Three minutes after the White Hart Lane faithful saw a poor Younnes Kaboul foul gift Leighton Baines and Everton an early lead, a magnanimous Tim Howard made an error coming off his line. The goalkeeper's poor play on an Alan Hutton cross led to a Rafael van der Vaart equalizer in the 21st minute. While the scoreline is a more accurate representation of how the first 20 minutes have played-out, David Moyes will still rue his normally reliable `keeper gifting the home side a goal.
Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Everton: Tim Howard Mistake Gifts Rafael Van Der Vaart Goal
The movement started with a ball played to the right flank for Hutton. Against a packed-in Everton defense, the right back had no opposition in playing-in what was ultimately a below par cross, hitting his ball to within three yards of Howard's line. The goalkeeper came off, drifted toward his far post yet took a poor angle to the ball. Running under the cross, Howard was left to flail at Hutton's service while Peter Crouch put the ball back across goal for van der Vaart, whose empty net finish came amidst a group of stunned Toffee defenders, still piecing together what had transpired.
Spurs had controlled the match’s first 20 minutes, with Everton constantly pushed deep toward their own area. Leighton Baines’ goal came on Everton’s first chance and had temporarily led to a deceiving scoreline. While a 1-1 still fails to describe the extent to which Spurs have dictated play, it is a more accurate depiction than the score read a mere four minutes before.
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