Both Thunder and Cowboys played in the opening week and lost. Now they meet, and they meet again actually, after already having played in a friendly game last year.
Both started the year poorly, with Zagreb losing twice already including a record breaking 74 point loss in Belgrade, while the Budapest Cowboys lost at home to Dukes rather easily 29-0. Like Zagreb, Cowboys came in with low, but perhaps not as low expectations, so a defeat so large was a little bit of a surprise.
“What I can say is that we did not show our true face and talent on that game. Unfortunately since we are full of young players, without experience — and especially foreign experience — a lot of players felt “stage fright”, as this was our first game in the CEFL”, says Cowboys’ receiver Gábor Kalovits.
“This was our first game in CEFL and I think we haven’t met a team like the Dukes before. It surprised some of the players, mostly in offense. Somehow we were not able to finish our drives. I think because of mental reasons. The offense didn’t concentrate enough on the game. After watching the video the conclusion was that we didn’t have huge mistakes but there were always some small but important mistakes”, says his teammate, offensive lineman Gábor Dénes.
While Zagreb was getting ready for CEFL last year, they played many friendly games, one of which was against Cowboys and the Budapest team beat them, although not by a big margin.
“I am sure that they also want to prove that they belong to this league and they also want to take revenge for their tight loss last October”, says Dénes. “This game is very important for both teams.”
“We were succesful, but both teams have developed a lot since October”, adds Kalovits.
Maybe it really was stage fright, as Cowboys have thus far been flawless in the Hungarian league, winning their first three games. Perhaps it’s weaker competition, but Cowboys say they’ll be better at taking advantage of their opportunities from now on.
“We have spent a lot of time correcting the mistakes; have had a few more games in the Hungarian Championship, where we were able to practice. This week we played the three time Hungarian silver medalist, and we dominated the field all three phases of the game, which was a good rehearsal before the Zagreb game this coming weekend”, says Dénes.
The game will be played in the same place as the first Cowboys game, the stadium on Margaret Island in Budapest, starting from 5PM.