THIS GIVEN SUNDAY: GALAXY TAKE BULL BY THE HORNS

Week two of the 2025 European League of Football season may have featured the first byes of the campaign, but also opened with a highlight reel, featured a one-score game in which there was only one score and saw a couple of high-scoring week one teams brought back down to earth.

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WEEK 2 SCORES

24.05.2025

Fehérvár Enthroners 15 @ 62 Vienna Vikings

Hamburg Sea Devils 28 @ 13 Prague Lions

Frankfurt Galaxy 47 @ 33 Madrid Bravos

25.05.2025

Nordic Storm 40 @ 21 Wroclaw Panthers

Stuttgart Surge 0 @ 6 Paris Musketeers

Helvetic Mercenaries 6 @ 44 Raiders Tirol

Berlin Thunder 16 @ 38 Munich Ravens

Bye Week

Cologne Centurions, Rhein Fire

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Game of the Week:
Frankfurt Galaxy 47 @ 33 Madrid Bravos

Still smarting from their penalty-strewn defeat to Stuttgart in Week 1, Frankfurt made the equally difficult trip to the Spanish capital to take on a Bravos team that had held on to defeat Hamburg by a single point in their season-opener. This time, it was the home team that made the mistakes and the Galaxy that pulled away in the closing stages.

Remarkably perhaps, an 80-point encounter did not appear to be on the cards as defense again proved to have the upper hand early on but, after a scoreless opening quarter, the tables were turned, with neither side seemingly able to contain the other as touchdowns began to flow in both directions. Although the game remained close going into the fourth, the flags against Madrid continued to pile up, either halting promising offensive positions or handing Frankfurt vital gains when the home defense finally appeared to be stiffening again. And stiffening it certainly needed to do, as the Galaxy were allowed to rack up over 600 yards — including nearly 400 on the ground as Sandro Platzgummer and Gerry Ameln both feasted on poor tackling and the gaps their O-line opened for them.

Madrid also looked potent going forward, and needed all of QB Reid Sinnett’s 400+ yards through the air, but could also have done without the two picks he threw deep in Frankfurt territory which largely offset a hat-trick of passing TDs.

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MVP of the Week
Sandro Platzgummer (Frankfurt Galaxy)

The Frankfurt-Madrid matchup was always likely to throw up a contender for best individual performance of the week, with Bravos’ QB Reid Sinnett throwing for more than 400 yards and receiver Aron Cruickshank putting up a combined 200+ as the home team again used him in multiple ways, but the visitors’ domination on the ground was underlined by another hammering performance from sometime New York Giants roster novelty Platzgummer, who bulldozed the Madrid defense into submission with 248 yards and two touchdowns. With his O-line opening huge gaps, the Austrian was a threat almost every time he touched the ball, but also showed some wheels around the outside, leaving the Bravos in his wake as he went 88 yards for the deciding score as Frankfurt pulled away in the final quarter.

UPS

Jadrian Clark (Nordic Storm)

Losing star running back Glen Toonga to a season-ending Achilles injury in week one appeared to be of little concern to either the Nordic Storm or QB Clark, as the league’s newest team put up 40 points on a Wroclaw Panthers side expected to give the Scandinavians more trouble than Helvetic managed in the opening round of games. Instead, Clark dominated, throwing for 303 yards and five touchdowns, including three to WR Brendan Beaulieu, who put up 151 yards of his own. More importantly, Clark has now gone two games without a pick as the Storm continue to brew.

Paris Musketeers defense

Stuttgart arrived in the French capital having overpowered Hamburg in week one, but found their potent offense suffocated by a determined Musketeers side that posted the first shutout of the 2025 ELF campaign. That didn’t prevent the encounter between two likely playoff contenders from being a nervy affair, however, as the Surge only allowed a single score in return, as Jaylon Henderson found Rémi Bertellin for an unconverted touchdown late in the first quarter. From that point on, it became a defensive battle with Souleymane Karamoko, Digaan Gomis and Kadel King leading the way in a Musketeers performance that would undoubtedly have pleased former NFL LB, now Paris head coach, Jack Del Rio.

Russell Tabor (Munich Ravens)

Like Clark, Ravens QB Tabor contributed five scores — including one on the ground and three of four through the air to WR Malik Stanley — to his team’s total, as Munich overcame opening week high-scorers Berlin to unexpectedly go 2-0. Tabor was instrumental in the home side jumping out to a big early lead, with three first quarter touchdowns giving them a 20-0 advantage before the Thunder woke up, but only needed to throw for just over 200 yards as he added a team-high 97 rushing at an average of 13.9 yards a pop.

Raiders Tirol

After a somewhat surprising defeat to Munich on opening weekend, the Raiders were clearly in a mood to take their revenge on whoever they faced in week two — and it just so happened to be the hapless Helvetic Mercenaries. Despite losing QB Conor Miller before the game had barely got underway, the home side were able to lean on their run game, and Tobias Bonatti in particular, as they handed out another crushing defeat to their Swiss visitors. Bonatti went for 185 yards and three touchdowns in total, enabling the passing game to enjoy a quiet afternoon.

Vienna Vikings defense

For all of the 62 points put up by the Vikings against the hapless Enthroners on Saturday, the home defense had as much of a say as Ben Holmes’ four touchdowns on offense. Two interceptions — by Elmeri Laalo and Amani Dennis — were converted into pick-six touchdowns, while the D-line accounted for three quarterback sacks and too much pressure for the visiting offense to handle.

Moritz Maack (Hamburg Sea Devils)

With the shadow of new signing, NCAA star quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, looming over him following the week one injury to starter Micah Leon, backup Maack never flinched as he led his team to a first win of the season. After a narrow defeat in Madrid to open the campaign, Maack was content to let the Hamburg run game shoulder the load, but crucially, did not make a mistake that could have overturned a hard-fought 28-13 victory in Prague.

DOWNS

Conor Miller (Raiders Tirol)

Although the extent of his injury is not yet confirmed, Miller lasted no more than the opening drive of the Raiders’ emphatic win over Helvetic on Sunday. The team excelled in spite of his absence, but the passing game contributed just 41 yards with WR Adrian Platzgummer taking over under center. That might not be a problem against Cologne in week three, but is something to watch going forward.

Kicking

Once again, several teams appear to need an uplift on special teams, with kicking in particular proving to be an issue. Missed extra points and field goals have proven crucial in several games through the opening two weeks, with the Nordic Storm even conceding a two-point PAT return to Wroclaw on one of several blocked attempts his time around.

Enthroners & Mercenaries

This might become a theme of this section in 2025 (at least until the curiosity wears off) as both Fehérvár and Helvetic suffered successive heavy defeats. The Hungarians, opening the ELF weekend for the second Saturday in a row, conceded 62 to a rampant Vienna Vikings team, having been despatched for 55 by Wroclaw seven days earlier, while the Mercenaries shipped 44 to a Tirol team looking to take out their week one frustration on anyone that stepped in their path. With Cologne on a bye and Prague again putting up a fight, we don’t yet know how big this cohort may be in future weeks, but both the Enthroners and Mercenaries look set for a long, often painful, campaign.

 

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SEEN AND HEARD

• • “Great game today! The defense played a top-notch performance throughout the game, and we were finally able to show what we wanted with our offense. We were able to execute our game, and the running game worked very well today.”
    — Raiders Tirol RB Tobias Bonatti
  • “Nordic Storm were the better team. They had a balanced attack, good anticipation in defense and, on our side, there was a lack of quality to stop the rivals and consistency in the opponents’ end zone. We have a bye week ahead of us, so we will focus on analysing the tapes to improve our game before the match with Prague Lions.”
    — Wroclaw Panthers HC Craig Kuligowski
  • “Despite the defeat, I am proud of the boys. We fought throughout all four quarters. We will watch the tapes, draw conclusions and correct our mistakes. We will come back stronger — I know it.”
    — Wroclaw Panthers LB A.J. Wentland
  • “It was a good feeling for me to finally be on the field from the start again. We ran the game well as an offense. Our O-line did an outstanding job. The defense did an incredible job. It was a dirty win, but we deserved it this week.”
    — Hamburg Sea Devils QB Moritz Maack