NFLE Game Previews

Published on May 21, 2002 under National Football League Europa (NFLE) News Release

WORLD BOWL hopes are on the line as Week Seven of the NFL Europe League campaign features games that could make or break seasons.

The league-leading Frankfurt Galaxy play host to the F.C. Barcelona Dragons on Saturday knowing that a possible sixth victory of the season would make them very difficult to catch in the race for places in World Bowl X in Düsseldorf on June 22.

The four teams occupying the places between the first-placed Galaxy and the sixth-placed Dragons face key games. The Berlin Thunder have won three straight games since losing their first three of the season and now travel to the Rhein Fire on Sunday.

Victory for Berlin would not only see them tie the Fire's won-lost record, but would give them a split of the season series. If Berlin win by more than the 4-point margin of the Fire's 20-16 victory in Week 3 they would also hold the tiebreaker edge over their German rivals.

Sunday also sees the Scottish Claymores face the Amsterdam Admirals. Scotland has won two straight games, while Amsterdam have lost their last four.

WEEK SEVEN SCHEDULE

SATURDAY MAY 25
F.C. Barcelona Dragons at Frankfurt Galaxy
Waldstadion, Frankfurt, 7:00 p.m.

SUNDAY MAY 26
Amsterdam Admirals at Scottish Claymores
Hampden Park, Glasgow, 3:00 p.m.

Berlin Thunder at Rhein Fire
Rheinstadion, Düsseldorf, 4:00 p.m.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK - WEEK 7

OFFENSIVE · DANE LOOKER · WR, Berlin 5 catches for 101 yards, 2 TDs vs Barcelona

DEFENSIVE · WILLIE GARY · S, Scotland 20-yard fumble return;1 interception, 2 tackles vs Rhein

SPECIAL TEAMS · OLA KIMRIN · K, Frankfurt 52-yard FG for 4 points; 44-yard game-winning FG vs Amsterdam

NATIONAL · JASON BYWORTH · WR, Scotland 12-yard TD catch (first career TD) vs Rhein

Coaches get ready for crunch week in championship race

THE atmosphere will be red hot in the Fire's Rheinstadion on Sunday as the hometown team faces the Berlin Thunder in a game that promises to be key to the World Bowl race.

Just one game separates the Fire (4-2) and the World Bowl champion Thunder (3-3) in the standings. Not only are the Thunder hoping to stretch their winning streak to four games but they know that victory by more than four points would give them a head-to-head tiebreaker edge over the team that will host this year's championship game.

"We need to get ready mentally to play a big football game against a team we have played before," says Thunder head coach PETER VAAS. "We have a lot of respect for the Fire and we are playing in a very hostile and electric environment."

The Thunder's 24-17 win against Barcelona last week means they have won three straight games since opening the season with three losses. Meanwhile the the Fire's four-game winning streak came to a halt with a 17-7 loss at the Scottish Claymores.

Fire head coach PETE KUHARCHEK says: "We just have to keep improving, especially as we have a big game coming up against Berlin. We had improved four weeks in a row but we didn't do that last week in Scotland."

The Claymores are back in World Bowl contention after winning their last two games. But heading into a game against the Admirals, who cannot afford a fifth straight loss, head coach GENE DAHLQUIST insists: "We are not thinking about World Bowl. We just have to take this one game at a time."

Meanwhile, the Frankfurt Galaxy are the team that has a little breathing space, holding a two-game edge over the teams tied for third place.

But head coach DOUG GRABER is not allowing himself to think about the possibility of returning the Galaxy to World Bowl after a three -year absence. He believes that last week's narrow 21-19 victory against the Admirals, earned by a 44-yard OLA KIMRIN field goal with 0:13 remaining, proves there is still a lot of work to be done.

"I am not talking about Word Bowl," he says. "All I am interested in is getting better and improving as a team every single week. That is my biggest concern - to get this team to do the fundamental things better or else we are not going to have to worry about any of those things down the road.

"In terms of all the penalties against Amsterdam we did enough dumb things against Amsterdam to last us a lifetime, but this team keeps finding ways to win in the fourth quarter."

Teams out to make tiebreaker point

WITH things getting tighter at the top of the NFL Europe League standings, the prospect of the new tiebreaker situation coming into operation this season is coming into focus.

For the first time, the NFLEL has introduced a system based on the system of 'aggregate goals' used to determine ties in the European soccer tournaments.

The first tiebreaker remains the head-to-head results of games between the tied teams. But this year the next tiebreaker step is points differential in those games.

For example, Rhein and Scotland have split their series this season, but the Claymores have the edge in a tiebreaker against the Fire because their victory last week was by 10 points and the Fire had beaten them by only 3 points earlier in the season.

The system is not only easy for fans to understand and follow, it helps to give teams greater control of their destiny - and, as the Claymores discovered, it can make for nervous moments near the end of games.

Scotland were up by 10 points late in Sunday's game when a botched punt play put the Fire in position to score. A touchdown would not have saved the game but could have changed the tiebreaker.

"When the snap went over the punter's head everyone was thinking about the tiebreaker, but our defense makes opposing offenses earn everything and they held firm," said Claymores head coach GENE DAHLQUIST.

According to Thunder head coach PETER VAAS the system helped keep up Berlin's hopes after an poor start to the year. "Even at 0-3 we knew we controlled our own fate. We lost to Rhein and Frankfurt in very close football games. So if you assume that we beat them by more than they beat us, they still have to play one another and we still control our own destiny."

UPDATE: Angoy vs Burgsmüller

RHEIN Fire's Manfred Burgsmüller has been overtaken as NFL Europe's all-time leading scorer. He kicked only one PAT last week for 285 career points, one behind F.C. Barcelona Dragons kicker Jesus Angoy, who scored two FGs and a PAT to take his total to 286, including an NFLEL-record 51 field goals.

National Football League Europa Stories from May 21, 2002

• NFLE Game Previews - NFLE
• Rams-allocated pair take honors - NFLE

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