LOSS: 2-0 vs Mean Eyed Cat – Badgers Fall To A Mean-Eyed Cat In Epic Animal Kingdom Battle Royal

The good folks at league headquarters pulled the old switcharoo on the Badgers for their 8am game on Sunday. Instead of playing Cell United, the hapless team from Tesla, Cameron Road faced and Over 40 Premier team, Mean-Eyed Cat. Looks like they got bumped down to our division, while Cell United moved on to greener pastures in D5. Luckily, the Badgers had the squad to accept the challenge with a bursting tent of 19 players available!

Cameron Road welcomed some new blood to the party with Leo, Adam, Nick L and Mark T suiting up for their first action in yellow. Nick M and Aaron were back along with Jesus to round out the Clark Field All Stars.

The Honey Badgers were also in for a treat, as Danny and Nolan became the first father/son pair to take the field for CRU with Nolan stepping in to make his goal tending debut. Awesome stuff. Time, she does fly, don’t she.

The Honey Badgers started off brightly, getting into Mean-Eyed cat’s litter box early and often. Derek had two nearly identical near post shots fizz just wide, and little Ciro smashed a shot off the crossbar from about 40 yards! Wow, where did that come from?

Actually, the Honey Badgers got off about 6 shots in the opening 25 minutes or so, but unfortunately none found the back of the old onion bag.

Trying to weave in 8 subs was no easy task, but the rotation kept players fresh. Jesus’s 20 year old kid, Mark, got into the game and immediately showed what a strong, 20 year old can do. He was technically sound and offered some great energy along with the Punter midfield trio. Nick L also was showing his strength and grit in defense, having to battle the Mean-Eyed cat’s powerful young kitten, who was a handful for all the defense.

But it was Mean-Eyed Cat who struck first with a goal.

At the other end, Derek was busy getting clobbered by a defender for the second week in a row as the Honey Badgers went goal hunting. Aaron was officially “welcomed” to the team by Danimal. Jake used his tallness to head some balls, and Jefe and Billy exchanged Scottish wedding vows on the sidelines.

Halftime and Adam brought the oranges. Wait! Adam was out of town, but there was another Adam, wearing #4 who surely brought the oranges, right? Curses…. not a ripe orange in site! (although Jefe did produce a rather brown and shriveled piece of fruit from his bag)

After the referee returned from his walkabout, play began for the second half. After some back and forth a defensive line change, those pesky Premier League felines scored another goal from close range. Would it be game over for the Honey Badgers, or would they continue to fight for a result? No need to ask because it was time for the Badgers to attack!

Cameron Road came oh so close to settling the score in the final 20 minutes. The Badgers combined on some nifty passing to release Adam inside the box, but he just couldn’t finish off a great play. Punter Nick also came close from close, but it just wasn’t happening.

Mark was literally dragging the opponent across the half line as one of their defenders grabbed a fistful of his jersey and hung on for about 5 yards, and then proceeded to kick him after going down. Engage old men squaring up on the pitch for the second week in a row as the temperatures off the field started to rise.

After the teams regained some composure, the Badgers desperately tried to get back into the game, but it just wasn’t happening.

So game week number two ended with a two goal defeat. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom as Danny and Nolan shared a pretty awesome father son experience, along with Jesus and his son Mark. You know you’re getting up there in the years when you get to play with your offspring, but it was a special moment that will go down in CRU history. Looking forward to more of the same for the remainder of the summer. Who knows, perhaps we will see lil’Schwarzy in an advanced midfield role lining up ahead of Little Big Dave. Stay tuned!

Man-of-the-Match: When you make your Honey Badger debut at 16 with a team of old men in front of you, including your Dad, you’ve earned yourself a MOTM. Congrats Nolan!