Ahead of a potential battle with Clint Dempsey in the first match of our tour of the USA and Canada, Kyle Naughton has spoken of his admiration for the way our former forward and his compatriots performed at the World Cup.
Clint, who spent a season at White Hart Lane between 2012 and 2013, nowadays plies his trade for MLS giants Seattle Sounders – the side we’ll face in our opening pre-season friendly on Saturday evening, kick-off 1pm local time (9pm UK time).
He was also part of the USA national team that won many admirers at the recent showpiece tournament in Brazil, scoring in matches against Ghana and Portugal on the way to the last 16.
While Kyle’s friendship with Clint will be put on hold for 90 minutes on Saturday, our defender admitted he’s looking forward to catching up with the former Fulham man – as well as with striker Jermain Defoe when we play Toronto in our second tour outing next Wednesday.
“I haven’t seen either of those two lads since they left, but I watched Clint and America do well in the World Cup,” said the full-back.
“They were a joy to watch to be fair. I really enjoyed seeing how hard they worked as a team. If you wanted to see a side work together as a team then you wanted to watch America – that was one of the better things about their display at the tournament.
“Away from that, though, it will be nice to see Clint and Jermain again. I enjoyed working with them when they were here and obviously we’ll be looking to perform well against them.
“Pre-season has been good so far. We’ve done quite a bit of running as well as some ball work, but everyone seems happy.”
Don't forget, you can follow every step of our Tour via our Spurs TV Tour Pass - sign up here...