There is a lot at stake for the Frankfurt Galaxy.

After winning the title in the European League of Football (ELF) last year, management and the community of owners announced at the beginning of the new, second season in the European American Football League that the team would only be playing for the championship this year.

Jan Erhardt

sports editor.

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A false start followed, extremely mixed performances and, last but not least, some excessive demands on the player staff with the increased pressure of expectations - and above all the quality of the competition.

While some of the rivals from the ELF premiere season strengthened themselves, new, extremely strong teams joined the league and the balance of power there shifted almost overnight, the attitude in Frankfurt remained as the defending champions almost automatically among the favorites for the next season To belong.

Won with a bang

Although individual player positions were selectively upgraded, there were several departures of important key figures such as wide receiver Anthony Mahoungou.

The fact that the resulting gaps cannot be filled by existing forces alone was shown in the first few weeks of the season, which, with three defeats from five games, were anything but ready for the title.

Among other things, the signing of American wide receiver Reece Horn, who joined the Galaxy in June, brought more stability and quality, and now, it seems, the Frankfurt team have turned the tide.

Since the defeat against the Raiders Tirol from Innsbruck, the team of head coach Thomas Kösling has won all games, albeit some only with a bang, and now, after an impressive success against the Vienna Vikings, is still close to qualifying for the to make the playoffs.

This Sunday (3:00 p.m. on ProSieben MAXX and on ran.de) they face the Rhein Fire in Duisburg, and a week later they face the Raiders again at their home stadium.

Two wins and Galaxy would stay the course.

Any further defeat should mean the end of Frankfurt's title dreams.

Frankfurt Galaxy has not only set itself high goals in the field of sports.

For the managing directors, a significant further development of the team infrastructure, training conditions and organization of the home game days was almost more important than the championship.

Based on the pre-season, which was still held under pandemic conditions, one hopes for a considerably higher number of viewers, said Jörg Ziesche at the beginning of June, before he actually spoke shortly afterwards that they could well imagine playing games in Frankfurt again in the coming years Bundesliga soccer stadium, as it was when Galaxy in NFL Europe caused enthusiasm in front of 30,000 fans and more.

Low viewership

Most recently, in the top game against Vienna, in which it was almost all or nothing for the Galaxy, just under 4,700 spectators came to the stadium on the Bornheimer Hang.

After the promising home start against Rhein Fire in front of more than 7,500 fans, the number of visitors recently leveled off in this range or even below.

A value with which those responsible can hardly be satisfied in view of their grandiose goals.

"The summer holidays hit us harder than expected," says Ziesche's colleague Christopher Knower in an interview with FAS. "And the high outside temperatures are also a limiting factor." , so far not dissatisfied.

This calm is probably also due to the comfortable financial situation in which Frankfurt Galaxy, where a team manager has been taking care of all matters relating to the team since this year.

The entry of another shareholder shortly before the start of the season, who provided their own charter aircraft for the team’s away trip to Poland, for example, improved the already “stable” (Knower) financial situation, which he said, which favored investments such as receiver Horn’s subsequent signing .

The extent to which the balance of power within Galaxy has shifted as a result of this entry became clear during the meeting arranged with Managing Director Knower, to which Wolfram Simon-Schröter, the new Galaxy shareholder, joined at short notice and promptly took over the majority of the speeches.

But regardless of this, there is now a lot at stake in terms of spectators for Frankfurt: "You inspire spectators with a great game on the pitch," says Simon-Schröter.

If Galaxy missed out on the play-offs this season, it would be a huge disappointment not only for the players and coaches, but also for the fans.

And that could then become a heavy burden for the future plans of those responsible.

In view of these, the team is almost doomed to success.