Finals, Finals, and more Finals

The next two weeks are championship weeks in Europe. 2 national championships this Saturday along with another next weekend and the Eurobowl this Saturday give us plenty of excitement.

The Spanish final sees the most dominant team in recent years back again against a new competitor with a huge history. The L’Hospitalet Pioners ranked 19th in Europe and the top ranked team in Spain face off against crosstown rival the Badalona Dracs. The Pioners look for their 4th title in 6 seasons. They have ran the show this season in Spain. Without a tough road loss to the Madrid Bears they have been unbeaten this year in the country at 9-1. The Dracs have won 5 championshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhips in their history but none in the past 7 years. The Pioners beat the Dracs twice this season 46-33 in week 2 and again in week 7 but just by 1 point 29-28. This game will most likely be the most highly contested battle of the year for the two teams and for the highest of reward, the 2011 LNFA championship. You can view the game kicking off at 5:30 local time from Montjuic in downtown Barcelona. This game can be viewed online live by going to www.pioners.org and clicking on the link PionersTV.

North of Spain in France the Paris Flash will face the Grenoble Centaurs. The Flash are ranked 12th in Europe and assume their position as the top team in France after a 10-1 season. The Centaurs finished 6-4-1 good enough for 3rd place in local play and broke the 1-1 season tie with the Aix Argonauts by winning 36-15 in the semifinal. The Flash’s only blemish was a midseason loss to the Templiers, other than that they have been flawless including a pair of identical 44-13 wins over this very Centaurs team. History offers the Grenoble squad little chance, but we all know that they play the games for a reason, and you can’t win a championship by destroying the regular season, ask the New England Patriots. Kickoff is set for 3pm local time in the capitol city of Paris. The broadcast can be viewed by following this link: FRENCH FINAL 2011


The Eurobowl final is this weekend. A preview of the game can be viewed by visiting the official Eurobowl Website. The final will be displayed online at 8:30pm local time and can be viewed by following this link: EUROBOWL FINAL

After the buzz of these finals wears off, the Austrian Final will take place. The Austrian Final showcases the same Raiders team from the Eurobowl Final, playing against the Vienna Vikings a team that they beat by 3 after scoring 6 points in the 4th quarter. The last time these two met in Vienna the Vikings won, that was a regular season contest played earlier this year. The final game for one of the top leagues in Europe will be played on Thursday night, June 23rd in the capitol city of Vienna.

A trip to Stockholm gives the Crusaders their biggest win of the year

This past Saturday Europe’s 4th best team, the Carlstad Crusaders, took their show to the road. Special guests for the affair were Finley and Christie Cranor, loving parents of our Quarterback Eli. For the first time they would play away from Tingvalla stadium in 2011 since the European Tournament. The opponent, the Northside Bulls from upper Stockholm. We left cloudy Karlstad early in the morning and arrived to a Stockholm full of sun and heat. This was obviously going to be a factor in the game since we had not had so much as a practice in heat over 80 degrees. We came out hot and stayed hot, now I’m not referring to the weather, in a 76-8 win over the number 4 team in Sweden. The league’s most dynamic offense continued its assault on Super Series teams and raised their average point per game total to 51 after our first 4 wins. The Defense on the other hand lowered its points given up per game to 14.

Individual stars from this encounter were Fredrik Eklund, scoring 3 times on just 6 catches received. Fredrik Isaksson in relief at quarterback led the Crusaders to 34 points in the second half including a 44 yard touchdown launch on a 4th down play. Christian Forsman brought himself back to the top of the season total in rushing with 171 yards on the ground and added 3 touchdowns of his own to spice things up a bit. Obviously the offensive line did a number on the STU guys to account for the 522 yards of total offense that were amassed.

Defensively the Crusader pass rush, like in the Stockholm game, forced errant passes leading to 3 interceptions and destroyed the entire running game of the Bulls which finished the game with 24 yards on 18 carries, just 1.3 yards per carry. Anders Hjerspeth snagged his second interception on the season and I hauled in my 7th takeaway with my 4th interception of the Super Series. Viktor Jansson came up with a huge forced fumble from his safety position in the 3rd quarter, but it was nullified by an early whistle by the striped fellows. Let’s hope that situation doesn’t occur during a close game. The real hero of the defense was Johan Bjorn, Aka Kenta the Silent Assassin. His 60 yard interception return to the score zone before halftime from his middle linebacker position was the first touchdown he’s scored in his successful 7 year Super Series career.

The story of the Crusaders at this point in the year is definitely the dominance of the line play. The running game of the opponents is not only bad, it’s not evident at this point. This makes pass defense even more simple. Offensively the running game coordinated by Eli and Chris is a steam roller, offering us two of the top 3 rushers in the entire league. One more game before summer break, then we have a 6 week hiatus to regroup and refresh before playing through the league for the second time which for us will include 4 trips to the big city of Stockholm to show the city boys how it gets done out here in the country.

Time to Travel: Denmark and Southern Sweden

Two weeks off, the Crusaders are 6th in Europe after our first two months of work and in first place in the Swedish Super Series, there’s only one thing to do; take a vacation from our vacation. Fredrik Eklund, the league’s leading receiver offered for the American crew to join him in a trip to the southernmost city in Sweden including a day trip to Denmark.

Our first day was into Copenhagen where we toured the old city from east to west and north to south. Sights including the middle ages Castle, a summer home of the ruler, the little mermaid, a plethora of decorated elephants littered throughout the city, the new port, and finished the day at the second oldest amusement park in the world and Disney’s inspiration: Tivoli. Denmark offered us a day loaded with bright sunshine as well as the big city atmosphere of Europe passing by throngs of people on our way to the popular sights.

Day two put us in road trip mode as we traveled by car from Fred’s home of Malmo up the coast of Sweden through Helsingborg and to the harbor town of Molle. After some beautiful views of the cliffs and both Denmark to the South and more of Sweden to the North in sight we headed back for a picnic lunch by the beach. With any normal tour guide we would have had a simple midday with rocks and sun, but we chose an ex-Army ranger to give us a tour of his country side so we trekked down the side of a mountain to the architectural wonder of Nimis. What started as a sculpture by a Swedish artist became a compilation of tunnels and towers made of driftwood and countless nails. This creation brings you down to the beach in style as you feel like a 7 year old in adventure land choosing between a number of different pathways that all lead to the same great place, amazement. We had a bean salad lunch on the rocks there and hiked back up to the top where we headed back South towards Malmo but stopped at Fred’s mom’s house for a Swedish BBQ and swim in the North Sea. The water was still cold in June, but it did not deter us from enjoying a swim and the burnt energy gave us the appetite to devour an incredible patio barbeque with Fredrik’s family.

The third and final day we stayed in Malmo and hit the beach once again, this time for some beach volleyball where we Americans got to show off our skills besting the Swedes in straight games. We had tacos for dinner and met some of Fredrik’s local friends before we headed for home first thing Monday morning. We made it home in time to see our team being honored for their Swedish championship win last season at the downtown Independence Day festival. A Queen cover band made the event entertaining as well as the light clouds and warm 75 degree weather. We had a great break from the action but now it feels right to be back in game preparation. We face the 4th ranked STU Northside Bulls this Saturday, although they are 2-2 they have provided good contests in both of their losses. We’re on the road for the first time since our loss in Austria and the first time this season in Sweden so that will provide some different scenery.

Head to our facebook to view a lot more pictures of our vacation.

Crusaders jump to first place in Sweden

We played our last game and then had 20 days between games, so naturally we decided to take a vacation from our vacation and head for the south. There was little time to review our last game in that time, but now that we’re back and getting after another game week I’ve taken the time to review our win over the Mean Machine.

Two Saturdays ago the two biggest punch throwers of the Super Series stood toe to toe. Whenever the top two teams of any circuit meet up undefeated it goes without saying that fireworks are sure to be on display. Which, was the case quite literally during the post game celebration. Europe’s 6th ranked Carlstad Crusaders have two guaranteed games per year that they get to gear up for more than usual. Games that mean more to the players of the Red and Black than just another win or loss on the chart. Playing the Stockholm Mean Machine is an opportunity to renew a vowed unruliness towards the most storied franchise in the history of Swedish football. The fans arrived in groups ready for the only time that they will see the Machine on their home turf in 2011 before the playoffs.

The game unlike the buildup was a one-sided affair. The surprise onside by the home team at the opening kickoff set the tone for what was to be a dazzling display of offensive highlights and defensive crushing blows from the Crusaders. Behind the constant push of the offensive line, Eli and Christian Forsman each had a fabulous day rushing the football. Forse glanced off of would be tacklers time and time again with his bowling ball like approach to running the football. He was led off right tackle at the end of the first drive by an onslaught of Carlstad blockers, 3 of which had carried their defenders into the end zone prior to Christian entering it. The Machine’s answer was negated on their third play as intercepted a curl route and returned it for a score, one of 3 takeaways I would have on the day. All three of which I owe completely to my pass rush as they constantly had the Stockholm protectors staring at their quarterback being rushed, hit, and frustrated within just seconds of snapping the ball. The Crusader pass rush is who we thought they were, a Denny Green parody. These guys: Olof Flemstrom, Carl Carlson, Johan Asker, and Alex Thelander violently attacked the run game and pass drop of the Machine unrelentingly. There were no tackles to be had by the backers or secondary as our front destroyed all attempts to run the ball by the Machine holding them to 60 rushing yards on 27 attempts equating to just under a half yard per carry. We Crusaders scored touchdowns on our first 7 times with the ball including an interception for a score. At the end of the game Olof Flemstrom who you’ll remember from the do it all game he had at Kiel got our team the special teams edge by blocking a punt.

Since this game the Mean Machine and the Royal Crown have each won once bringing their win totals to 3 alongside the Crusaders. The difference is the loss column, where the Crown has dropped 2 games in the first half of the season to SMM and CC, and Stockholm lost to the Crusaders. This is depicted to the right hand side of this blog in the 2011 SAFF standings.