Mercifully, the Summer Season From Hell Ends with a 3-2 Loss Against the Baker Street Boys

Thank God it’s over. While some of the other Over 30 B teams were lounging around in D5, Cameron Road United was given the harsh task of competing in the “under 18 year old & stock your team with premier player league” – D3. It was rough going, but today’s game against an Over 30 Premier stocked version of Baker Street provided glimmers of hope for the upcoming regular season. If nothing else, Cameron Road should be fit and battle tested and dying for a win.

The game was at high noon. It was hot. Very hot. That was on the negative side. On the positive side, Cameron Road welcomed back former MVP Luke, who has been on father duties and nursing a leg injury. His return was in tandem with BT, Ciro, and Stripey who were also back in action. On defense, the Kraken returned to patrol the middle after missing several weeks trying to teach Hondo to read Latin. (I hear dogs are good at dead languages)

The Honey Badgers couldn’t have asked for a better start as they went up 1-0 within the first 10 minutes. With the ball on the right side of the box, BT spotted a glaring, reflective surface in front of the goal. He lofted up a short cross to Chappy who had to drop to his knees to get his head on the ball but it went past the keeper for the opening goal of the game.

Cameron Road had Baker Street stunned for the first 15 minutes of the game and were doing well with the ball. Dermot broke free and almost doubled the lead, but his shot made a bee line for the keeper.

Baker Street got back into the game with a free header from a corner kick to tie it up at 1-1. Shortly after that, they connected on a flukish goal when a cross bounced in front of the goal and slowly skirted past BT at the back post like a firefly in the night. Brutal.

But BT came back strong, leading the midfield in attack and had a 40 yard blast sail wide right. Unfortunately his day came to a short end as he suffered a 2nd half hammy injury. Hopefully he will heal up soon.

So going into half time, Cameron Road found themselves in the familiar position of having to play from behind.

The second half was wall-to-wall action. Baker Street ended up scoring another goal, but the Honey Badgers refused to give in. Adam especially was playing well on the right flank, fighting for every ball, getting elbowed in the neck, and trying to bring the forward line into play. On his two month return to action, Stripey fired two great shots from distance that almost found their mark, but one went wide and the second crashed off the bar.

Cameron Road finally got a break and back into the game when Ciro’s free kick came off the crossbar and back out into the box. Chappy broke out one of the most underutilized shots in the business, the off-the-thigh-into-the-bottom-corner kick. Did the ball actually cross the line for a goal? Well, I mean, the referee said yes so that’s what we’re going with.

As the game wore down to the end, Cuyler’s long range free kick found a diving Chappy inside the box who headed it towards goal. The keeper made the save, spilled it out into Chappy’s path again for another touch as Adam was waiting to pounce on it and pull another goal back. Too bad the referee incorrectly called offside, because the tying goal was there for the taking.

And so the game ended 3-2 for Baker Street, but again, Cameron Road played well in spots. Hopefully it’s fuel to drive the team to success once the real season starts in 3 weeks.

Man-of-the-Match: With his trusty red water cooler in hand, Adam stayed upright for 90 minutes, challenged every ball, and played with a toughness that earned him this week’s award.