[MIJB#19]

Maassluis versus Astoria preview
The trash talking has been going on for a long time, but the long awaited game between the Heroes and Merchantmen is finally there. The preseason talk about trades has lost it's value. Now is the time to show who's the best, or the least pathetic as these teams are both mediocre for league standards. Astoria are 7-7 and still in the playoff race, Maassluis are 6-8 and have their pride to play for.

The history with the two teams is one of two big trades regarding the 2005 draft. First, the Maassluis Merchantmen dealt away the #1 pick in the draft to Astoria to get some value for the top pick before the draft class was revealed. When the class was announced, in the highly touted trade the Merchantmen were called early winners. Astoria were called big losers and eventually Astoria traded the pick to Georgia.

During the draft, the Merchantmen had the earlier acquired #6 pick to get quarterback Mario Hudson, but saw him selected at #4 by rivals Paris and had no prospects left worth the #6. Two teams got in contact. While trade talks for Rochester's All IHOF guard Gene Simmons failed, the Heroes gladly acquried the pick to get safety Derrick Villagomez, not knowing that Boulder would trade up with Georgia to #5 and to grab Villagomez.

The preseason clouds are gone and the regular season is just 2 rounds of games away from the end. The Astoria Heroes haven't been the expected challengers for a division title. Lately the Heroes have dropped a lot of games as they won just two of their last four games. Especially mediocre quarterback Julius Irvine seems to have lost it and tossed just three touchdowns versus seven interceptions in his last five starts.

In the trade with Georgia the Heroes did pickup a duo of defensive line stars. End Cris Richardson and tackle Albert Simone are top players at their position and especially Simone is heading for All IHOF conciderations. However, a locker room battle between Simone and mid tackle Weldon Milner attracts the attention from what's really going on with the Heroes defense. Even draft defensive tackle Grant Major can't help there.

With them, the Heroes have been decent against the run, but against the pass they are amongst the worst defenses in the league. The pressence of a hot defensive line seems to be no help there. You'd almost compare them to the Merchantmen defense. There is one big difference though, the Merchantmen stop their opponents in the red zone while the Heroes let the opposition walk over them and hope for the offense to tie the score.

Lucky for the defense, the Heroes' offense has been very good so far, being amongst the top passing offenses in yardage. Combine it with one of the most effective rushing games and you have an offense capable of winning every game. Or losing every game, because the Merchantmen have specialized in stopping efficient rushing teams and let the opposing quarterbacks play catch up. Go ask Jamie Canter about that.

Still, the Heroes are never going to learn from the mistakes the Chesapeake Chitterlings made, they just laughed about it and lost against the even lower rated Brooklyn Fightin' Bums the next game. The Heroes will have to get back into winning fast, or they will end up above the Merchantmen in the draft order. If there's one thing that would humiliate the proud heroes, it would be ending up below a Dutch 'guaranteed win'.