German Football League playoff picture heating up

AFI | Allgau Comets | 08/31/2018

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

With the final two weekends of play looming in the German Football League, there is still plenty of drama set to unfold in both the GFL North and GFL South.

In the GFL North, the battles for first, second, third fourth and fifth are still wide open.

The Braunschweig New Yorker Lions lead the North with a 10-2 record and two games left against the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes and the second place Dresden Monarchs who also have a 10-2 record. Dresden will play the Hildesheim Invaders and Braunschweig. In third are the Berlin Rebels at 9-3. The Rebels have the winless Hamburg Huskies still to play along with Hildesheim.

The Lions should beat Kiel and would then face Dresden in the last game of the year to decide first place, assuming that the Monarchs take care of business and defeat the Hilsdesheim Invaders this coming weekend. With their second upset loss to the Berlin Rebels a week ago, Braunschweig is not the sure bet to finish first in the North as they were a few weeks ago. Lurking in third is Berlin but with two wins over the Lions this year and a split with Dresden with better points differential, the Rebels could finish first.

Should both Dresden and Braunschweig both win their games this weekend and then the Monarchs defeat the Lions in the final game, and then Berlin win both of their games, the Rebels will finish first, Dresden second and the New Yorker Lions third. If the Lions win their last two games and finish 14-2, they would capture first, Berlin would come second and Dresden third.

The battle for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North is just as heated. The Potsdam Royals are the fourth place team with a record of 6-7 while the Cologne Crocodiles are fifth at 5-6-1. Potsdam has one game left in the regular season, this weekend, against the Crocodiles. If Potsdam wins, they move on to post season play. However, should the Crocodiles defeat Potsdam and then win their final game against the 0-12 Hamburg Huskies, they would claim fourth and a date in the quarterfinals.

The situation in the GFL South is almost as intriguing.

Although the 12-0 Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and 10-2 Frankfurt Universe have sewn up the two top playoff berths, third and fourth are both still up for grabs with three teams in the hunt.

The Allgäu Comets are third and have a record of 7-5 while the Munich Cowboys are sitting in fourth at 5-7 and the Marburg Mercenaries are fifth also at 5-7.

Allgäu has two games remaining, against the Cowboys and then Frankfurt. Should they lose to Munich this weekend (they have already lost to the Cowboys earlier this year, 31-28) and then also to Frankfurt, Munich could finish third but the Cowboys would have to also defeat the Stuttgart Scorpions in the final game of the regular season on September 8. Meanwhile, Marburg, although in a slump, still has a shot. They face the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and then the Ingolstadt Dukes. If they win both of those games and Munich beats the Comets, the Mercenaries wind up fourth and in the playoffs. However, if the Comets beat Munich, they finish third no matter what happens in the last game against Frankfurt.