LOSS: CRU 1 – Caledonians 4

Another week, another frustrating start to the game for the Honey Badgers. Cameron Road started a man down waiting for everyone to arrive. There was a bit of a defensive crisis as Jefe was in street clothes, Jeff Z was nursing his sore foot, Big Dave was guarding his bourbon collection, Matt T was getting stitches out of his dome, and Danimal was MIA – presumably still trying to get home from the UT game using his own map. Billy arrived a little late, so to start the game it was Chappy, Peterson, Chris G and Parks along the back line. Matt Paris, Ciro, Schwarzy and Gianluca rounded out the midfield, with Derek starting up top on his own.

Reinforcements arrived soon as Yunir and Ruben showed up to give the Badgers 2 subs.

The Caledonians are enjoying a year off from the Premier League, but looks like they might be right back up there next year as they are top-of-the-table favorites. They are a good squad with some tricky forwards to content with.

Still, Cameron Road were holding their own early on. Matt had a good chance at a header inside the box, Chris G had a long-range run from the back to the front, and there was a bicycle kick sighting.

But Caledonians scored with their first shot from distance and went up 1-0 within the first 20 minutes.

Cameron Road fired back with a beautiful team goal that saw multiple passes work the ball into the box with Schwarzy delivering the final one to Derek on the right side to slot home to tie up the game at 1-1 and deliver a ray of sunshine to the Badgers.

Unfortunately, the clouds returned as the Caledonians struck back with two more goals getting in behind the defense.

Chappy brought 2, large, mealy and ultimately unsatifsfying oranges for halftime.

For the second half, Brian Parks put on his keeper gloves and took over for Jaybone who was released into the field.

Cameron Road had a nice opening 15 minutes, with most of the ball in the Caledonian half as they looked to get back into the game. Throughout the half the Badgers played better and had multiple chances to score some goals. Ciro had a nice long-rage shot that the keeper had to tip over the bar. Gigi and Chappy had header chances inside the box. Schwarzy worked the ball looking for shots, Matt P had an opportunity…. but nothing was finding the back of the net.

After an errant pass back into the path of a Caledonian striker inside the box, the Honey Badgers gave up a 4th goal.

Parks ended the game by punching the ball out of play off a 6′ 4″ striker’s dome.

So a much better second half, but not the result the Honey Badgers were looking for. No worries, THE GAME is officially up next as it’s time to take back the trophy and turn the season around next Sunday.

Man-of-the-Match: Big thanks to Ruben (and Matt) for playing a second game and helping CRU field a full team.