A pair of German rivals will face off on Sunday as the Hamburg Sea Devils host the Frankfurt Galaxy as the European League of Football regular season winds down.
At 4-6, the Sea Devils have already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. For a team that lost in the championship game in each of the league’s first two seasons, this year has been a big disappointment. Their struggles have resulted from a number of factors, including roster turnover (most notably the offseason loss of star running back Glen Toonga), bad injury luck, and arguably the hardest schedule in the league. They have little to play for other than pride, but with two games remaining against fellow German teams, they should be able to find the motivation to play hard.
Moritz Maack will be starting his second straight game at quarterback for Hamburg, as the team released American Isaiah Green this week. It is rare for a homegrown player to start at quarterback for an ELF team, so it will be exciting to see how Maack performs this week after a decent game last week against Paris.
On the other side, the Frankfurt Galaxy have been perhaps the biggest surprise of the season in the ELF. While nobody thought they would be a bad team, some predicted that they would miss the playoffs this year for a second straight season. Not only have they already clinched a playoff berth with two weeks to go, but they also have a near-flawless record at 9-1, with their only loss coming against the still-undefeated Rhein Fire back in week 1.
Despite their record, they will most likely finish second to the Fire in the conference (unless they beat Hamburg and then beat the Fire by a wide margin next week). However, the Galaxy can secure the top wild card spot with a win over Hamburg on Sunday. As the 4th seed in the playoff bracket, which is where they would be locked into, they would earn the right to host a first-round playoff game. Obviously, having home-field advantage in the playoffs is significant, and the team surely wants to give their home fans one more chance to watch them play.
While the Galaxy are looking to clinch this home playoff game, the Sea Devils will be trying to spoil this opportunity. Hopefully these German foes will provide us with a fun game on Sunday.