LIVESTREAM Germany: Kiel Baltic Hurricanes @ Cologne Crocodiles, June 11, 15:00 CET (3 pm, 9 am ET)

Vincent Lospinuso | American Football | 06/11/2022

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

The Cologne Crocodiles will return home Saturday June 11 looking to get back in the win column against the winless Kiel Baltic Hurricanes as the German Football League heads into round three.

Both teams are coming off of double digit losses against two of the league’s best franchises. The Crocodiles, after getting on the board early against the New Yorker Lions, eventually fell 27-14. On the other side, the Hurricanes got blown out from the get-go against the Potsdam Royals losing 57-33.

Cologne is hoping that a potential second win of the season could spur another dominant stretch that could see them in the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since returning to the top league in 2009.

A notable individual who the Crocodiles will rely on is quarterback, Christian Strong. After a five-touchdown performance in week one, the Canadian-born signal caller had a showing of 29 passes for 43 attempts, 286 passing yards and two touchdowns last week although he also threw two interceptions for the night as well.

For the Hurricanes, if they want to get back to the form of the perennial playoff team that battled for the North Division from 2007 to 2017, they need to further establish their running game early on as last week quarterback Andrew Dion only completed 14 of 31 of his passes and threw only one touchdown pass. Still, backup quarterback Henrik Wolk stepped up tossing four touchdown passes. Wide receiver Khris Vaughn is a key though and has 22 receptions on the season for 305 yards and three touchdowns.

The last time these two teams faced off against one another was in 2021, it was a hard-fought road victory for the Crocodiles by a score of 40-35. Cologne has been the victor in the majority of their meetings too. In the last five years, the two clubs have faced each other eight times with the Crocodiles coming out on top in five of those games. Kiel has won twice, and the two teams tied one game.