CRU 1 – CC United 3
Not even the raucous support of Hagrid and the Baker Street Mean Eyed Cat Boys could rally the Honey Badgers to victory yesterday as they fell to another top of the table team.
Cameron Road fielded a strong compliment of subs, but were still missing some key players as McKenna, Luke, Crosley, Ben, Ciro and Danimal were all out. The Honey Badgers did welcome back Peterson, who ended up playing a hell of a game – especially since the last time we saw him he was on the ground screaming bloody murder after his calf exploded.
Starting the game over 10 points ahead of Cameron Road, CC United were in prime position for a top two finish in the league. They’re a good squad but you do have to think luck favored them a bit in the game, especially at the end when Cameron Road was mounting their typical comeback.
The Honey Badgers started off the game playing some pretty nice footy, but were immediately put on notice when CC United flashed a shot just over the bar.
Adam had an excellent chance for the good guys as he was set free on the right side of the box, but his first touch volley went, well, a little high and wide.
Peterson was a man on a mission. After deciding to just see how his calf felt, he started dumping in some quality crosses. Ryan just narrowly missed tracking one down at the back of the net, most likely due to the weight of his wild, unkempt hair.
And before you knew it, Cameron Road was down two goals to the solid CC United attack (although to be honest, I remember neither of them).
And so, with the roars of cheers coming from the sidelines, the Honey Badgers mounted their comeback attempt. It didn’t take long to pay off as Chris Peterson struck gold with a side foot from the top of the box after a corner kick.
For the rest of the half, the Honey Badger defense stood strong, keeping CC United out while the offense tried to even up the score. Chappy had a bizarre slow-motion, mid-body header attempt as the keeper failed to charge out a ball, and there were some other positive moments to get back on level terms, but the Honey Badgers took shelter in the tent at halftime still down a goal.
Luckily for Cameron Road, reinforcements arrived as Gianluca got to the pitch to inject some much needed pace into the forward line.
So the second half started with Cameron Road looking to get back into the game. Unfortunately CC United’s #11 went on his own personal million man march through CRU’s ranks and ended up scoring a pretty damn good solo goal. 3-1 CC United.
Not content to just ride out the game, Cameron Road went on a full-on assault at the CC United goal, peppering it with buckshot. They probably outshot CC United 10-1 during the last half hour, but were unable to find the back of the net.
Dermot had a nice shot saved, Gigi had several cracks at goal (including one where he stole the ball from Jefe who was lining one up), Peterson continued to fire away, Billy got involved deep in the attack, the Kraken strode forth to deliver some trident shots, and Ryan continued to try and run down through balls.
BT also had a vintage play where he shimmied and dummied a man about 4 times on the right sideline, and then whipped in a 25 yard left-footed cross into the box.
And when Cameron Road finally thought they had the breakthrough when BT’s shot was put in by Andy, the Soccer Gods conspired to make him offside. And just to prove that it wasn’t their day, after CC United’s keeper was sent off for mouthing off to the ref, they were saved by the inside of the crossbar…. twice!!
And so another day ended with a disappointing loss as Cameron Road’s comeback attempt fell 2 goals short. It’s been a strange, rough season for the Honey Badgers, but the light at the end of the long tunnel can come next week as Deep Eddy rounds out the Spring Schedule.
Man-of-the-Match: Chris Peterson was a man possessed as his freshly grown calf muscles propelled him to the Honey Badgers only goal of the day in addition to providing the team with multiple tasty crosses.
