CRU 1 – Massive Attack 0

Ahh to be sore again on a Monday morning after a Cameron Road victory. In case you were  running a marathon, out of town, recovering from an injury, or taking advantage of the fleeting early afternoon sunshine, here’s the lowdown on the showdown with Massive Attack.

20 minutes before game time, it was looking bleak for the 6 eager souls warming up to start off the spring season. 10 minutes before game time it wasn’t looking much better as we would have to field a squad of 8 players. At kickoff, we managed to scheme up a 4-5-0 formation for the 10 players on the pitch. And at roughly 10 minutes into the game we finally got a full house when Bob suited up after completing a half marathon earlier in the day. Needless to say, it was a slow, defensive start to the game and we did well to hang on while Massive Attack took advantage our our unoffensiveness and peppered our goal with attacks.

After surviving the first 20 minutes or so, we started to get our legs and hit them with some old school Cameron Road long balls to Willis, acting as a lone striker up front. Several times we were able to counter attack and break quickly with Willis through the middle, Way on the left, Chappy on the right and BT pulling the strings and dishing out passes.

As the half wore on, Scott (playing his first competitive outdoor match in months), really began to assert himself in the middle of the pitch. The guy was everywhere and his tenacity and fleet feet has been something that CRU has been missing.

Having come close several times, Cameron Road’s best scoring chance of the first half might have been from a 40 yard Cuyler ‘dirty bird’ Owens free kick that a saucer-eyed Massive Attack keeper had to tip away on the back pedal.

Tied at donuts at half time we were feeling good, even without the dream of a sub.

Things got a little testy in the second half with both teams getting desperate for a goal to unlock the game. For the first 10 minutes the fouls were flying on both sides of the ball as no one wanted to give up any ground. At one point, a Massive Attack defender slid a back pass to his keeper who scooped it up in his hands and we were awarded a free kick from 5 yards from the goal. Cuyler, our most lumberjacked of build, decided to set up shop right on the goal line and had to endure a very UFC-like couple minutes while every member of Massive Attack, including the goalie, tried to dislodge him from his feet with shoves to the back, jabs to the kidneys, hair pulling, tazers, an I even saw one defender wielding a hot poker. Cuyler stood strong though, but Massive Attack was able to fend away the attack.

Not to worry, because Cameron Road would finally break the deadlock several minutes later. BT probed his way into the box and chipped up a nice cross to the middle that sailed narrowly over Chappy’s bald dome, but ended up being perfectly served to Luke’s flowing lock-covered head where he powered in a trademark double-fisted header to put us up 1-0. Cut to cheers, fist pumps and high fives.

Feeling an opening day win was in our grasps, we doubled down on defense and tried to withstand the Massive Attack counter punch. To their credit, they came at us hard but lacked that killer pass in the final third to unlock our defenses. It was an “all hands on deck” approach from the entire team that sealed victory for us, with forwards and midfielders coming back to clog up the pitch. As the final whistle sounded, it really felt like a great accomplishment to get our second league win in a row, and third overall, with a short handed team. Well done lads. Well done indeed.

Man-of-the-Match: There were several contenders for this week’s honors. Scott came back into the lineup and immediately asserted himself with wolverine-like tenacity and vocal leadership; Bob, who was almost in a zombie-like state from completing the half marathon only hours previous to the game but stood firm at the back and almost put us up with a powerful, dipping shot that went narrowly over the bar; Luke, who provided the spark for us to go on and with with his header; but the man that kept us in the game with save after diving save was Jay. Our fearless cleanup man, fresh from being peppered with 20+ shots a game working with his side project, The Magik Apple, was making saves all day and pitched a shutout.