THIS GIVEN SUNDAY: NEW CHAMPION INCOMING
The European League of Football is assured of a different name being etched onto its championship trophy this season after a weekend of Wildcard action settled the semi-final line-ups.
Okay, so the Vienna Vikings have won the ELF title in the past four iterations of the competition and could not have been eliminated this past weekend as one of two teams earning a bye by virtue of their regular season performance, but the top team of the past two years cannot make it a ‘three-peat’ following events in Copenhagen on Sunday.
Whether it is ‘The King is dead, long live the King’ or ‘Ding dong, the witch is dead’ may be influenced by your views on the Rhein Fire’s recent dominance — and the German side gave the Nordic Storm all they could handle in the second of the weekend’s two Wildcard games — but defeat on the road increases the chances of an entirely new champion being crowned in Stuttgart on the first Sunday in September.
The Fire travelled to Denmark for a third meeting of the season with the Storm, with the sides each having won their home encounter as North Division foes. Rhein may have had the mental advantage after winning the most recent clash, in Duisburg just a week ago, but the Storm immediately showed that they would not be overawed by the occasion. Opening the scoring in the first couple of minutes as their offense capitalised on a long kickoff return, the Storm were immediately pegged back as Fire RB Jonathan Scott again took his side’s first play from scrimmage to the house from 60 yards+. Despite the two defenses then stepping up as the powerhouses traded blows, it was the home side that went into the interval with the advantage as QB Jadrian Clark engineered a couple of second quarter scores, with the Fire only able to limit the damage with field goals.
The second half proved to be a cagey affair, with the Storm again limiting their visitors’ chances to three-point efforts, including an impressive 57-yarder from the boot of Sebastien van Santen. Offensively, the Scandinavian side reverted to a prolonged ground game — a tactic they had employed to lesser effect in Duisburg — as they attempted to control the clock and further limit opportunities for the Fire to strike back. The ploy worked as a late fourth quarter touchdown, and ensuing two-point conversion, made it a two-score game with the Fire needing to find paydirt both times. They succeeded once, but the Storm defense had made it difficult enough that only five seconds remained on the clock when the reigning champions attempted the inevitable onside kick. When Nordic WR Brendan Beaulieu came up with the ball, that was all she wrote…
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The game in Copenhagen could not have been more different to the previous day’s fare, where the Stuttgart Surge dominated what had been forecast as an offensive shootout against the equally free-scoring Madrid Bravos. That prediction was quashed in the opening half where neither side could put a point on the board for over 20 minutes and, when it came, it came from a Madrid field goal. Once the blue touchpaper had been lit, however, it was the home side that sparked into life, with Kai Hunter going over for a touchdown on the very next Stuttgart drive, and QB Reilly Hennessey finding Louis Geyer from 57 yards to extend the lead. At this point, things began to unravel rapidly for the Bravos, with QB Reid Sinnett’s lost fumble leading to a third score for the Surge before the interval.
It was a similar story after the break, with Madrid’s luck appearing to be largely bad, although some of the ‘misfortune’ was of their own making with errors and ill-timed penalties. Hennessey called his own number to extend Stuttgart’s advantage, before the Surge special teams got in on the act, blocking and returning a Sinnett punt to make it 34-3. This seemed to light a more cohesive fire under the visitors, but the fightback was too little too late and, even though two touchdowns halved the deficit, Stuttgart were able to stretch away again in the final minutes.
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WEEK 15 SCORES — WILDCARD WEEKEND
23.08.2025
Marid Bravos 17 @ 41 Stuttgart Surge
24.08.2025
Rhein Fire 23 @ 28 Nordic Storm
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What comes next?
The Wildcard results, which saw both higher seeds emerge victorious, will now send the Nordic Storm to Vienna to face the hometown top-seeded Vikings in what will be a first-ever match-up between the clubs.
By contrast, Stuttgart hits the road for the shorter journey to Munich for what will be a third Surge-Ravens clash of the season. As with Rhein and Nordic, each side won the home encounter in the regular season, setting up an intriguing decider with a place in the 2025 ELF Championship game on the line.
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MVP of the Week
Jadrian Clark (Nordic Storm)
Clark and the Rhein Fire know each other extremely well, the American QB having guided the German side to back-to-back ELF titles in the past two seasons, but two regular season meetings with his old club as the QB of ELF newcomers Nordic Storm have given him a new appreciation of the reigning champions. Losing to them in Duisburg just a week ago also gave Clark much to think on in the seven days before the sides met again and, along with head coach John Shoop, the ensuing gameplan proved to be enough to ensure there would be no title ‘three-peat’. Explosive through the air as expected, Clark posted another 300+ yards as he went 26-of-32 and found his receivers for three touchdowns, but was also hyper-efficient on fourth down as the Storm largely ignored the temptation to put faith in their kicking game. An additional 18 yards on the ground might not sound much — especially when ranged against a breakout performance from RB Armand Souleroot — but they underlined Clark’s willingness to put his body on the line when it mattered. Rhein’s bid for a ‘three-peat’ might be over, but their former QB’s remains on course.
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UPS
Stuttgart Surge defense
What had been billed as an offense shootout between the league’s two top units not only started slowly, but eventually proved to be a largely one-sided prophecy as the Surge defense made life hard for Reid Sinnett and his Bravos. Four sacks, numerous tackles for loss and miscommunications brought about by a loud home crowd stymied Madrid for long period — and Sinnett’s frustration was clear to see. While Alexander Kreß led the way with a half of Stuttgart’s four sacks, Luca Siebert dominated the tackling numbers, racking up 12 with an additional TfL. Stats aside, however, this was a team effort, with 20 players registering at least one takedown as the entire unit played its part in throttling their usually explosive opponent.
Reilly Hennessey (Stuttgart Surge)
Hennessey was his usual quietly-efficient self as he orchestrated Stuttgart’s progression to the ELF semi-finals on the back of yet another 200-yard passing game. This time, the American racked up 234 yards on 17-of-25 attempts and, although he was picked off by the Madrid defense on one occasions, found open receivers for scores three times, including a 57-yarder to Louis Geyer that broke open what had been a tense defensive struggle for the majority of the first half.
Louis Geyer (Stuttgart Surge)
Coming off a 125-yard, two-touchdown performance in Week 14 that secured the Surge’s elevation to the #3 seed, Geyer was clearly in form for Wildcard Weekend, and posted near identical numbers as he helped take down the Bravos in front of an appreciative Stuttgart crowd. Despite hauling in just four receptions, the German gained 118 yard and again contributed a brace of scores, one in each half, to ensure progress to the semi-finals.
Armand Soulerot (Nordic Storm)
The Storm’s receiving corps may again have been the primary focus of the Scandinavian gameplan, with touchdowns being spread between Simon Føns, Edwin Almeida and Adria Botella Moreno and Brendan Beaulieu falling one tick short of another 100-yard game, but Soulerot came into his own as Nordic attempted to control the clock with the ground game. The French import not only racked up 83 yards of his own, but crashed over for the decisive touchdown on the two-minute warning, leaving Rhein with too much to do in response.
Hugo Dyrendahl (Nordic Storm)
The Nordic Storm defense stiffened just when it needed to, bouncing back from the previous weekend’s defeat to their playoff opponent in Duisburg to stifle much of what QB Chad Jeffries and Co tried to do back on Copenhagen soil. Linebacker Dyrendahl was at the centre of the resistance, amassing 12 tackles as the Storm largely limited Rhein to field goal attempts, providing another dagger as the visitors attempted to wrap up sack machine Max Parkinson.
DOWNS
Reid Sinnett (Madrid Bravos)
The former NFL quarterback may have put up 321 yards passing and added another two touchdown tosses to his league-leading numbers, but was also on the receiving end of five sacks, having only been felled eight times all season, and generally found life tough in the noisy Stuttgart atmosphere. The frustration at not being able to communicate clearly with either the sideline or his team-mates was clear, and being thrust into punting duties probably did little for his zen either.
Rhein Fire ‘three-peat’ bid
Going back-to-back-to-back was always going to be tough — just ask the Kansas City Chiefs — but the Fire were attempting to do so in perhaps the most competitive playoffs of recent years, without head coach Jim Tomsula — who had had to head back to the US for family reasons at the start of the campaign — and facing multiple former players and coaches across the field in Copenhagen on Sunday. The champions gave a good account of themselves in the unusual position of wildcard qualifier but, ultimately, had to bow to the upstart newcomers for a second time this year and make an early start on a 2026 resurgence.
The sanctity of football
The closing minutes of the Surge-Bravos game in Stuttgart might not have held the same tension as Sunday’s game in Copenhagen, but that didn’t prevent tempers from boiling over, most notably when a Madrid player broke ranks from the sidelines to instigate a brawl close to the Surge bench. Already out of his pads at the time, the culprit had less to undress as he was rightly disqualified from what remained of the game.
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SEEN AND HEARD
- “We controlled Madrid very well. Our defense did an excellent job, and Coach Pastorino and Coach Brenner did a great job with their unit. It was important today that our defensive line functioned well, which was evident throughout the game. We weren’t satisfied with our offense during the first two drives because we started too slowly. After that, though, we found our rhythm and controlled the game for a long time. However, we need to play smarter and stay more relaxed. We had too many penalties and got too emotional. We need to work on that. Now, we’re up against Munich. They’re our rivals; we know them well. The short trip will also do us good.”
Stuttgart Surge HC Jordan Neuman
- “You can’t afford for one area of the game to slip away. You have to complete the game with a winning performance on each side of the ball. I told our quarterback: It wasn’t his fault. Sometimes you just have to win a playoff game 17-14, no matter what. We didn’t cover the kick returns well enough, and we didn’t make the crucial stops on defense to stay in the game.”
Rhein Fire HC Richard Kent
- “I think we’ve developed tremendously. Honestly, this was the craziest rollercoaster ride of my football career. It was tough, especially at the beginning of the season with a lot of headwind: a difficult schedule with five straight road games. But we still made the playoffs. We can be proud of that – even though we know this team could have achieved so much more.”
Rhein Fire QB Chad Jeffries - “Going out like that hurts. It hurts a lot because we know we have a great team. We know we could have been champions this year.”
Rhein Fire RB Jonathan Scott
- “A semifinal in our own stadium is something special. We’re looking forward to the atmosphere and a great football game.”
Munich Ravens GM Sean Shelton