WIN: 1-0 vs The Punters – No Matter What Happens Tuesday, America Has Already Won as The Honey Badgers Beat Arch Rivals!
For two years, the most anticipated and highly watched rivalry in all of sports has laid dormant, like Smaug sitting on top of his vast pile of gold underneath the Lonely Mountain. Having spent a soul-crushing two years in Over 40 Premier, The Punters were reunited with The Badgers in Over 40A with a trophy on the line. A newly jazzed-up trophy that is courtesy of Jefe and its bedazzlement.
The past two years have not been kind to Punter nation, and their results have shown they might still be suffering from a Premier League hangover. On the other hand, The Honey Badgers are in fine form and having a banger of a season. But in a rivalry like this records can be thrown out the window like a Jaybone 6am cigarette on the way to Onion Creek.
Both teams looked stacked on the sidelines with plenty of subs. The Honey Badgers donned their radiant yellow kit, while The Punters went full candy-cane in their white tops with red stripes, or was it their alternate red tops with white stripes? Regardless, they would be coming out strong looking to assert their dominance of many (many) years past.
With Glendon and Shannon up top, The Punters were looking to get in behind the Badger defense. More often than not, play was going through Leo in central midfield, but the Honey Badger defense was up to the task. Danimal was shot out of a canon early and often turning back attacks, and his fury and determination grew to such a fever pitch in the first half that multiple pineapple grenades were thrown his way, hoping some fruity shrapnel would find its mark.
The Honey Badgers started to warm up their own passing game, which has been in fine form of late. Up top, Gianluca and Derek looked for openings to test the Punters Spiderman clad keeper.
With one attack, Glendon was able to get through the defense and latch onto a thru-ball, but Jaybone made a game-changing and Punter demoralizing play as he stonewalled the shot with a fantastic point-blank save, turning back the attack. Turns out it was the most dangerous play he would have to defend all day, and it came in the 20th minute.
At the business end of the pitch, the Honey Badgers were looking to nab an early goal after Jay’s fantastic save, and it came from an unlikely but reliable source. With Schwarzy feeding the ball deep to Gianluca down the right side of the box, Gigi scrambled to track it down. His efforts beat the Punter back line and he was able to cross it across the box where a Cameron Road center back was lurking. As the ball slid across the face of goal, Guillermo went full slide to poke the ball past Spiderman for the glorious Honey Badger lead! Not satisfied with terrorizing The Punters every Wednesday night at practice, Guillermo wanted to earn one when it counted the most.
As the first half wore down, tempers were hot. Danny came out to receive his pineapple and Jefe got in the game for the first time since week 1 to see some defensive action. With a lead, oranges, a newly painted rock and a website, the Honey Badgers turned to the halftime show to regain their composure and were feeling good about their ability to control the game.
The second half was a much calmer affair all around as the Honey Badgers ramped up the intensity as the Punters realized it was going to be hard to get back into the game.
In his first CRU/Punter game, Yuni made a brilliant 40 yard gut-busting run to get back on defense that showed his commitment. Jesus made several offensive charges down the right wing as well. The Badgers broke later in the half with a charge up the left wing, but to Jefe’s surprise, they calmly changed up the attack by slowing the ball down and waiting for reinforcements. Jefe wondered aloud “who is this team!?!” but the answer was clear…. this new version of Honey Badgers is not just about route 1 football, their passing game and attacking options are vastly improved and divergent these days.
One thing that has remained the same for the Honey Badgers for close to 25 years was Chappy’s ability to do something quite unusual with the ball. Last week he slide tackled himself, and yesterday he committed footballing seppuku as he was played in with the keeper to beat. Somehow, someway, in some manner, Chappy put two feet on the ball and fell down into a heap on the ground. As luck would have it, the ball spun back into play where Gianluca was waiting to be his 2nd (it’s a Shogun reference, duh). Instead of dribbling the ball around for an open shot, Gigi looked to put Chap out of his misery as he smashed the shot into the prone Captain to complete the play. Both sidelines were heavily entertained.
The Irish Pirate almost finished off the game for good as his late shot was unleashed, but Pete continued his agonizing campaign of nearly scoring as the ball fizzed inches wide of the far post. Always the first mate, and never the captain as of late.
Jake is down!!! Jake is down!!!!
Later in the half, Leo and Yuni continued their “Battle of South America” as Chappy put it….. didn’t really matter his geographical shortcomings, he was riffing.
The Punters were giving it their best, but in the end they agreed that the Badgers were the superior team on the day and deserved the win.
And thus the trophy, and the rock were hoisted in glorious rapture as Cameron Road beat the Punters for the first time in many moons and kept up their assent at the top of the table. All was well in the world.
Man-of-the-Match: You score a game winner against the Punters and you are not only Man-of-the-Match, but you get a shotout for Time Man of the Year! Cheers to Guillermo who drove the nail in the Punter coffin!
Post-Match-Report: Somewhat subdued as the Badgers showed their maturity. It wasn’t “just another win,” but Cameron Road is having such a good season that these results are to be expected. Good post match sportsmanship between both teams.
