IFL SEMIFINALS AND PLAYOUTS REVIEW!
- Pasquale Basile
- Jun 17
- 7 min read
The Italian Football League has awarded both finalists for the June 28th Championship Game in Toledo and a relegated team for next year's tournament. Guelfi Firenze and Dolphins Ancona have won against Frogs Legnano and Panthers Parma in the deciding games for the second final in the States, while the Pirates Albisola have beaten the Bergamo Lions, who have been relegated to IFL 2, the Second Division of Italian Football, at least on the field.
The stage Is almost set for the final date of the 2025 Season in the IFL, the game that gives the Gionni Colombo Trophy to the winners. After finishing the Regular Season with a perfect 10-0 record, Guelfi Firenze are on the hunt for a fourth straight final, reclaiming themselves as one of the best teams in the Italian Movement right now, but on their way there is a massive presence of frogs coming for them. Their only win in the Italian Bowl was in 2022, when they defeated the Milano Seamen, in their last official appearance before their ELF spell, with a 21-17 win in Bologna, at the famous Renato Dall'Ara Stadium.
GUELFI FIRENZE VS FROGS LEGNANO
After winning 28-7, in their Wild Card Round game against Giaguari Torino, the black and Silver side from Lombardia are facing another big rival on their way to their first Championship Game since 1998, the twelfth in the team's history and one of the longest droughts in Italian Football. The Legnano Frogs are a historic team, with six titles in their history, and they want to finally break their 30 year wait for another title.
After a scoreless first quarter, Frogs scored first thanks to a 34 Yard pass by Luke Zahradka to Niccolò Pulsinelli and a 10 yards run by the former Milano Seamen and Frankfurt Galaxy QB, while the purple team made its first TD on a Frankie Stola reception in the end zone after a throw by Andrea Fimiani.
The third quarter opens on a 21-0 run by the home team, as two TD runs by Fimiani and a Pick Six by Eystin Salum give the team from Tuscany a 28-14 lead broken by another score by Pulsinelli, but unfortunately the extra point is no good
In the final quarter Lorenzo Gioco shortened the distance thanks to a 29 yards Field Goal, but another TD run by Fimiani closed the game. Guelfi won 35-23 and reached the Italian Bowl once again, while the Frogs, despite big changes in their roster during the offseason, fell short to a historic final.
This will be the fourth straight Championship Game for the Guelfi, who are now facing their best run in their 25 year long history. They won it all against the Seamen in 2022, but then lost their two finals against the Panthers in Toledo and Ravenna (2023 and 2024). Can they finally win their second title in the team's history?
ANCONA DOLPHINS VS PARMA PANTHERS
The Ancona Dolphins, 9-1 after the Regular Season and in first place in Group A, are heavily considered as one of the biggest surprises of the season, and the fans are believing in a Championship Game that could change the team's history, as they have never won it all despite playing in four straight finals. They were the italian version of the 90s Buffalo Bills, as they lost all their four finals against the Bergamo Lions, from 2001 to 2004, and now the Semi Finals are their weak point, as in recent years were so close to their fifth Championship Game.
The defending champions, Parma Panthers, after beating the Skorpions Varese 41-29 away from home, have another big game on their way to build a dynasty. Just like last year, Brian Michitti's team didn't end their first phase of the year well, but the Playoffs are another story. The Emilia-Romagna side ended their 2024 Season with a seventh title in team's history, their third since 2021. This will be the third game between these two teams in 2025, as they shared the same group this year. In both games during the Regular Season, Ancona won.
Panthers score first in the first quarter on a QB run by Robbie Patterson, but then the home team ties the game thanks to another run, this time made by Christian Brancaccio.
No points were scored in both the second and the third quarter, but the game is still too close to call. During the last part of the game, the Dolphins scored first thanks to a run by Blake Eaton, but the opposing team tied it once again thanks to a Jaylin Parnell reception.
During the final minute of the game, Ancona goes up in the score thanks to Teo Flamini, who scores on another run, but the extra point does not enter between the posts.
Parma tries to save their season, but they run out of time. The king is dead, long live the king.
For the first time since 2022, the Gionni Colombo Trophy will go to another team than the Panthers, as they fall short after a season where their weak points were their direct rivals in the standings, both Ancona and Legnano.
After many delusions and many bumped walls, Ancona has made it to the Italian Bowl after a 21 year drought. This will be their fifth final in their forty year history, their first since 2004, when they lost their fourth Championship Game in a row against Bergamo, who were in the middle of their 11 straight titles streak. The stage is set. The Guelfi and Dolphins will face each other on June 28th in the 44th Italian Bowl, the second played in Toledo...Who will win?
THE TANK BOWL
This weekend the Italian Football League not only has decided which teams are flying to the United States, but also the only team to be relegated to next year's IFL 2.
Lions Bergamo (0-10) and Pirates Albisola (2-8) were the worst teams in 2025, and a come back of the old format with two groups of six teams just like a decade ago, has forced FIDAF to reinstate a Playout game between the two last place teams.
The "Italian Tank Bowl", as someone usually names this kind of games, was scheduled to being played last weekend in Florence, at Guelfi Sport Center, the home field of Guelfi Firenze, but both teams opposed to the decision made by the Italian federation, so the game is being played at Campo Sportivo Luceto, the Pirates home field, with the Lions as the home team.
After their win in Week 14 against Aquile Ferrara, the Liguria side have seen their stakes rise for this game against a team that went winless this year and wants to save the season by scoring their only win in 2025.
The team managed by HC Alfredo Giuso was mostly unlucky in their first Season in the Big Leagues, between a pending penalty because of a infraction committed during last year's IFL 2 semifinal game against Vipers Modena, when they won the game on a Hail Mary, but then lost 8-0 because a player that has started to play abroad was on the field during the game, and the federation forbiddens teams to use "Import Players" on their rosters, and many injured players, including a disqualified one, former Seamen player Giacomo Querzola, stopped by NADOITALIA, the national anti doping committee, because of a infarction caused by the use of a forbidden substance.
Despite winning the Second Division title in 2023, and then having a disappointing season in IFL 2 last year, as they have decided to not play in the Italian Football League in 2024, Bergamo has successfully applied to play in the IFL for the first time in six years, but now wants to save their season. After playing without their QB Jay Butterfield, disqualified for the last two games of the Regular Season because of an Unsportsmanlike Foul, the Yellow and Red team are hungry for a huge win.
The winner of this contest will earn the right to play in the IFL next year, while the loser, at least on the field, will play in the IFL 2, unless they ask FIDAF to join the main league via a call for registration, a process where teams from Second Division can apply to play in the IFL following some conditions to respect.
The game starts on a 90 yard Kickoff Return by Andrea Fiammenghi that gives the early lead to the Pirates, who during this week have incorporated former Lazio Marines and Rutgers University QB Austin Albericci to their roster. His brother Filippo Fiammenghi scores another TD, this time on a 30 yard play that started on a throw by Albericci, to give the Pirates a early 14-0 lead in the second quarter.
Another main character in this game was the Pirates Kicker Davide Gregorini, who scored three Field Goals from 25, 35 and 28 yards out.
Another TD by Andrea Fiammenghi in the final quarter, including a two point conversion successfully scored by the Ligurian team, set the score to a 31 point lead, but during the Two Minute Warning, Luca Aldrighetti scored the only Lions touchdown of the day. During the two point conversion Jay Butterfield gets picked off, but the defense gets stopped. The game ends 31-6.
A huge win ends a first ever season for the Pirates full of unlucky events and big losses with a happy ending and the right to play once again in the IFL in 2026, while the Bergamo Lions, the most winning team in Italian Football with twelve titles, end their 2025 season without a single win in the whole season.
The "Orobici" are relegated, at least for now, to the IFL 2, the second tier of the Italian gridiron movement, but during the offseason we will know more about their plans.
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