Germany derby

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Rhine Fire

The German derby was the name given to the meeting of the two football teams Frankfurt Galaxy and Rhein Fire from Düsseldorf , which took place at least twice a year between 1995 and 2007 in the NFL Europe .

Emergence

When the World League of American Football was founded in 1991, the Frankfurt Galaxy was the only German team in the then global league. Up to 51,000 fans from all over Germany and neighboring countries attended the home games in the Waldstadion until 1992 . Due to this success, a second German professional football team was founded for the first time to reintroduce the league in 1995 with the Rhein Fire ( Birmingham Fire until 1992 ) based in Düsseldorf . As early as the 1970s, the Frankfurt Lions and then the Düsseldorf Panthers were the first German amateur football clubs.

Galaxy staff, like the manager Oliver Luck, also switched to the newcomer. From then on there was a rivalry between the two German professional teams, which were neighboring by NFL Europe standards. For both fan camps, the two team meetings soon became the highlights of the season. In the USA, this gave rise to the term Germany Derby . The London Monarchs also got a rival in the same country with the Scottish Claymores .

After 3 years, not least due to the popularity of the teams from Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, three more teams were founded by NFL Europe in Germany from 1999 with Berlin Thunder and later the Cologne Centurions and the Hamburg Sea Devils . However , this could not diminish the attraction of the now traditional Germany derby .

Since the introduction of the Cologne Centurions in 2004, the league officials have been trying to transfer the well-known rivalry between Cologne and Düsseldorf to professional football, which the supporters of Rhein Fire do not easily accept. Of course, you are also particularly happy about victories over the "Rhenish rival", the arch-rival in the league is and remains the Frankfurt Galaxy.

Galaxy and Fire are the two teams in the NFLE that were able to qualify for the World Bowl most frequently : Rhein Fire participated five times, Frankfurt Galaxy even eight times, with Galaxy having 4 wins against Rhein Fire with 2 successes.

statistics

Since 1995, the two teams have met twice a season, in the Waldstadion and at Rhein Fire (in Düsseldorf or temporarily in the Arena AufSchalke ). In the 23 previous league games (as of 4.06), Rhein Fire had the upper hand with 15 wins, in particular through the 7 wins in a row from 2000 to 2003, which has since been followed by a Frankfurt series of 5 triumphs so far (6 including World Bowl 2003 ).

With 12 home defeats, the away wins are slightly in the majority, which is of course particularly satisfying for the fans who traveled with them, while the hosts rarely had or offered reasons to celebrate. The game in Frankfurt 2002, in which the hosts could not score any points and the guests achieved a soccer-like result of 0: 3 with a field goal, illustrates the doggedness of the rivalry.

In addition, they played twice in the World Bowl finals, each team being able to prevail once. Particularly noteworthy is the victory of Rhein Fire in 1998 in Frankfurt, while the Galaxy only won in neutral Glasgow.

1995 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 21:20
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 28:41

1996 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 21:27
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 08:31

1997 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 10:07
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 20:21

1998 season

1999 season

  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 13:07
  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 20:21

2000 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 34:27
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 14:53

2001 season

  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 05:22
  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 17:13

2002 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 24:20
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 00:03

2003 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 14:07
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 38:07
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 35:16 World Bowl in Glasgow , Hampden Park

2004 season

  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 34:11
  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 14:20

2005 season

  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 23:20
  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 13:20

2006 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 10:06
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 16:14

2007 season

  • Rhein Fire - Frankfurt Galaxy 27:24
  • Frankfurt Galaxy - Rhein Fire 23:10