Newcastle beat Spurs, jetlag in Melbourne exhibition game

Tottenham Hotspur led by manager Ange Postecoglou drew 1-1 and lost 5-4 on penalties to Newcastle in a postseason match held in Australia on Wednesday, ending the Spurs manager’s homecoming with a defeat in front of over 78,000 fans

Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min, right, shoots during a postseason match against Newcastle United at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia on Wednesday. [EPA/YONHAP]

Tottenham Hotspur led by manager Ange Postecoglou drew 1-1 and lost 5-4 on penalties to Newcastle in a postseason match held in Australia on Wednesday, ending the Spurs manager’s homecoming with a defeat in front of over 78,000 fans.

The game at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia — played in front of a larger crowd than Spurs will have seen all season — took place only three days after both sides finished their last fixture of the 2023-24 Premier League season.

Spurs captain Son Heung-min, who played 35 out of 38 league matches last season, started Wednesday’s match and played 61 minutes until he was substituted off for Bryan Gil.

Son failed to get his name on the scoresheet, but Spurs scored the opening goal in the 32nd minute with James Maddison exploiting a ball that goalkeeper Nick Pope very kindly passed directly to him in the penalty area.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder James Maddison, left, celebrates scoring a goal during a postseason match against Newcastle United at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia on Wednesday. [EPA/YONHAP]

Alexander Isak equalized right before the halftime whistle, and the game remained scoreless through the second half. Presumably to justify the ticket price and the 20-plus hour flights, the two sides played an entirely unnecessary penalty shootout after 90 minutes.

Tottenham’s first kicker Gil missed his shot. That was the only one Spurs missed, costing them a 5-4 loss on penalties in the end.

Wednesday’s match wraps up Tottenham’s postseason schedule in Australia. The London side is set to begin preseason action in the summer when they play games against Japanese team Vissel Kobe in July in Japan and Bayern Munich the following month in Seoul.

Spurs’ trip to Japan will mark Postecoglou’s return to the country where he won the J1 League with Yokohama F. Marinos in 2019 as the first Australian manager to do so.

The match in the Korean capital against Bayern Munich, home to Korean defender Kim Min-jae, is part of the Coupang Play Series — an exhibition game series launched in 2022. This year marks the second time Spurs have joined the series after participating in the series’ inaugural year.

That Coupang Play Series game against Bayern is the first of the two games against the Bundesliga side, with the second preseason match scheduled in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Aug. 10.

Until the preseason schedule rolls around, Son has national duty with Korea and is set to play two 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Singapore and China in June.

The game against Singapore on June 6 will be interim manager Kim Do-hoon’s debut match after being announced on Monday as a caretaker for the June qualifiers.

The upcoming two games will decide whether Korea books a spot in the third round of the qualifiers. Korea are current frontrunners in Group C of the ongoing second round, where group winners and runners-up reach the next stage.

Aside from those two games, the Korean squad will enjoy a slightly more relaxed summer than many of their teammates, with both the Euros and Copa America scheduled in June.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]