There’s no shame in losing to the Vukovi and the Blue Devils, the only remaining undefeated teams in the league. The defending champions, the Gladiators, are still only a modest 1-2, and their game in Novi Sad against the Dukes on Saturday could potentially decide who finishes number one in the group.

Though their attitude probably is that championships are won in October, an easier road to it for the Gladiators would be if they finish number one in the group. The Dukes are in a better position with two wins more, but also, they played two games more than the Gladiators, and the lead in the standings could very easily melt quickly.

Both teams lost two games, and both were beaten in games outside of their group. Looking at it right now, the order will be determined with games within the group. Because of the fact, both teams will play their most important game of the spring season — for the Dukes their last until September. And in the week before the game, the Dukes had to prepare knowing they’d have to play without one of the best quarterback in the CEFL, after Čaba Juhas broke his leg playing in the Serbian league.

“Well, it’s not the first time”, says the Dukes’ coach Predrag Nikolić of how they’ve been preparing for the game knowing they wouldn’t have Juhas in the game. “Especially because we practiced for the entire off season as if he wouldn’t be here.”

But he was in the end, and though he had a bad game against the Wolves he was still an important part of their team. Player losses between seasons have also been a problem for them this season, in a way they probably didn’t expect. They were always a team known for its good offense, but the defense was also never the problem. Not until this year, that is, with the Vukovi, Wolves and the Cowboys all rushing for at least 250 yards.

“The exact reason, I would say is the lack of defensive linemen, especially defensive tackles, or in other words we miss Nebojša Mirković. But also our linebackers haven’t been playing well together.”

The Gladiators were a strange passing team in their first year, but they toned it down last year. Maybe they won’t have 7 pass attempts like the Wolves, but they’ll probably be another team that will try to exploit the Dukes run defense. The Dukes on the other hand already faced the Gladiators when they just lost Juhas — Rastko Jokić ended up running for over 200 yards in a relatively comfortable win.

Unlike the other group, not much has been decided in this one. Saturday’s game from 2PM CET is an attempt to change that.