Let There Be River Beer! Honey Badgers Return To Winning Ways With 2-0 Win Over Club America.

Somewhere out there in the soccer ether, Chappy is offside, Andy is wearing the wrong clothes, Peterson is arriving late, the Club America goal keeper is eating a LuAnn fish platter at Luby’s and rubbing water on his chest, Big Dave still doesn’t have a Hops & Grain hat and the Honey Badgers are celebrating their 2-0 victory over Club America.

Austin was Keeping it Weird with the weather the past weekend. Saturday brought Vietnam level humidity and 90 degree temps, but by 7am Sunday morning Onion Creek was swaddled in a dense bank of clouds, light rain and chilly 50 degree temperatures. It’s safe to say Ciro was freezing.

But one thing that was not cold was the Honey Badgers play to start the game. Cameron Road was trying to jump on Club America early and often, and Chappy was putting on a masterclass of being offside in the first half hour. Seriously, it was a clinic. His one legit chance came off a nice Milton cross from the right, but his header from the top of the 18 yard box was scooped up by the Club America keeper’s ancient arms.

With Jaybone still on his Phil Collins Street Team cruise about the S.S. Sussudio, Danimal reprised his former self’s role in between the sticks and barked out orders to his defensive perimeter. Jefe, Chris, Big Dave, Billy and Bret did well to keep the Club America attackers at bay.

About halfway though the first 45 minutes, Jake latched onto a ball and barreled towards the keeper, who rose mightily from his lazy boy to meet him outside the box. The ensuing 50/50 collision resulted in no fouls, but the keeper rolled, gesticulated, flailed, and was pulled, stretched and comforted by his teammates for approximately 10 minutes before heading off back to his goal. And then he performed the coup de grace by splashing water on the outside of his jersey… you know, to deaden the pain of the mighy blow. #gamesmanship

As the half ended, the clouds gave way to glorious sunny skies, but the wind remained a factor. With a brief discussion of the offside rules and proper etiquette for receiving a yellow card by blasting a shot at the keeper after the whistle has blown, the teams were ready to break the deadlock in the second half.

Cameron Road actually played better against the wind it seemed for they were the more expansive side in the second half. The midfield started pushing the issue, and with the addition of Peterson they started to turn the screw. Ryan and BT were pushing the ball forward, Andy was his usual battering ram self down the right, and Dermot and Adam peddled their wares down the left.

But it was Scott Merritt (the AMSA N’Golo Kante) who took control of the game to turn the tide for the Honey Badgers. If you took the ground covered by Scott multiplied by the times Chappy was offside in the first half, you would have a very large number. He pushed forward on offense, tirelessly tracked back on defense, and was a general nuisance to play against. To cap it off, he scored the Honey Badgers opening goal, and came close to a second.

With the wind gusting up to 20mph, Derek took out the sand wedge and lobbed a corner (or cross, can’t remember) into the box that hung up for an eternity. Scott pounced it before the Club America keeper could make a play and headed it into the net from close range. 1-0 Honey Badgers thanks to Scott’s tenacity. Later in the half, he almost scored a wicked second when his long range shot smashed off the crossbar.

Finally with the goal they deserved, the Honey Badgers were in control of the game and pushed for a second. Danimal and crew kept things clean at the back, with Jefe’s diving header looking like the defensive play of the day.

BT was getting frisky inside the box, busy playing in others for chances, and he finally was able to do something that almost never happens… he unleashed a shot below the crossbar! On a nifty break, Ryan did his best Pirlo impersonation and slid the ball to BT who pulled of a chip shot over the keeper to seal the victory with a second goal. Nice to see BT back on the goal scoring chart after carving out so many chances this season.

Peterson rounded off the afternoon with a slightly off target free kick…. even though Chappy had his ticket ready from the deli counter at the back post. There would be no cold cuts this this afternoon. But there was plenty of River Beer and hats…. well, for some of us anyway.

And so the Honey Badgers shook off last week’s Beercelona hangover to once again rise above the Punters in the table. With two games remaining against the bottom two teams in the table, it should be time for Cameron Road to push up above the 30 point mark and end the season on a high.

Man-of-the-Match: No question, Scotty Merritt stole the show in the second half and drove the team to victory. The shit was sorted out.