American Football aktuell – Fire confident about the final

Fire with confidence for the final

Rhein Fire is back in the final, exactly 364 days after the greatest success of head coach Jim Tomsula’s team, this year’s Championship Game of the European League of Football will take place next Sunday, September 22, 2024, at 3:30 p.m. in the Arena Auf Schalke. The Rhinelanders’ opponents in the ‘Finale fast dahoam’ are the Vienna Vikings, the most successful ELF team of the three seasons 2022 to 2024.

The Vienna Vikings have been playing in the ELF since 2022. In their debut season, they became champions straight away with a 27:15 win against the Hamburg Sea Devils, with only two defeats at Frankfurt Galaxy (8:42) and the Wroclaw Panthers (6:42). Through the 2023 season, Vienna marched inexorably undefeated into the semifinals in true Viking style. There, Stuttgart Surge, who then lost the final in Duisburg’s Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena 34:53 to Fire, were the final stop with a 40:33 away win.

This year, the Austrians have gone one step further: twelve wins in twelve games were followed by a long, close but ultimately clear 47:31 win in the semifinals against the Paris Musketeers, which secured them a ticket for the weekend trip to Gelsenkirchen. “This is a great organization all around,” praises Fire Head coach Tomsula: “The excellently staffed and well-coached ELF team, the second team in the Austrian league, the youth teams, the cheerleaders – a great franchise in all aspects.”

Tomsula doesn’t want to hear anything about the tiresome debate about whether the Vikings have often had easier opponents in recent years: “If you dominate and win so many games, no matter who you’re against, you’re a very good team, period.” And studying the videos in the almost two weeks of preparation has confirmed this view of the head trainer and his coaching crew. “They have the class of Stuttgart – at least.” And against the Surge, the Fire even needed overtime to win 29:23.

The playing staff also shares the respect for the opponent: “The most important thing is that we bring our best performance to the field in the most important game of the year,” says quarterback Jadrian Clark. He is nevertheless looking forward to the championship game: “This is an incredible opportunity for us to win the league twice in a row – and in a place where the old Fire team has already played.” He is counting on the Fire fans being in the majority among the more than 38,000 spectators expected at “Auf Schalke”. “It was an indescribable feeling last year, there is nothing better.”

His teammates are also looking forward to the final calmly but with confidence. “The preparation is basically no different than it has been all season,” explains running back Glen Toonga, adding: “It’s good that we even had two weeks to get ready, time was a bit tight before the semi-final in Stuttgart.” The defensive aces, defensive lineman Max Parkinson and safety Marlosawn Franklin Jr., see it similarly. “It’s just another game,” says Briton Parkinson, “we’ll try to put pressure on like always, let’s see if the Vikings can handle the situation.” And ‘Marlow’ emphasizes: “At the moment the hype seems somehow surreal. But after Sunday, all our efforts will make sense and will strive to make sense.”


Tillman – 20.09.2024