Past and present weighing heaving on Borussia Dortmund after lackluster start to season

BERLIN (AP) — It’s been more than 10 years since Borussia Dortmund won back-to-back titles in the Bundesliga.

There have been minor successes — German Cup wins in 2017 and 2021, and reaching the Champions League final last season — but they’ve served only to raise the long-suffering Dortmund fans’ expectations by showing the team’s potential.

Despite the return of former player Nuri Sahin as coach, this season already seems to be following the well-worn path of the last few.

Before the international break, Dortmund routed Scottish champion Celtic 7-1 in the Champions League, then followed with a meek 2-1 loss at Union Berlin in the Bundesliga. Dortmund has won only half of its six German league games so far. A 5-1 loss at Stuttgart had already put the team’s league ambitions in perspective.

Sahin believes it’s too early for alarm.

“To start doubting our path after six match days would be fatal. And we won’t do that,” Sahin said this week. “And despite criticism, it is my job to always offer solutions, to show the solutions, and to improve things together with the guys.”

Sahin said he had no room for any doubts.

“We are very, very confident about the path we are taking as a club and we will follow it to the end and be successful. I am sure of that.”

Sahin is the seventh coach to take charge of Dortmund since Jürgen Klopp stood down in 2015. It was Klopp who led the team to back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, then runner-up finishes behind Bayern Munich in 2013 and 2014, before his team’s form unravelled during the 2014-15 season.

Dortmund never recovered amid ongoing questions about the team's mentality. The closest it came to ending Bayern’s dominance was in 2023, when it squandered the chance of winning the Bundesliga on the final day during Edin Terzić’s second stint in charge.

Terzić resigned after last season’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid, saying he wanted to make way for someone else to begin a new era at the club – a reference to Klopp’s mostly successful seven-year stint in charge.

Red Bull’s recent announcement that Klopp is to join the company to oversee its soccer clubs’ development has added to Dortmund fans’ pain.

Another former coach, Thomas Tuchel, who won the German Cup in 2017, was appointed England coach on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old Sahin — Terzić’s former assistant — faces a tall order to restore Dortmund’s status as Bayern’s biggest challenger in the league. Other clubs have assumed that mantle, with Bayer Leverkusen becoming the one to finally end Bayern’s 11-year run as champion by claiming its first Bundesliga title after a remarkable unbeaten campaign last season. Stuttgart and Leipzig also both finished ahead of Dortmund last season.

Summer signings are yet to settle in. The arrivals of star Guinea forward Serhou Guirassy and Germany defender Waldmar Anton from Stuttgart have yet to improve the team’s attack or defense, while the 33-year-old Pascal Groß from Brighton can’t be seen as a long-term solution to the team’s vulnerability.

Off the field, there have been reports of disharmony between Dortmund’s new managing director for sport Lars Ricken, sporting director Sebastian Kehl and team planner Sven Mislintat. Chief executive Hans-Joachim “Aki” Watzke is stepping down at the end of the year.

One of Watzke’s last major contributions was the signing of a sponsorship deal with an arms manufacturer before the Champions League final, leading to protests from Dortmund fans this season.

Dortmund next hosts promoted St. Pauli in the Bundesliga on Friday, before another tussle with Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday. Madrid won their final 2-0 in June.

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Dortmund's Emre Can receives the ball in front of Union's Christopher Trimmel during the Bundesliga soccer match between Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund in Berlin, Germany, on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024.(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Dortmund's head coach Nuri Sahin shouts during the German Bundesliga soccer match between 1. FC Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)

Dortmund's Sebastien Haller talks to a referee during the Bundesliga soccer match between Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund in Berlin, Germany, on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024.(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has long believed diplomacy is about personal relationships — and he'll spend Friday in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as his time in office is on the cusp of ending.

There is also a planned meeting with other leaders in the “European Quad,” a group that in addition to Biden and Scholz includes French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described Biden as having a “close relationship” with Scholz, who early this year helped broker a multi-country prisoner swap that brought back to the United States the journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan. The German leader told Biden before the deal in words to the effect, “For you, I will do this."

“We have worked together closely to strengthen our economies for both our people and provide critical support for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russian aggression,” Jean-Pierre said at Wednesday’s White House briefing. “The president really wanted to make sure to go to Germany to thank Chancellor Scholz directly.”

But Biden's whirlwind trip starting on Thursday is hardly just a social visit.

The United States and Germany have been the largest two sources of aid to Ukraine as it fights to repel a Russian invasion. And with less than three weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Biden also feels obligated to ready allies for the possible return to the White House of Republican Donald Trump, who has antagonized U.S. friends while displaying an appreciation for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The administration said Biden has no plans while in Europe to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the two spoke on Wednesday about additional military aid, with the White House announcing $425 million in assistance, bringing the total support to more than $64 billion over two and a half years.

In addition to Ukraine, Biden and Scholz plan to discuss European Union relations, democratic values, trade and technology issues, global supply chains, tensions in the Middle East and security issues in the Indo-Pacific region. While in Germany, Biden will also meet with its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Earlier this month, the U.S. president had delayed a trip planned to Germany and Angola in order to oversee relief efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall in Florida. He now plans to go to Angola in December.

His trip to Germany comes as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has entered an aggressive sprint to persuade and turn out voters in an election that could ultimately determine the future of Biden's legacy of having strengthened NATO and built up relations in Asia to counter China's influence.

Trump has questioned America's commitment to defending NATO allies who are attacked, something that Biden called “un-American” in February.

“The whole world heard it and the worst thing is he means it,” the president said.

Trump has talked about applying tariffs on imports from U.S. allies in Europe and Asia, which could potentially strain relations with countries that could counter Russia, China and other rivals.

“Our allies have taken advantage of us more so than our enemies,” Trump said Tuesday at the Economic Club of Chicago.

Trump declined to say whether he’s continued to speak with Putin since losing the 2020 election but added that it would not be a negative if he and the Russian leader had been in touch. Bob Woodward in his new book “War” reported that Trump and Putin have spoken seven times.

“But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing,” Trump said. “If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing and not a bad thing in terms of a country.”

President Joe Biden speaks at a reception marking Italian-American Heritage Month, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)