CRU 1 – Austin Int’l 3
On an exceptionally windy day out at Onion Creek, a seemingly friendly game of footy turned bloody and then got ugly, as Cameron Road succumbed to two late second half goals to fall to Austin International.
Riding a three match win streak, the boys in red where smelling another victory, especially with three subs on the bench, and the return of Steve McKenna to the lineup. Credit to Steve for subscribing to the advice of team physician Dr. Bombay, who has revolutionized a new form of treatment for knee injuries. His theory is that “on the field movement of the various knee parts will spontaneously regenerate damaged bobs and bits in there in lieu of expensive surgeries. Oh, and scoring a goal or two will exponentially speed up the healing process as well.”
Although we had a good number of subs, it seemed like they were all midfielders. We had to work out a makeshift defensive lineup with four players who had not played together before, and hoped that their bond would be instantaneous.
The tone of the match was set in the early minutes of the first half as Captain Chappy went up for a header at midfield and collided with the Austin International’s Captain, who left the game with a gash to the eyebrow. Yours truly was forced to the sideline with a gash to the back of the head and considered various treatment techniques from the good doctor including, but not limited to: taping a diaper to my head, going for a “tape chinstrap” look, or filling a dirty sock with ice and trying to stop the bleeding. I went with #3 but was forced to become a spectator for the remainder of the half. Drag.
For whatever reasons, the game was just messy. There was a lot of action occurring in the middle of the park, with each team failing to use their width to any advantage. It looked as though CRU would strike first blood (the metaphor kind, not the real kind… which we had already struck), when Billy ghosted inside the box and found himself on goal, but his falling shot went agonizingly just wide of the far post.
It looked like we had finally broken through the deadlock when Steve whipped in a corner that found Way at the far post. Way skillfully hit it on the half volley and into the back of the net for his first apparent goal and our first apparent lead – but to our dismay the ref found an apparent foul that nullified the strike.
Going into halftime it was all tied up at 0-0 and we would face a stiff wind to start off the second half.
Unfortunately for us, Billy found himself lying face down in our net early on which signaled an opening goal for Austin International. A bit of misfortune at the back and we were down a goal headed into the wind. After inserting myself back in the lineup and hoping to spark a Willis Reed-like comeback, we began to rally with Steve asserting himself up front. Several probing runs saw Cameron Road nudge closer to slicing open Austin International, and the breakthrough finally came with another good run from Steve. This time, he had the ball on the move on the far right and whipped in a delicious cross. Wanting desperately to score, I heard someone call me off the ball and I turned to see Luke “Superman” Stenis launch himself to a full horizontal stretch and head in one of the finest goals you’ll ever see. Early contender for goal of the season for sure.
At 1-1, the game started to spiral into something resembling a UFC match. Fouls were flying, players were dropping, tempers were starting to boil over, and the ref was having none of it. To be fair, I don’t think there were many (if any) malicious tackles, but when participating in the beautiful game, some players are more equipped to take a pounding than others. After doling out a few yellow cards and instituting his new zero tolerance on foul language – the ref tried to regain order on the pitch.
Having to battle with the 20mph winds and trying to chase down balls, the Cameron Road defense found itself under a good bit of pressure that resulted in several corner kicks. Austin International got a break when one of their corners bounced around in front of goal and was knocked in for the go-ahead score.
To add insult to injury, several minutes later Dr. Manhattan from the movie Watchmen materialized in front of goal (without his blue makeup and loin cloth) and poked home an all too easy third goal before vaporizing to the sidelines in a fiery storm of obscenities.
The messy affair ended with Cameron Road going down 3-1 at the hands of Austin International, but fear not – the rematch is going to be held on a Wednesday night in the not too distant future. Bring your brass knuckles, tire irons, spiked shin guards and prison shanks…. this one might get nasty.
Man-of-the-Match: Having come so close to his first individual award last week, Luke grabs the gold for team CRU with his flying header – it was a sight to be seen and I’m sure the tree line was smiling at his effort.