With the Ljubljana Silverhawks playing in Novi Sad and the Vukovi going to Rudersdorf for an abroad game also, there will be two matches in SELAF this week. Both will be played on Saturday, with the Gladiators-Vukovi game starting at 3PM, and the game in Novi Sad one hour later.
The first home game for the Gladiators in SELAF has been advertised significantly, and the Belgrade team is expected to even have some support from the Serbian population in Austria. After the Gladiators’ convincing win in Slovenia, quarterback Bernhard Kamber proclaimed that the Vukovi won’t have much to celebrate on their way home. Three weeks later, his message is still clear.
”Personally I think you guys do a great job down there, but to be honest with you I think that all your teams don’t have the experience, because your league exists just a couple of years”, said Kamber.
”I’m really looking forward to Saturday! And I still think that your team will have nothing to celebrate on the bus ride back home!” he emphasized.
With Kamber passing for three touchdowns in the first game, the Vukovi are likely to take his words seriously. The game for them is significant because the Gladiators are the most experienced and the best team they have faced thus far. A loss would also mean they would fall two games behind the Novi Sad Dukes in the South Conference standings very early in the season.
Dukes have a great opportunity to position themselves firmly at the top of the conference with a win against the Silverhawks that would push their record to 3-0. Ljubljana comes to Novi Sad after a win over Kragujevac, but considering everything this season Novi Sad will be a lot tougher to beat.
The biggest obstacle Dukes will face is the absence of their starting running back Marko Đanić, who injured his left knee badly two weeks ago and will miss the first half of the season. Other than that, Dukes are clear favorites in this match especially because of last year’s 56-0 win at home against the same team. Also, Novi Sad players probably still remember their loss in Ljubljana that is one of the reasons they missed the final in 2006.
“We know little of their team this year, but it’s evident they’ve improved since last year. They showed it by beating last year’s champions at home”, says linebacker Slobodan Mijatov. “We started the season well and won’t let this game lower our chances of getting to the playoffs. I expect a win, and we’ll give our final say on Saturday at Kabel stadium.”