The 2010 CEFL season kicks off this weekend with two games scheduled to be played in Serbia. The season officially kicks off in Novi Sad, where the Novi Sad Dukes host their old nemesis the Budapest Wolves, while the Vukovi Belgrade begin their championship defense hosting the Ljubljana Silverhawks.

The champs will host maybe the most unknown team in the league. Although the Silverhawks have never beaten the Vukovi, they had made a huge improvement last year and gave the Vukovi a real fight in the semi final of 2009. They’ve also reinforced their team with import players, but it remains to be seen if the new imports, running back Jordan Capitanio and linebacker Keithshone Dantzler will be as big a part of the Silverhawks as their last year’s import, running back Joseph Moncur.

“I would image that there will be a lot of mistakes, game speed things probably. We’re just doing our best to catch up, I’m sure they do the same thing. They feel pretty goofy about last year and they’ll found out about their imports. We’ll continues to work and teach and catch up with all the little problems we’ve had in the offseason and continue to get better”, says the Vukovi’s coach John Harper.

If they will be, the Vukovi could have their hands full, even though they’ve added a third import this offseason, Tony Stubbs. However, their quarterback Jordan Green, injured his foot in a preseason friendly versus the Danube Dragons of Austria and was wearing a cast during the Serbian league opener of his team. The Vukovi’s coach, John D. Harper says he will be back quickly, but Green will likely miss this one. Brandon McDowell led the Vukovi to an easy win that put the Vukovi on top of the Serbian league standings early in the season.

The game will be played at Ada Ciganlija field from 4PM, where the Vukovi still defend their unbeaten streak that now goes into the 4th year.

The Novi Sad Dukes are another unknown team even though they had a similarly high flying start in the Serbian league, when they beat Niš 43-6.

“Against Niš was adequate, I’m satisfied that we had played the way we agreed we would play. Satisfied that we didn’t play half speed as some expect us to play, to play it out. We played seriously”, says their coach for this season Igor Hoffmann.

“The bigger problem is that we’ve reverted to some of our old problems, so ever since we came out of the gym on the grass, we’re not practicing well because our practice field is not adequate. I’m afraid that it could have consequences on the game against the Wolves … I was really happy with our practices during the winter, but since then it’s been iffy and if we fail this year it could be the biggest reason … We know who we are and we know our qualities, but it can’t surface if we’re not practicing properly.”

The biggest reason they’re an unknown is that they’re missing some of their best players from last year. Their number one quarterback on paper, Rastko Jokić, is still hurting from last year and one of the league’s best receivers, Jovan Plećaš, will be out until at least May.

“Regardless of all this, I think that we can play with them and from one perspective I think it’s normal that we’re expected to be the favorites … I think we’re better than last year. The Croatian players brought us a lot of positive energy. They come all the way from Zagreb to practice and it’s had a positive influence.”

The last time these teams met, the Wolves took the win in Novi Sad, in one of the more ugly games of last year. They’ll again play at FK Kabel stadium, starting from 3PM.