LIVESTREAM: Friday Night Football – Stockholm Mean Machines @Orebro Black Knights, April 27, 6p (12p EST)
The Örebro Black Knights (0-2) will try to climb into the win column Friday night as they play host to the 2-1 Stockholm Mean Machines at Behrn Arena in Orebro, Sweden.
The last time these two teams met was in the 2017 Swedish semifinals which Örebro won 36-14.
Örebro is still without a win this season after losing starting quarterback Raleigh Yeldell III to a toe injury in the second half of a close loss to the Carlstad Crusaders. The Black Knights then lost to the Uppsala 86ers and find themselves in the unusual position of already needing a win, this early in the season.
According to head coach Aaron Joseph, Yeldell is healthy enough to return and will start against the Mean Machines.
“He’s playing, he’s not 100% though. He looked really good last night at practice.”
Before the injury, Yeldell was a one man wrecking crew against Carlstad, scoring four touchdowns on his own and throwing for the fifth.
Black Knights QB Raleigh Yeldell III scores one of his 4 TDs against Carlstad Photo: Jonas Domfors
The Black Knights have had to adjust to other injuries to key players as well including starting running back Timmy Göransson, who tore his ACL and is out for the season. He is being replaced by Jens Biteus who was the starter in 2015, and Adam Fahlvik who was the starting fullback on the men’s team last year as well as being the Black Knights u19 RB.
Also, starting left tackle Gustav Rydberg broke his foot and is gone for the year. Joseph has moved left guard Hampus Palm to tackle and rookie Albin Adolfsson to left guard.
Black Knights young wide receiver Johannes Lindeus is the second leading receiver in the league in terms of yards per game with 200 yards in two games but he also has 422 all purpose yards including rushing and kick return yards.. He trails league leader Matthew Retzlaff of the Mean Machines in receiving who has 138.5 yards a game.
Matt Retzlaff had a field day with 246 yards receiving against Uppsala Photo: Stefan Akander
Stockholm quarterback Anders Hermodsson has thrown for 625 yards and six touchdowns in three games, good for second behind Carlstad’s Philip Juhlin. His key target is Retzlaff of course and the Black Knights secondary will be put to the test. Stockholm running back Emil Knutsson leads the league in average rushing yards per game with 84.7.
With Yeldell back in the lineup, expect Örebro to be a different team than in the loss to Uppsala.
Kickoff is 6:00 pm (1p EST) and the game is being broadcast live on CMore in Sweden (PPV) and shown in a tape delay at 10:20 pm on TV4.
Watch the game live (Pay per View) by clicking here. The broadcast is “semi geo-restricted”. A Swedish credit/bank card is necessary. Click on the button that says “Standard Sport”. Then fill in your email address, name and password and click Skapa konto, Open account. Add your credit card number. You can choose two weeks for free “Prova 2 veckor gratis” or you can choose to watch a single game. The game costs 99 Swedish kronor, or about $11 while a subscription is 199 kronor per month.
