CRU 1 – Team America 0

So where were you when Cameron Road won it’s first game of 2009? If you were one of the lucky 8 players who showed up yesterday, you were at Onion Creek field playing in a rag-tag lineup celebrating a victory and a shut out. Many thanks to Bob, David, Vestre, Peterson, Jay, Willis, Andy, Marcus and a second half appearance by Dermot for making it out to the game. I have to say that was the worst attended game we’ve fielded in many years – and yes it was a real game, with 3 refs and everything. (maybe my term of “friendly” didn’t make that clear… ah well).

So since we only had 8 warm bodies at the start of the game, Team America let us rent three of their players (with the option to buy of course) to fill out the squad. I swear they gave us “Old Blue” from Old School to play striker… dude was ancient. Anyway, we decided to concentrate on playing D and were under the gun for most of the half with people filling in and playing out of position. Andy, David and Bob were doing well at the back turning away wave after wave of 40 year old attackers, and just when it seemed like we’d never get the ball out of our own half, Marcus sprinted onto a thru ball and was off to the races. He even managed to score while pulling his hamstring, which was quite a feat. So we ended up 1-0 at the end of the first half. 

Dermot thankfully showed up at the start of the second half and immediately injected some legs into our weary lineup. (Did I mention it felt like 100 degrees out there?). We had a much better shape in the second half, and had a few attacks, but we were playing a lot of defense for most of the game. 

Jay made some typical nice saves, and at the end of the day, Team America just couldn’t break us down to score a tying goal. So we ended up winning our first game of the year, short-handed, and with no beer to drink. It was bittersweet. 

Hope to see a much bigger squad next week when we resume league play against Struggle. It’s time to string together some wins.

Man-of-the-Match: Andy “the battering ram” Michaelis was a man on a mission on Sunday. He set aside his usual mission of destroying his own body up and down the touchlines in order to keep any 40 year old attacker out of our goal. Thrust into action as a left back, Andy played with gusto, was very vocal, and even managed to look stylish in his long grey baller shorts (BT would have been proud). Nice work dude.