The Dubai Stallions can complete a perfect regular season on Friday if they overcome Dubai Barracudas at Dubai Sports City.
The final round of the second EAFL regular season takes place this weekend with the Abu Dhabi Wildcats and Al Ain Desert Foxes also going head-to-head.
While a perfect season would be a significant achievement for the Stallions, coach Andre Sommersell believes the feat would only be a nice consequence and that the real prize is the Desert Bowl.
The former NFL player insists his side will still play to win but admits that some players carrying minor ailments will be spared.
“We play football and no one wants to lose,” said Sommersell.“That said, we’re not going to underestimate anyone and we want to be rolling going into the playoffs, we’re trying to play our game and get the victory.
“A perfect season would be great to have, I’d love to have it but we don’t dwell on it, everyone makes the playoffs and from there anything can happen.”
Missing this weekend for the Stallions will be Andre Tasic, whose arm still isn’t healed and he will be deputised by Lebanese international Ronny Zahr.
The starting Serb quarterback has been in sensational form this season but missed last week’s win over the Abu Dhabi Wildcats due to injury and was ably covered by Michael Park.
With the Barracudas already locked into a date with defending champions Abu Dhabi Wildcats in the playoffs, it would be easy for the Dubai side to take their eyes off the ball and begin to concentrate on the more important game further down the calendar.
But coach Kyle Jordan still has a score to settle after his side were defeated by the Stallions 27-14 last time out.
“This week all we’re focused on is the Stallions. Firstly, we want to continue the momentum and play good football and improve from the last time, where I thought we didn’t play as well as we could despite the result,” said Jordan.
“Secondly, we had a tough loss after we had led in the fourth quarter against the Stallions last time out that left a bad taste in our mouths that we’re looking to put right.
“We all understand we are playing Abu Dhabi in the playoffs but they’re not our focus, we’ll worry about them later.”
Abu Dhabi come up against an Al Ain team determined to grab their first win of the season while the Wildcats are in the unfamiliar position of chasing a .500 record in a season following an 8-0 showing last year.
