With one hand around the championship trophy last year, the Budapest Wolves came up empty-handed in the end, and the title belongs to the Vukovi Belgrade for at least this year. The Wolves have had seven months to think about the crushing loss and now they finally have an opportunity for a rematch, when they host Belgrade on Saturday, 5PM on Margaret Island.
It can be said that the turnaround in the final continued to this season — two teams that were neck and neck during the regular season last year have taken very different paths in 2008. The Vukovi have established themselves as the most dominant team early in the season, while the CEFL Bowl loss didn’t bring much fortune to the Wolves, who have won just once in the first three games.
And so the game is of even higher importance for the home team in this match. They not only have to deal with evening the score, but also with the conference standings, as a 1-3 record after the first four games isn’t what they counted on.
What can’t be said is that they’ve played bad in those three games and this is perhaps one reason for optimism in Budapest. Granted, they’ve beaten a one-win team, but the two losses came from two undefeated teams other than the Vukovi — both at away games.
Their opponent’s has played a substantially different schedule. It doesn’t take too much away from their 4-0 record, 201 point scoring differential and an average victory margin of more than 50 points, but the truth is they’ve played teams with a combined record of 3-14, including all three new teams.
Another thing in the Wolves’ favor is that they are at last playing the Vukovi at home. Both their losses last year happened in Belgrade, one even with a third string quarterback. The game will be played on Margaret Island, where the Wolves played one game last year and had true home field advantage in a come from behind win over the Dukes.
If they were able to turn it around then, maybe they can turn their season around this time and wipe away at least some of the bad memories from the championship game.