Season 16 Week 1 Preview

[Paul-London]

Okay its a long way off, theres lots of trades to be done, rookies drafted, roster changes but lets have an early look at the Week 1 games....

Orlando at Ohio

Both teams will want to get off to a quick start, Orlando now have a new assistant GM who will be eager to trade.  Orlando have a great offense, lousy defense so no clues what Orlando will be looking for.  Ohio will want to bounce back to the playoffs, after being AFC Champions in Season 14 they failed to make the playoffs last year, a full training camp in Ohio for Jarrett Payton could cause him to have a big year.

Birmingham at New York

New York will want to get out of the blocks quickly and prove who the real threat in the AFC East is after Birmingham went further than NY last year.  New York have a new GM who might not mess about too much with the team, he wants them to get over that final hurdle in the playoffs and will make some changes.  Birmingham had a great year last year, can they prove it wasnt a fluke ?

Montreal at Raleigh-Durham

Interesting Week 1 clash here, could this be the old powerhouse versus the new ?  Raleigh had a brilliant second half last year after acquiring HB Curtis Alexander, Montreal had a great year but lost twice to the Skyhawks.  Could Raleigh make it 3 in a row ?  The Skyhawks are many pundits tip for a surprise playoff spot, a win here could really start their season off well.

Mexico at San Antonio

The Riders who are the AFC Champions face the Aztecs who might have a new starting QB in Chad Hutchinson.  Mexico surely have to play better than last year but an away trip to the AFC Champions is a tough Week 1 clash.

Sacramento at Barcelona

Two teams who underachieved last year meet and one will fly off to a 1-0 start.  Barcelona looked good for a playoff spot until they lost their last 5 games of the year after starting off 4-5.  Sacramento started 5-1 then nosedived but had two impressive wins at the end of the year.

Rhein at Scotland

Tough EFC clash for both teams here, Scotland lost some quality defensive players in the offseason but retain most of their squad intact.  Rhein had a great year last season before just missing out on a playoff spot, could be an important tiebreaker game for both teams.

Amsterdam at London

The Monarchs lost a lot of veterans and badly need depth in many positions.  It will be the first full year under their GM and there will be a big change at QB as Todd Bouman retired.  Amsterdam lost one of their best players in Emil Ekiyor on defense and Trevor Insley on offense and after their heartbreaking loss in the EFC Game last year will want to bounce back.

Frankfurt at Paris

Interesting clash here, Frankfurt are the strong team but the Paris GM has waited for the offseason to make some major moves.  Paris have talent but still need to step it up if they want to cause problems in the EFC for other teams.  Frankfurt wont be the same without Joe Aska but they do have Skip Hicks who looked brilliant last year , so good that Aska knew he wouldnt start again and so retired.

Berlin at Austria

The late game features two interesting teams, Austria are the FWL Bowl champs and had no retirements and start this season as favourites for the crown.  Berlin lost a ton of Hall of Fame veteran starters but most were probably hurting the team so it will be interesting to see how the new young backups do.

[Mario ADK]

funny enough after all those discussion regarding a "made-up" Aus-NY-game:
we HAVE the AUS-NY-matchup this season..... (week2)

[Mario ADK]

Berlin at Austria

The late game features two interesting teams, Austria are the FWL Bowl champs and had no retirements and start this season as favourites for the crown. 

don´t think so.
should be NewYorks season, they seem to have the strongest team overall.

But yes, i still see us as a hell of a competitor for the crown.

Regarding Austrias goals this season:

1) FWL-Title
2) EFC-Title
3) EFC-WEST-Title (i love those as i COULD become the first to have 5 Division-titles in a row if we win this and next season. A record for the ages.....)
4) Beating NY in week 2
5) Sweeping Frankfurt (including Playoffs)
6) Beating Frankfurt in the playoffs
7) Beating Frankfurt in the playoffs
8 ) Beating Frankfurt in the playoffs
9) Beating Frankfurt in the playoffs
10) Beating Frankfurt in the playoffs

[jcompton-Orlando]

funny enough after all those discussion regarding a "made-up" Aus-NY-game:
we HAVE the AUS-NY-matchup this season..... (week2)

And a NY/London game on top of it.

Ah well.

Chalk it up to the butterfly effect--undoubtedly if we hadn't had a big long stupid argument about it, Paul would have run the schedule on a different week-day-hour-minute-second-millisecond, thereby getting a different random number from the computer and a schedule where NY would have played Paris and Barcelona instead.

[Paul-London]

Yeah i must admit as soon as i saw the schedule i laughed in a weird 'i dont believe it' type of way.

From what everyone said because of where Austria finished there was no chance of them playing NY, i've never understood how they create the schedule anyway, pity though