LIVESTREAM BNL Championship Game: Rotterdam Trojans vs Amsterdam Crusaders, July 6, 18:00 CET (6 pm, 12 noon EDT)

AFI | American Football | 07/06/2024

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

The Rotterdam Trojans and the defending champion Amsterdam Crusaders will square off Saturday, July 6 in the third BNL Championship Game in the Complexe Sportif d’Evere in Evere, Belgium.

This is the third BNL title game. The Crusaders won the previous two beating the Brussels Black Angels in 2023 and the Limburg Shotguns in the inaugural BNL season.

These two teams faced each other twice during the regular season with Amsterdam taking the first game 46-0 and the Trojans the second 23-21.

Rotterdam finished first during the regular season earning a bye into the title game while the Crusaders defeated the Black Angels 35-6 last week in the semi.

The Crusaders finished as the top offensive and defensive team in the league scoring an average of 45.2 points a game during the regular season while surrendering just 6.8. Rotterdam weren’t far behind on offense racking up a total of 280 points in seven games but gave up 133 (19 pts/game).

The key to the Trojans offense is quarterback Walker Dycus (Monmouth College, NCAA/Div.III) whose receivers include James Crider, Lukas Mosgan and Jarrell Berrenstein. Defensively, Rotterdam is led by an excellent linebacking corps featuring Akileis “KeKe” Leroy (Florida Atlantic, NCAA/Div. I) along with Yhemmairo van Es and Lucerdo Ristie. The secondary includes NFL Academy’s defensive back Arthur de Boachie.

For Amsterdam, veteran Jasper Nijland will be behind center with excellent weapons at his disposal including French receiver Olivier Lugier and young Dutch wideout Younes Kwyasse. Running back Sidney Kunst provides stability in the Crusaders ground game. On defense, the front seven is anchored by linebacker Brian Snoek (Rhein Fire), veteran defensive lineman Dylan Bakker (North Dakota Fighting Hawks) and team captain and defensive end Jamie van Tongerlo. The secondary relies heavily on safety Jeffrey Juurlink (Hamburg Sea Devils).

This game is hard to predict. The Trojans have made a couple of key additions since the last time these two teams met, the biggest one being linebacker Akileis Leroy. This will no doubt affect the Amsterdam ground game so Nijland will do his best to test the Rotterdam secondary.