3 great goals and a lot of patience see Cameron Road past Libertad FC

With a 3-2 victory against the machismo-charged little angels of Libertad FC, Cameron Road jumped to fourth place in D3 on Sunday. The hard fought win came in spite of Libertad’s outwardly assault on sportsmanship, common sense, fair play and the ability of gravity to keep a human body upright in the face of little to no resistance.

Before the game even started, the referee spilled the beans to Captain Chappy about the upcoming fouls, whining and poor sportsmanship that would follow for the next 90 minutes. He had seen Libertad in action on several occasions, and wanted to prepare the team to turn the other cheek and let them do their job with whistles in hand.

Cameron Road started a fierce defense back four with Dave, Cuyler, Danimal and Crosley protecting Jay’s goal. Ciro was back from his two week visit to a height specialist in Norway to help Peterson, Danny and Barnaby in central midfield. Way was able to reschedule his lunch date to join Adam, Chappy and Vestre on the flanks, and Gianluca and Stripey spearheaded the attack up top while Willis attended a weekend long Cooper Black conference.

For the first fifteen minutes, Cameron Road controlled the tempo, pushing the Libertad defense without giving up much at the back. While Libertad was content to pass it around the back and play for fouls, the Honey Badgers took a few cracks at an opening goal with Gianluca firing wide and Chappy getting a good flick off Luke’s long throw into the box.

Barnaby and Gianluca came close to scoring on the same play as The Italian Stallion backed into a bicycle kick attempt… connecting with Barnaby’s head at the same moment that his header smashed toward the goal. Luckily, Barnaby was able to shake it off and get back in the game after a brief break on the sidelines.

With Cameron Road controlling much of the play, a deep ball to a lone striker just looped over the defense and let him in to a 1-0n-1 with Jay. As Cuyler tried valiantly to make up lost ground, he clipped the attacker from behind and Jay was faced with a penalty kick. After several minutes of gyrating on the ground, the forward got up and let loose a verbal assault on the referee which earned him a yellow card to go with his p/k. Unfortunately, he was able to connect on his kick, but he set a president that the referee would not forget for the remainder of the game.

With Barnaby back in the game, and down by a goal in a game that they were controlling, Cameron Road called upon the tree line to deliver a devastating 2 minute barrage of power that saw them quickly go up 2-1. First, CRU’s teenager broke his goal-scoring cherry in only his 3rd game with a brilliant left footed shot from just outside the box that beat the keeper to the far post. Then, after winning a free kick for some fouls inside the box, Cuyler stepped up and dropped some Ronaldinho-like science on the Libertad keeper with a curling free kick that left him flat footed. And just like that the Honey Badgers were back up in front at the half.

As the second half’s action heated up, the fouls kept coming hard and fast as Libertad employed the patented rolly-polly tactics… hitting the turf, rolling up in a little ball, and flopping around as if they were about to be crushed at every slight bit of contact from United. They were getting under the skin of both the referees and the Honey Badgers who were growing tired of their antics, and the fact that they snuck in once again and scored the tying goal only fueled the fire for another great comeback.

With the score tied at 2-2 and a growing sense of unease settling in, Cameron Road knew they were better than that. And just in time, Luke popped up on the left hand side and delivered an absolute beauty. His curling shot from 35 yards beat the keeper and again sent Cameron Road back into the lead.

As Libertad won a free kick at the other end, the same forward that complained when he WON a penalty kick was seen trying to frame Cuyler for a non-foul before the kick. When he wouldn’t stop arguing his case with the ref and linesman (who weren’t having any of it), they showed him a second yellow card and sent him packing.

With only 10 men to defend with for the last 15 minutes, Cameron Road proceeded to slice up Libertad on the flanks. Gianluca and Danimal charged down through the middle, looking for a fourth goal, and Adam had a chance in front of the box as well. As time expired, Ciro and Chappy worked a nice Barcelona-like give and go inside the box that left the bald-headed #7 with only the keeper to beat from a tight angle. Instead of tarnishing the beauty of the first 3 goals with something from close range, he decided to purposely scuff his shot directly at the keeper and preserve the memory of Barnaby, Cuyler and Luke’s fantastic strikes.

The game finally ended with Cameron Road on top for their second win in a row. With a week off to rest up and get back to full strength, things are looking much rosier than they did one year ago in D2.

Man-of-the-Match: This week we have a tie, with Barnaby opening his scoring account with a fine left footer after almost being knocked out by Gianluca, and Luke netting the game winner in dramatic fashion with an absolute unstoppable Sam Bradford bomb. You would be hard pressed to find two better goals to start and end a game.

Man-of-the-Post-Match: After a three week sabbatical, beer was back on Sunday! Yes, glorious Dos XX cans were seen being poured into thirsty mouths on the side of field #5. Good to have you back guys.

Disgusting-Photo-Winner-of-the-Post-Match: In an new and exciting award category, Way Shong sent in a pic of his Brundle-Fly like big toenail separating itself from his dainty paw. I will save you the agony of gazing upon it. This one will also be hard to beat.