BRIGHTON, England (AP) — Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou described his team's second-half collapse in the 3-2 loss at Brighton as “unacceptable” and “as bad as it gets.”
Spurs conceded three goals in an 18-minute span soon after halftime in a meltdown that might be familiar to the club's fans.
According to Opta, which supplies statistics for the Premier League, it's the 10th time that Tottenham has lost a Premier League game in which the team has led by two or more goals.
“It is a terrible loss for us — as bad as it gets,” said Postecoglou, whose side was 2-0 up after goals by Brennan Johnson and James Maddison.
The Australian coach, who is in his second season at Tottenham, said it was the “worst defeat since I’ve been here.”
“Unacceptable second half. Nowhere near where we should be. We got carried away with how we were going,” he said. “We kind of accepted our fate and it is hard to understand as we’ve not done that while I’ve been here. We paid the price.”
Tottenham was coming off a run of five straight wins, which included a 3-0 victory at Manchester United that was widely lauded for the way Postecoglou's team played.
“The problem is we were traveling along too smoothly — football and life will trip you up if you get too far ahead of yourself," Postecoglou said.
Maddison said his team “lost complete control of the game.”
“In adversity in the Premier League ... the best teams stay strong in that moment and weather the storm,” he said. “We definitely didn't do that.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Tottenham's head coach Ange Postecoglou attends a press conference at Groupama Arena in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. Tottenham will face Ferencvaros in the Europa League soccer match on Thursday. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via AP)
Tottenham Hotspur's Dominic Solanke rues a missed chance during the Premier League match at the American Express Stadium, Brighton, England, Sunday Oct. 6, 2024. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
Tottenham Hotspur's Micky van de Ven, left, and Brennan Johnson look dejected after defeat in the Premier League match at the American Express Stadium, Brighton, England, Sunday Oct. 6, 2024. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
MIAMI (AP) — People across Florida were given notice Sunday that Hurricane Milton is intensifying rapidly and will likely be a major hurricane before slamming midweek into the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
While forecast models vary widely, the most likely path suggests Milton could make landfall Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area and remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida into the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said. That would largely spare other southeastern states ravaged by Hurricane Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to 230 people.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that while it remains to be seen just where Milton will strike, it's clear that Florida is going to be hit hard — “I don't think there's any scenario where we don't have major impacts at this point.”
Hurricane Milton was centered about 815 miles (1,310 kilometers) west-southwest of Tampa, Sunday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kmh), the National Hurricane Center said.
“You have time to prepare — all day today, all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place,” the governor said. “If you’re on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume you’ll be asked to leave.”
The St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay area is still cleaning up extensive damage from Helene and its powerful storm surge. Twelve people perished as Helene swamped the coast, with the worst damage along the narrow, 20-mile (32-kilometer) string of barrier islands that stretch from St. Petersburg to Clearwater.
DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 counties, and said Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruption, making sure they have a week's worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, coordinated with the governor and briefed President Joe Biden Sunday on how it has staged lifesaving resources.
“I highly encourage you to evacuate” if you're in an evacuation zone, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “We are preparing ... for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma. ”
The state has prepared emergency fuel sources and EV charging stations along evacuation routes, and “identified every possible location that can possibly house someone along those routes,” Guthrie said. People who live in homes built after Florida strengthened its codes in 2004, who don't depend on constant electricity and who aren't in evacuation zones, should probably avoid the roads, he said.
All classes and school activities in St. Petersburg's Pinellas County preemptively closed Monday through Wednesday as Milton approached, and the Tampa opened city garages for free so people could park their cars safe from the next floodwaters.
As many as 4,000 National Guard troops are helping state crews to remove debris, DeSantis said, and he directed that Florida crews dispatched to North Carolina in Helene's aftermath return to the state to prepare for Milton.
“All available state assets ... are being marshaled to help remove debris,” DeSantis said. “We're going 24-7 ... it's all hands on deck."
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell defended her agency's response to Hurricane's destruction after Republicans’ false claims, amplified by former President Donald Trump, created a frenzy of misinformation across devastated communities.
“This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people and it’s really a shame we’re putting politics ahead of helping people,” Criswell told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. It's created fear and mistrust among residents against the thousands of FEMA employees and volunteers on the ground across the southeast, she said.
Despite this, Criswell said the agency is already preparing for Milton, well before it's clear exactly where it will move across the Florida peninsula this week. “We’re working with the state there to understand what their requirements are going to be, so we can have those in place before it makes landfall,” she said.
Federal disaster assistance has surpassed $137 million since Helene struck more than a week ago, one of the largest mobilizations of personnel and resources in recent history, FEMA said Sunday.
Some 1,500 active-duty troops, more than 6,100 National Guardsmen and nearly 7,000 federal workers have been deployed, shipping more than 14.9 million meals, 13.9 million liters of water, 157 generators and 505,000 tarps, along with approving more than $30 million in housing and other types of assistance for over 27,000 households, according to FEMA, the White House and the Department of Defense.
More than 800 people unable to return home are staying in lodging provided through FEMA, and 22 shelters are still housing nearly 1,000 people as mobile feeding operations continue to help survivors. The response to Helene won't let up during Milton and its aftermath, because FEMA has th capacity to address multiple disasters simultaneously, the agency said.
“My Administration is sparing no resource to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding,” Biden said. “We will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders – regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
The hurricane center said Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, the Florida Peninsula, the Florida Keys and the northwestern Bahamas should monitor the system’s progress. Heavy rainfall was expected Sunday ahead of the storm itself, and will likely then combine with Milton's rainfall to flood waterways and streets in Florida, where forecasters said up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain could fall in places through Wednesday night.
Meanwhile in the open Atlantic, Hurricane Kirk diminished to a Category 2 hurricane on Sunday, with top winds of 105 mph (165 kph), sending large swells and “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” to Bermuda and northward along the U.S. and Canadian coasts, the center said. Hurricane Leslie was also moving over the Atlantic Ocean, well away from land, with top winds of 85 mph (140 kph).
This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken at 4:50 p.m. EDT and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Tropical Storm Milton, center, off the coast of Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (NOAA via AP)
