No Last Minute Goal Needed This Time As Cameron Road Beats Celtic 4-2

The Summer Season started up yesterday with a classic old school grudge match with those green and white hooped hooligans known as the Celtic Cowboys. Only this version didn’t have any of the Celtic charm that they usually do. They were pretty tame and dare I say, polite! Still, they were on par with or perhaps slightly better than our usual Over 30c opponents, so it would be a good test for the Champion Honey Badgers.

Fresh in new championship tee shirts, and preparing for battle underneath the protection of the two tents, Cameron Road was ready to start off another successful summer campaign. With I-35 traffic proving to be a literal roadblock to the starting lineup, CRU hurried a squad onto the pitch, but eventually had 7 subs at their disposal. Cameron Road also welcomed back Steve McKenna into the team, fresh from his one year sabbatical.

For the first 10 minutes, Cameron Road bossed the game, spending some quality time inside the Celtic half. Cuyler made some nice runs in his forward position, Chappy blasted a shot straight to the moon, Ryan and Jefe tried linking up on the right side, and Andy missed a great opportunity from point blank range. (He’s obviously suffering from the sophomore golden boot slump).

The Honey Badgers eventually struck first blood, like Johnny Rambo with a shitload of sharpened sticks, when Gigi bombed in a high corner to the back post. Low and behold, the seas parted as The Kraken rose to meet the ball, unmarked at the back post. His contact was true, and his header soared into the far corner to put Cameron Road up 1-0 – a score that would stand the rest of the half.

With a flavor burst of orange slices at halftime (thanks ….. Crosley????), the Honey Badgers prepared to do battle in the second half. The ever-changing lineup was used to keep players fresh, with 18 Honey Badgers getting into the mix. The injured MVP Luke and traveling Dermot were the only players missing.

Not wanting to suffer a third consecutive beating, Celtic sacked-up and piled on the pressure to start the second half, and were rewarded with a double serving of goals to silence the crowd. First, they converted a header in front of the goal, and then, as Chappy daydreamed of a third pair of Mizunos, his mark went by him to head in a second Celtic goal. Nearing the water break, the tides had turned and Celtic stormed ahead 2-1.

However, this only served to insult the Honey Badger sense of pride and determination. And what followed in the final 25 minutes was a voracious flurry of offensive firepower, tenacious defense, and the never-say-die spirit that is trademark to a team with two tents and an American flag on the sideline.

With the lead taken from them, Cameron Road turned it to 11 and began their march back to take the lead. First up, Chris Peterson received the ball on the right sideline, turned, and bombed a 40 yard cross to the front of the goal where Danimal sprinted into the box and slammed home header #2 to put CRU back on level terms.

Minutes later, BT took a cheeky quick free kick that found Steve McKenna at the far post. Steve got a perfect head on it and sent it into the far corner for his first goal back with the team in over a year. The game winner was pretty much what everyone expected from Cameron Road’s most prolific goal scoring threat.

With unsurmountable momentum taking hold of the game, CRU nailed the coffin shut with the final goal of the day. The goal came from a well worked play down the left flank that started with Dave releasing a ball to Chappy. With Willis making a darting, tactical diversion run, Chappy was able to run into space and find Gianluca in the left channel. Gigi wasted no time drilling a shot into the back of the net, making the score 4-2.

And although Cameron Road scored 3 quick goals to take over the game, it could have been even worse for Celtic as there were plenty of other opportunities to up the score. Gianluca had two other attempts at dribbling around all of the Celtic defenders, including the keeper, dragging one low shot just wide, and running out of room on the second. BT narrowly missed slotting a shot to the far post with the keeper beat. Ciro ran through the middle and lined up a shot that went over the bar. Willis had a left footed shot inside the box. Cuyler almost duplicated his first header of the game with a carbon copy attempt in the second. McKenna fired off another shot from the left side of the box. Zoran had a breakaway from midfield and managed a toe-poke shot against the onrushing keeper. You get the idea.

Don’t piss off a Honey Badger. CRU 4 – Celtic 2

Man-of-the-Match: Starting the comeback with a fantastic, energetic goal, heading everything away on defense, and deploying his new “flying chest” clearance at every opportunity, Danimal earns this week’s honors with a great performance. And to add to his personal glory, he was absolutely destroyed with an ice bath from Jefe and took it in stride.

Man-of-the-Post-Match: Ciro. In a brazen and uncharacteristic act of defiance towards his Captain and long-time aquatic torturer, Ciro turned the tables on Chappy with a full-frontal ice bath as the weary victim stumbled and bumbled to get out of his rainbow coalition beach chair in time. He did not.