The Vienna Vikings just finished their regular season with a perfect 12-0 record. Last year they were bounced in the semi-finals by the Stuttgart Surge ending their hopes of a perfect season.

This year they hope they are prepared to take the next step and get back to the title game, as the 2022 ELF Champions are eager to get two titles in three years.

Rusty or well rested?

The Vikings played 11 straight weeks of football before earning some much needed time off towards the end of the season. The Vikings have only played one game in the last month with bye weeks in Week 12 and 14, followed by another bye week earned with their top seed.

Coach Chris Calaycay talked about balancing rest and rust in preparation for Paris: 

“Honestly we had a long stretch of 11 games then a bye week, the Enthroners, and another bye week. But there’s been a lot of preparation leading up to the wild-card round. We had thoughts and plans for each opponent. So after we knew who we were going to play on Sunday everything was already in line for how we would prepare.”

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Record-breaking crowd cheering them on

The Vikings are expecting more than 11,000 fans in Generali Arena breaking a franchise record for attendance. Even after the long break Coach Calaycay assures the Vikings will be ready:

“I'm really excited and confident that this Football team is going to go out there and play well. I think that goes for any game. Nobody wants to come out and play poorly in the first quarter. I know what this football team is. I know what we have and our goal as coaches is to make sure that we're as best prepared as possible to not have any rust. But it's football - we've got to go out there and play.”

The home team also gets several key players back from injury: In the offense Kimmi Linnainmaa and Jordan Buoah will return, two talented European receivers, as well as American defensive back Exavier Edwards.

“I’ll take Jordan and Kimmi back any day. But we’ve been great this year with Reece Horn, Noah Tourem and Florian Bierbaumer, starting to finally get into his form after injury.”

Facing a new opponent

The Vikings have never played the Paris Musketeers. However there is plenty of familiarity between these two teams. Many players on either side are national team players for Austria and France, teams that have met several times in IFAF games. While focusing on scouting his opponent, Coach Calaycay stressed that the most important aspect is that the Vikings play up to their own abilities:

“We got to be ourselves. We have a tradition here of having one of the best defenses in the league for the last three years. It was not different this year. We're overall ranked number two in points allowed and number three in yards allowed. So, we want to concentrate on ourselves and what we do."

Also Max Kossler, the Paris OC, spent several seasons as a member of the Vikings both as a player and assistant coach. Furthermore, Vienna played Paris quarterback Zach Edwards three times in 2022, including defeating him in the playoffs route to the title. 

The game is a highly anticipated matchup between two teams that have never played before in ELF history. Make sure too tune in Saturday September 7th at 15:15 CET.

Watch the ELF Semi-Finals on ELF Gamepass