Preparing for their first game, almost a month since the season started, the Zagreb Thunder probably didn’t envision they’d be playing a winless team. The Wolves come to Zagreb with a 0-2 score, and they can’t afford to play loose, even though the two games they lost were against much stronger teams.

That the season was going to be another hard one for the Thunder became clear months ago, when they were placed in a group with the Vukovi, the Wolves and the Blue Devils. After losing 10 times last year, their chances to record a win likely became limited to teams outside the group.

“I would say that overall we are a stronger team and better prepared for the season than we were last year. But, of course, the competition does not rest either, and we have seen that all of the other teams have also gotten better since last year, some by leaps, e.g. the Cowboys“, says the team’s new head coach Sean Craig.

“While we are getting better, we are still not as good as we could be. It all begins with the fact that we are still struggling to gain any support from the city of Zagreb. We still do not have a decent practice field and our practice conditions are dismal, to say the least. This leads to an undue amount of injuries on our team and an inability to attract and keep top athletes.“

So, some of the problems remain, but not all. The team plans on playing all its games in Zagreb, as it looks like they finally found a solution for the playing field. The same somewhat goes for practices, and Craig says it helped a lot.

“We had a really good preseason this year; we worked hard, focusing intensely on conditioning, speed, and strength. We have a few very promising rookies and most of our players from last year returning. We have a new defense coordinator from the States who has shaped our defense in very interesting ways. For the first time we had a spring camp this year and it has definitely helped shape this group of individuals into a unit. The energy on the team is distinctly different from last year. “

But to get a win, if not wins, they’ll need to overcome problems on the field as well. They had the worst offense in the league, scoring under 9 points per game and no matter how much the conditions improve, they’ll only win if they are a better team. Despite 10 losses in 2008, that year also brings a bit of hope — they lost two games by a point, and in general played better as the season went on. It’s doubtful it will matter against the Wolves, but they can still try to make it interesting.

“We know the Wolves from last year and know that we are capable of playing on their level — even if so far only for half of a game … If we can play without major mistakes and turnovers and focus on their weaknesses, we feel we have a chance to pull off an upset — which a win would definitely be.“

The Thunder decided to provide a simple Live Score, accessible at this link on their homepage.