Badgers and Beerca All Even at 2-2

BT On Fire!
McKenna Can’t Miss!
Chappy Continues to Miss!
Who is Cory?
Ryan Drinks Early!
Jake and his Ascot!

These are but a few headlines from Sunday’s wee morning game at Onion Creek field against Beercelona.

Beerca are obviously a team with an identity crisis. “Way to go green!” “Keep passing the ball green!” “They are out hustling us green!”

Green? That shit is turquoise! Teal at best. I prefer to think of the color as “morning mist,” to quote the ever fashion forward George Costanza.

The color of their kit aside, they are tall. Quite tall. Problematically tall at times. So the Honey Badgers would have their work cut out for them as they usually do against their rivals.

There was a new face in the tent as the players suited up. With some crafty forward thinking, Adam had crunched the roster numbers going into the weekend and deducted that Cameron Road might be short-handed. He went ahead and made the executive decision to sign up his mate Cory, who just turned 30 and was abandoned by his former disbanded team. In what was quite possibly the fastest transfer in AMSA history, Cory was added to the pre-dawn roster and available to shore up the ranks by 7am. We will get to his performance later, which was fantastic for a debut.

With a sub or two to spare, Cameron Road started up the game in good passing fashion. The games with Beerca are always close, and this one was no exception. Ryan tried to give it a go for a while, but even his fancy new red Mizunos couldn’t save the disaster that was his hamstring, so he left the game early to pound Bud Light in the tent.

Cory, “the new guy” slotted right in next to Chris G at center back and quickly became a hit. He was solid in defense, charged forward to move the ball out of the back on his own, almost popped up in the 2nd half with a goal from a corner kick, and generally let his 30 year old legs do the running for 90 minutes. Hope he likes ice baths, tuna fish sandwiches and swag, cause we’re keeping him.

Offensively, Cameron Road were moving the ball well, switching play out of the back as Dave booted crossfield balls from the left while Billy made some silky moves to keep the ball moving on the right.

BT was on fire in the midfield. His Stevie G performance was breathtaking to watch. He was putting in tackle after tackle, and surging forward through the Beerca defense like a knife through a dollop of button on top of Luke’s Grandmother’s biscuits. He even put in a hockey hip check on one of Beerca’s beefier defenders. His calf also seemed to remain intact for the duration.

While BT and Ciro were busy moving the ball in the center, McKenna started off the scoring with a brilliant strike from way downtown. Steve gathered the ball and made some space for himself and let loose a belter from 30 yards that took a handy deflection from a Beerca defender to beat the flying keeper to the far post. What a strike!

Unfortunately, his great strike was equalled when the Beerca forward hit one just as sweet later in the half.

To round out the half, Chappy continued his streak of not scoring as Ciro played him in a ball to the center of the box. Having all the time in the world to pick his spot, Chappy chose a lovely piece of grass about 3 feet outside the far post as the final resting place for his shot.

Oranges.

“Can I take a sub to start the half?” Haha. Nice try Cory, get back in the game!!

More back and forth from both teams in the second half, but Beerca capitalized on a turnover near the center of the pitch to catch the Honey Badgers on a break with numbers to go ahead 2-1.

But the Honey Badgers responded, ramping up the pressure and surging forward to try and get back into the game.

The tying goal was a thing of beauty. Adam won back the ball in the Beerca half, twice, before it ended up at Derek’s feet. Derek most likely cut-back 17 times near the top of the box and heard the shouts from his striking partner Steve to lay it off. Derek’s inch-perfect pass to his left set up Steve to beautifully one-time it past the keeper from 25 yards. Another crazy-good strike from McKenna! That was the forward line working like a well oiled machine.

So 2-2 it was at the final pre-teen whistle. An all around great effort and great debut from the newest Honey Badger.