All three new teams will make their debut this Saturday, and probably the only game where the teams already know each other well will be played just outside Zagreb, where the Thunder await the Silverhawks. The game will be played on Saturday, starting from 3PM, in Velika Gorica at NK Radnik stadium, a few kilometers southeast of Zagreb.
“All of us with Thunder feel that this is just the first real test against the Slovenians, because until now we played them at two tournaments and one scrimmage”, says Ozren Gabersnik, Zagreb’s defensive lineman. “We’re coming into the game rested and prepared, which wasn’t the case during the tournaments, because we played them usually after already playing one game.”
Both tournaments were in Zagreb, the team founded Crobowl, a one day event with four teams participating. Last year, Ljubljana won by 16 points, 22-6, although it has to be said that the Silverhawks didn’t have their whole team available for the game. Still, Zagreb is not the same team anymore, says Gabersnik.
“Considering that, from mid-January, we’ve been practicing hard, from conditioning to strength, but also our playing ability, we think we are definitely ready. Looking at what we have seen from Ljubljana, they’re definitely able to show something on the field, but we surely didn’t practice for nothing, so I hope for a well played and interesting game, in which we’ll get a ‘W’.“
Ready or not, in Zagreb or anywhere else, they’re starting the year as outsiders. That might not be a bad thing, because the pressure, in this case, is on the Silverhawks, as a loss would mean their chances of being stuck near the bottom of the standings for the third straight year would be pretty good.
A favorite on paper, in Ljubljana they say that they won’t take the game lightly. They’re starting the year again with American players from Aviano, which is a luxury their first opponent won’t have, regardless of how good those players are on CEFL level. A player from Aviano will most likely be their starting quarterback this year; that would be Ryan Rodgers, an interesting player, because he never played organized football while in the US.
“This year, we started practicing outside already in January, and serious conditioning already in November of last year. We now have more players and three coaches work with the team. Our goal is, although it sounds funny, to reach the semifinal”, says Uroš Valant, Ljubljana’s head coach. “Since I’ve been with the team, we have never practiced for the season more seriously.”
Zagreb’s president Denis Geto has been cautiously optimistic ever since Zagreb entered the league late last year, stating that although the expectations are low, they don’t expect to be too far behind the rest of the league. Currently, they have a roster of over 50 players — not a bad number considering they’re the only football team in Croatia — and are coached by Siniša Štefanović, a former Canadian Football League player.