The Hamburg Sea Devils suffered a home defeat in the European League of Football (ELF) in the Volksparkstadion in front of a record crowd of 32,500 spectators.
The finalists from 2021 and 2022 lost to Rhein Fire from Düsseldorf 22:27, but not only broke the previous league record (12,055), but also their own record for a football game in the Hanseatic city from 2007 (30,528).
“More than 30,000 people – the atmosphere, the energy, it’s just great,” said former NFL and Sea Devils player Kasim Edebali before the game about the “breathtaking” atmosphere in the Hamburger SV soccer stadium.
The loud support only helped coach Charles Jones’ team for a short time. The guests took control of the game early on and pulled away to 27:9 at the beginning of the second half. The Sea Devils’ comeback with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter finally came too late.
On Saturday evening, three German teams had all won with the Cologne Centurions, Stuttgart Surge and Frankfurt Galaxy. Berlin Thunder suffered a defeat on Sunday afternoon. The Berliners were far behind at ELF champions Vienna Vikings and were defeated by a narrow 24:27 in the end due to a strong last quarter.
Stuttgart Surge won 29:20 at the Paris Musketeers, the Cologne team prevailed at the Prague Lions 23:14. Frankfurt beat the overwhelmed Fehervar Enthroners in Hungary 48:13. For Stuttgart it was the first game of the third ELF season, Cologne and Frankfurt had lost their respective opening games the previous week, the Thunder clearly won their season debut against Fehervar.