The historic Liga De Futbol Americano (LFA) has reached its championship final Sunday. The six-week regular season will culminate in what promises to be a thrilling league title game.
The Mayas and Raptors will face each other in the first professional American football league championship game in over 20 years in Mexico at the Jesús “Palillo” Martínez Stadium in Mexico City.
Evenly matched teams
Both teams enter the game with identical 4-2 records. However, the Mayas dropped two of their last three games, including the final regular season game of the year against the Eagles 22-16. The Raptors, on the other hand, won four straight after starting the season 0-2.
The Mayas opened the season with a dominating victory over the Raptors, 34-6 but the Raptors returned the favor later in the season with a 13-9 win.
Maya head coach Ernesto Alfaro:
“It’s been a dream season for us, we are very grateful to the fans and I think more than the end of a season is the beginning of something bigger in the process of establishing professional football in the country.
“In all these weeks has been impressive was the response of everyone including the fans and that has made this first season seems like a true multi-year league.”
Meanwhile, the head coach of the Raptors, Rafael Duk, stressed the historic opportunity of becoming the first champions of the newly created professional football league.
“I cannot say who will win, the only thing I can say is that it will be an excellent meeting in which the fans will benefit.”
Duk also pointed out that his team’s mental resilience was one of its greatest strengths as it was able to reverse a horrendous two-game losing streak start, then win four consecutive games and reach the title match as the team with the best winning streak in the campaign.
“We have worked hard physically, but especially in the mental aspect, it has not been easy to recover from a bad start, the boys are focused entirely on the goal and have shown confidence in their performances which is what will help us to move forward.”
Trophy design
The design of the trophy is inspired by the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican culture, particularly with the Mexica civilization as the pedestal topped with the shape of a football ball and a representation of the so-called Sun Stone, also known as the Aztec Calendar.
Players know the special importance of the game
Raptors linebacker Miguel Angel Atilano knows how special this game is:
“While the championship is the highest award that can be achieved in a season in any sport, this means going beyond, is making history, transcending.
“You can spend many years playing in the LFA, but the first bowl cannot be forgotten, the names will live on in history and remain immortal.”
