PREVIEW: Big6 – Lions v. Flash / Vikings v. Unicorns

| American Football | 05/16/2015

Germany’s Braunschweig New Yorker Lions look poised to qualify for the Big6/Eurobowl  championship final – Eurobowl XXIX – after their dramatic 33-28 last minute win over the Swarco Raiders from Austria two weeks ago. Although the Flash de la Courneuve from France may beg to differ. And either the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns or Vienna Vikings will be there to face the winner of Group B.

This tournament, which pits some of the heavyweights in American football in Europe, features two key, deciding match ups this weekend.

Group B

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Braunschweig New Yorker Lions 1-0 v. Flash de la Courneuve 0-1
Saturday May 16. Kickoff: 3 PM
Stadium: Stadion am Salzgittersee, Braunschweig, Germany

On Saturday May 16 in Group B action Germany’s Braunschweig New Yorker Lions will host the Flash de la Courneuve from France. In their opener against the Swarco Raiders, the Lions found themselves down 28-20 at halftime only to score 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to beat the Raiders. A key fourth down touchdown pass from quarterback Grant Enders to Christian Bollmann sealed the win.

The Flash hosted the Raiders  earlier and found themselves on the end of a 47-14 pummelling. They have struggled in the French league this season but are starting to find a rhythm and might surprise the Lions. Braunschweig is coming off a tough battle last week against German division rivals the Dresden Monarchs and despite a last second hail mary pass which ended up on the one yard line could not pull off the win and lost 27-26.

Should Braunschweig win they automatically qualify for Eurobowl XXIX. A loss drops them into a three-way tie in which the point differential will be the deciding factor.

Group A

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Vienna Vikings 1-0 v. Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns 1-0
Sunday, May 17th, 3:00pm Kickoff
Stadium: Stadion Hohe Warte, Vienna, Austria

Both the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and Vienna Vikings have beaten the third team in Group A, the Berlin Adler, handily so the winner of this game automatically moves on to Eurobowl XXIX.

This will be an interesting contest as the Vienna Vikings are playing the 2015 season with no imports and their all-Austrian squad has performed extremely well this year. They are 4-1 in Austrian league play having only dropped a 30-17 decision to the Raiders in their second encounter of the season with Swarco. They lead the league in both offense and defense after five games.

The Unicorns have played only two games in the German league this year and won both going away. Neither Stuttgart nor Marburg could match them. Quarterback Marco Ehrenfried also doubles as Team Germany’s starting pivot. They were German Bowl finalists in 2014 and look to head back to the final in 2015. Unicorns offensive coordinator Jordan Neumann is very familiar with the Vikings having served as their offensive coordinator until 2013.

 

 

Roger Kelly is an editor and a writer for AFI. A former PR Director the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League for 7 years, he now lives in Sweden writing about and scouting American Football throughout the world.