WIN: 1-0 vs Balcones – Badgers Grind To Stay Top Of The Table
On a glorious, sunny day, Cameron Road set up shop on field three to protect their lead at the top of the table. With the Jugglers tying before them, the Honey Badgers could build up a bit of a f-up barrier with a win against Balcones Fault and their boring green uniforms.
The troops were a little late gathering on the sidelines, but in the end there were a bounty of four subs available. Ciro showed up dressed to climb Mt. Everst, even though it was 70 degrees and Gianluca was planning not to attend, but showed up with full family in tow. There were a few missing as Danimal was the keynote speaker at a tropical fruit conference in Houston and his speech, “Pineapple: delicious tangy fruit, or DEFCON codeword?” received rave reviews. Nasty Nate was a no-show as he rented a yard tiller the day before, accidentally chopped off both feet, and was desperately trying to super glue them back on Sunday morning but with little success. (some parts of that story are true).
The game started off well for Cameron Road who could have been up by four goals within the first 20 minutes. The Badgers actually struck gold first, as Chappy’s header found Derek on the right side of the box where he absolutely smashed home a left-footed shot to pierce the back of the net – but alas, Adams arms were judged to have interfered with the keeper. Next, Gianluca was heavily involved and brought his shooting boots. First he went 1-on-1 with the keeper but was turned back. Then he shanked a p/k for a hand ball inside the box. Then he passed it to Chappy in front of goal, who promptly hit the crossbar from close range as he couldn’t muster a header with the ball delivered to his feet. And finally he most-likely got the ball to Derek with tons of time to think about his shot. Maybe too much time as he blasted his shot over the bar.
The Badgers were looking to party early, but things just weren’t going their way. No worries as they just kept on fighting for every inch of the pitch.
Ciro continued to take some physical abuse in the center of the park, but kept getting up. Andy was back, fresh from his red card, to doll out some physical abuse to the other team.
Balcones did come close with a shot or two that fizzled wide as the game started to ebb and flow from end to end.
Big Dave engaged his patented slide-tackle on a bald guy wearing glasses. “Hey, I gotta got to work tomorrow!” BOOM. Your work has been canceled.
Oranges.
The Badgers needed a goal, but first the defense decided to close up shop and give Jaybone the half off. This gave Jefe some opportunities to “sprint” forward, hoping to receive a nice pass from Chappy. That’s a 50-50 proposition at best as the pass drifted out of bounds. But, only a few minutes later the Badgers found the breakout goal. From the middle of the park Ciro got the ball to Chappy at the top of the box who played in Derek on the right side. Derek’s pass found his strike partner Gianluca as he fired off his 20th shot of the day low and hard to to beat the keeper at the far post. His joyous scream of relief echoed throughout the treeline! 1-0 Cameron Road.
From there, there was no way back for Balcones as the Badgers were determined to see the game out with all three points. Another total team performance in the books as Jeff Z and Chris G were tracking down runs. Guillermo pushed forward in the center of the park. Jake was explaining the rules to the referee while mostly staying upright, and Peterson continued his run of good form with some nice passes and corners.
Job done. No injuries. Andy had tons of cold beer waiting for everyone…. no wait, he only brought one, warm sour beer in his duffle bag. The post-game was cut a little short as many headed out to the afternoon Austin FC game. The Badgers are sitting pretty with a 4 point lead at the top of the table with five games to play.
Man-of-the-Match: He shot. He shot again. He kept shooting. And he finally got the winning goal in front of his family. He’s Gianluca and he’s on fire with 20 goals already!
