AMSTERDAM – Tottenham Hotspur star Clint Dempsey fired his first EPL goal in seven games, but it was Tim Howard and Everton who got the last laugh in a thrilling 2-1 win at Goodison Park on Sunday.
Playing on left wing, Dempsey opened the scoring 14 minutes from time with a deflected drive from distance that looped over the unlucky Howard. Thanks to the netminder's four saves, however, the Toffees were able to rally with a pair of stoppage-time goals.
Everton's first win in a month propelled them into fourth place over Spurs on goal differential. Tottenham, who had come in with a three-game win streak, have now failed to defeat Howard on Merseyside six straight times.
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Over in Austria, Rapid Vienna hit man Terrence Boyd scored for the third league game in a row, netting the picturesque winner in a 2-1 victory over guests FC Wacker Tirol.
After seeing a first-half one-timer cruelly denied, the US forward applied a running volley to Michael Schimpelsberger's lob feed over the defense for his ninth league goal of the season in the 51st minute. Rapid's fourth consecutive league win kept them within seven points of the top.
Next door in the German Bundesliga, Steve Cherundolo and Hannover 96 rallied from an early deficit to best visiting Bayer Leverkusen 3-2. The Reds jumped two spots to 10th with the win.
One flight down, Bobby Wood went the distance in 1860 Munich's 1-1 draw at Jahn Regensburg. Despite running their unbeaten streak to four games, the Lions slipped two rungs to seventh.
Joseph Gyau remained a bench spectator as St. Pauli dropped a 3-0 home decision to Erzgebirge Aue.
North of the border in Denmark, Michael Parkhurst worked solidly as center back cover, but FC Nordsjælland likely kissed any hope of a title repeat goodbye with a 4-1 defeat at table-toppers FC Copenhagen.
After losing consecutive Superliga road games for the first time in 16 months, the Wild Tigers find themselves 12 points adrift in second place with 10 games remaining.
