Honey Badgers Hold on for Dear Life in Epic Opening Day Win Against ATX United Silver Who Are Still Like “What tha What. How Did We Lose to Those Guys?” Boom. You Been Badgered!
In an epic show of team strength, heroic defending, grit, determination and one fantastic counter attacking goal, Cameron Road United took the league by storm winning their Over 30A opener 1-0.
Badger Town received an upgrade as Jefe went West Coast Customs on our new tent. There were $300 worth of new match balls in play. And the Honey Badgers happily welcomed our very own Scotty Merritt to “sort it out” for the first 45 minutes. Things were looking pretty positive.
Except for the opponent, who were stacked with talent. Jefe called them an All Star team who should have been in the Premier Division and it showed on the pitch. They had quality, speed and skill in the midfield. And they also had our old goal-scoring machine Carlos.
The Honey Badgers actually started off on the front foot with Derek chasing down a loose ball that the keeper barely got to. But for that, and maybe a handfull of other odd chances, the Honey Badgers were all hands on deck at the back defending the waves of ATX United attacks.
Scott was a welcome addition and his effort and grit were instantly recognizable as he took his first shift in four years.
Having weathered the storm for 45 minutes, the Honey Badgers were treated to the best damn oranges of all time. I’m serious. These things had it all. They were bursting with flavanoids, and they gave Cameron Road all they needed to suck it up and prepare to defend the goal for another 45 minutes.
The second half was about 90 percent possession for ATX United. Try as they might, they just couldn’t burst the old onion bag on the Honey Badger front porch. I could name the players that put up a helluva fight at the back, but that list would include pretty much everyone in attendance.
And with one glorious counter attack, the Honey Badgers stunned ATX with a blistering turn of pace to grab the lead. Playing the ball out of the back and starting off the break, BT got the ball to Luke in the center of defense. Luke played the ball to Chappy out on the right wing. Chappy saw Gigi making a long-striding run down the right side of the pitch and slid him the ball down the right hand side. Gigi grabbed that hunchback of a new ball and sent it whizzing across the face of goal where the goalie had a hard time dealing with it and spilled it back out to the top of the box. And after starting the move on one end, BT rifled the ball into the back of the net for the glorious game winning goal.
The Badgers were elated, but there was still 20 minutes of defending to do. ATX thought they pulled back the tying goal, but they were offside and dejected.
As the game finally ended, the Badgers had just performed a fantastic snatch-n-grab victory against a very skilled opponent. It was a fantastic way to open up the season and keep up with the Punters who won earlier in the day.
Man-of-the-Match: If ever there was a day for the Spirit of the Honey Badger to claim the prize it was today. Powered by this force-like essence, the entire Cameron Road roster performed flawlessly and showed that our funky-ass style is just too much for some teams to handle.
