com is to be believed

Harry Redknapp has branded some Portsmouth fans "sickos".

The angry Spurs boss finally let rip on the eve of his explosive return to Fratton Park today.

Redknapp is still seething at the hateful messages left on his mobile phone when he quit Pompey 12 months ago.He said: "The calls hurt. They were from sickos. People said 'I hope you get cancer', 'I hope you turn your car over and kill your wife'.They are not human beings. They really need help. They can't be right in the head, can they?"

Speaking about it for the first time, Redknapp added: "If they want to shout, I'm not bothered. I won't lose any sleep over it - I'll only lose sleep if we get beaten. I'd say 95 per cent of the people during the game will be fantastic.I see Portsmouth supporters every day at the petrol station when I stop on the way to London. I speak to them. I've got lads painting my house at the moment who are all Pompey-mad, nice lads. They're not a bunch of lunatics. I think they're all being labelled as a bunch of nutters down there, which they're not - they're nice people."

"You're always going to get some people who will shout abuse but it shows you what a good job I must have done because they were so upset that I left.Normally they're glad to get rid of you when you leave but that didn't happen in our case."

flash of brilliance there from Gomes in the 58th

And there is the Gomes we all know and love in the 60

Defoe sent off that was a pretty soft red card imo

just watched the replay a few more times it was a pretty obvious stomp....probably deserved

2-1...10 men...gonna be good finish mate

I can't figure Gomes out he make some spectacular saves, but the boateng goal beat him to his near post and was a pretty straight forward save imo...and he missed it

Portsmouth 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur

Harry Redknapp celebrated his return to Fratton Park with a win as his old club Portsmouth stayed bottom of the table.

Aruna Dindane had a golden opportunity to put Pompey ahead but ballooned over an open goal inside the six-yard box.

Ledley King headed Spurs ahead from a Niko Kranjcar corner before Jermain Defoe volleyed in their second.

Kevin-Prince Boateng pulled one back moments before Defoe saw red for stamping, but Spurs held on and Pompey had Michael Brown sent off at the end.

The much-awaited reception for ex-Portsmouth boss Redknapp was in reality mild, but the opening exchanges in the match were highly charged.

Both match-day squads featured three players who had played for the opposition in recent times, Defoe, Kranjcar and substitute Peter Crouch for Spurs, and Brown, Boateng and Younes Kaboul for Portsmouth.

Defoe, fit after missing England's final World Cup qualifiers, was in the thick of the action from the outset. He was spoken to by referee Phil Dowd in the first few seconds after a heated exchange of views with former Spurs player Brown.

The lively Defoe then burst through but England keeper David James saved his low shot comfortably.

The Spurs striker was in on goal again after a neat through ball from Tom Huddlestone, but the fierce low drive came back off the post with James beaten.

Portsmouth, with only one league win so far and unsettled by recent changes of ownership, showed plenty of endeavour, with the spirited Boateng at the heart of most of their attacks.

Dindane is likely to see his glaring miss repeated several times on calamity-based football compilations, while Heurelho Gomes, who has endured some calamities of his own, produced some magical saves, most notably an acrobatic one-handed tip over while diving in the opposite direction after Boateng's free-kick was sharply deflected.

But Spurs, always with the extra quality in key areas, went ahead through the influential King, returning to the side for the first time since 30 September following hamstring trouble.

The Lilywhites forced several right-wing corners and King rose to meet Kranjcar's cross with James in no-man's land.

Jermaine Jenas exchanged neat passes with Huddlestone and sent over an inviting cross for Defoe to slide in and net his sixth league goal of the season.

But that comfortable cushion soon began to deflate as Boateng was rewarded for his perseverance with a superb first-time shot from the left-hand edge of the area that beat Gomes and whistled into the corner of the net.

And Spurs were reduced to 10 men when the petulant side of Defoe returned and he was given a straight red card for a petty stamp on Aaron Mokoena.

Wilson Palacios, who only arrived at the ground 15 minutes before the teams had to be announced, having had extended international duty to celebrate Honduras reaching the World Cup finals, was brought on in an attempt to shore things up.

But again it was Gomes who saved Spurs, springing to his right to keep out Hassan Yebda's powerful volley.

Still the chances came for Portsmouth, Fredric Piquionne unchallenged as he headed agonisingly close across the face of goal.

In the final moments Brown was sent off for a second yellow card as Portsmouth were left to reflect on a fifth home defeat of the season, once again wondering how they had nothing to show for their efforts.