Cameron Road 1 – Deportivo San Marcos 2

First up for Cameron Road United on the “Summer Heat Wave” Tour of 2011 was Deportivo San Marcos. A decent team that CRU had never faced before. They had a few solid forward players, and as is customary, were adept at passing the ball around.

Unlike the final few games of the regular season, Cameron Road fielded 5 subs for the Summer opener. Maybe it was the talk of Ciro’s new circus-sized tent? Who knows, but whatever the case, the extra bodies were a welcome addition. At the back were Billy, Crosley, Andy, Dave and Jay. Everyone else did a nice job of switching around between midfield and attackers: Willis, Chappy, Z, Gianluca, Leif, Luke, Peterson, Scott, Way, Ciro and Adam.

Cameron Road started off the game brightly, not letting Deportivo get the ball past the halfway line, and chalking up some good scoring chances. Luke nearly scored three times in the first 15 minutes: getting into good position for a one-on-one with the keeper, then following up his shot with another, and then actually putting one in the back of the net several minutes later – but it was called back for a dubious offside call.

Unfortunately, after some pretty good play, Cameron Road gave up a goal on the break to go down 1-0.

After battling back from the setback, one of Cameron Road’s summer signings, Gianluca, nearly scored from close range on his debuit, but his toe poke went wide.

A halftime speech from a clipboardless Coach BT (who was sporting his best Wilford Brimley from Cocoon look), proved to be a motivating factor as CRU looked to come out of the blocks hard at the start of the second half. After some back and forth play, Andy (who did an outstanding job in central defense all day long) broke free from his defensive chains and got on a ball down the left touch line. He beat his man and dug out a perfect left-footed cross which an onrushing Ryan Willis flicked in with the outside of his right foot, never breaking stride for his celebratory run. Game on.

As the half wore on, and the temperature soared towards triple digits, both teams went in search for the winner. Scott never stopped running in midfield, and he Leif and Peterson tried to carve out some chances from the center of the pitch. The deadlock was almost broken when Gianluca pumped in a pretty shot from outside the box, only to have it rattle off the crossbar on its decent.

Both teams were battling to find a winner, and unfortunately it was Deportivo who netted close to the final whistle, earning them a victory. A decent start for Cameron Road, but their achilles heel of not enough possession flared up again to haunt them.

Kudos to the CRU squad though for showing up in numbers, playing multiple positions, not receiving any cards, and bringing plenty of post-game beer. We’ll be back next week with another strong turnout, looking to put the hurting on Indios.

Man-of-the-Match: Great job by Andy Michaelis playing stopper. Andy may have found a new home at the back of defense, providing hustle and tenacity (hello honey badger), not giving up any fouls, and providing the timely burst and assist for Willis’ goal.