It’s the champions versus the pretenders in Desert Bowl II on Friday as holders Abu Dhabi Wildcats take on the unbeaten Dubai Stallions at Dubai Sports City.
The fixture sees two teams at the top of their form in a repeat of last year’s final that completed a perfect season for the Wildcats.
This time the Stallions want revenge and will be tapping into the pain of 2013 to ensure there isn’t a repeat.
“I want them to come emotional,” said Stallions coach Andre Sommersell. “I think that is where we have lacked recently. In the semifinal we turned up emotional and you saw we beat Al Ain by a lot of points.
“We want to start early and fast and I want the players to have revenge on their mind. I want them to come carrying that emotion.”
The Stallions are the season’s in-form team being the No1 seed, winning five and drawing one game before beating the Al Ain Desert Foxes 47-7 to reach the final.
The Wildcats have been up and down all year but pulled off a convincing 40-0 win over a very strong Dubai Barracudas team in the semi-final.
The Stallions may feel the revenge factor gives them an edge, but Wildcats coach Charles Gillespie believes his side gain from being unencumbered by pressure.
“What happened last year is in the books,” said Gillespie. “What is happening on Friday is in the moment; they have to achieve so they have the stress and the pressure.
"They are unbeaten and only the tie with the Barracudas stopped them from having a perfect season like we did. So they have the stress of trying to go through the seasonwithout a blemish in the loss column. We want to come out and execute our football.”
Both teams have a full complement of players, a rarity in a sport where injuries are hard to avoid.
Sommersell will be taking to the field, a boost for his team that benefit from the experience and prowess of the former ‘Mr Irrelevant’ – the harsh moniker given to the player picked last in the NFL draft.
Sommersell said: “I have no choice, the players have made me play. They said ‘we started with you on the field and we should finish with you on the field’. Right now I’m calm, but there’s a lot boiling inside of me.
"Sometimes we come a little too over-confident and can sit on things. Being over-confident needn’t always be a bad thing but when you come in with that feeling you need to start ASAP.
“We have had really good practices and the guys are focused.”
While the Stallions will be stoking their fires, the Wildcats are looking to use the breadth of their playbook to do the damage.
Will Gillespie have a trick or two up his sleeve going into the final? “We’ll just have to see."
