Nuri Sahin has always moved fast. At 16, he broke a record as the youngest ever Bundesliga player. At 36, he's coach of last season's Champions League runner-up Borussia Dortmund.
Just 13 games into his tenure, it's falling apart fast, too.
Sahin and Dortmund face Leipzig on Saturday with the coach's future in question following three losses in a row in all competitions — five in away games — and with a squad ravaged by injuries.
“It's not about me, it's about the club, and I'm in a position of responsibility as the coach,” Sahin told broadcaster Sky. Dortmund management is publicly backing Sahin, with sporting director Sebastian Kehl calling on the club to “stand together” in adversity.
There are other factors to consider besides the results, too.
Sahin has faced criticism for the way Dortmund collapsed against Real Madrid from a 2-0 lead to lose 5-2 — especially for his decision to add an extra defender just before Madrid's comeback — but few teams even get a 2-0 lead at Madrid in the first place.
Just how well Dortmund should be playing is up for debate, too. The squad arguably overperformed by reaching the Champions League final last season, when it was fifth in the Bundesliga. Being seventh in the table right now isn't a drastic decline — not yet, anyway.
Then there's the injury list. Sahin was down to a bare-bones squad at Wolfsburg on Tuesday, with two midfielders covering for injured defenders. His bench options were limited to reserve team players and Marcel Sabitzer, who was playing with a back injury.
Firing Sahin this soon could perhaps backfire on Dortmund's management, which hurried to promote him when Edin Terzic resigned following the Champions League final.
Exactly how and why Dortmund's relationship with its most successful coach in years broke down remains unclear, though an apparent conflict with defender Mats Hummels — who was allowed to leave the club in the summer too — seemingly played a role.
Some fans wonder if Dortmund could have done more to salvage its relationship with Terzic, or if the club needed to take more time to consider other coaching options.
Still, Sahin's potential seemed clear.
Inspired by Dortmund great Jürgen Klopp, Sahin took his first steps while injured during his playing days at Dortmund, coaching his hometown's ninth-tier club in his spare time.
Spells as a player at Real Madrid and Liverpool gave him an up-close view of how other top clubs worked, and he was a top-tier coach for the first time at 33 with Antalyaspor in Turkey, a role he left to become Terzic's assistant back at Dortmund.
Also this weekend, Vincent Kompany can keep Bayern top of the Bundesliga — despite its difficulties in Europe — when his team hosts Union Berlin on Saturday. Champion Bayer Leverkusen takes on Stuttgart on Friday.
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Dortmund's head coach Nuri Sahin, right, talks to teammate Nico Schlotterbeck at the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. Real Madrid won 5-2. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Dortmund's head coach Nuri Sahin looks on ahead the Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and Borussia Dortmund at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Dortmund's head coach Nuri Sahin looks on ahead the Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and Borussia Dortmund at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Friday bragged of its recently tested new intercontinental ballistic missile, calling it “the world’s strongest,” a claim viewed by outside experts as propaganda though the test showed an advancement in the North's quest to build a more reliable weapons arsenal.
A missile launched by North Korea on Thursday flew higher and stayed in the air for a longer duration than any other weapon the country had so far fired. It signaled that the North has achieved progress in acquiring a nuclear-armed ICBM that can hit the U.S. mainland. But foreign experts assess that the country has still a few remaining technological issues to master before acquiring such a functioning ICBM.
On Friday, the North’s Korean Central News Agency identified the missile as “Hwasong-19” ICBM and called it “the world’s strongest strategic missile” and “the perfected weapon system.”
KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un observed the launch, describing it as “an appropriate military action” to express North Korea’s resolve to respond to its enemies’ moves that escalated tensions and threats to North Korea’s national security. It said Kim thanked weapons scientists for demonstrating North Korea’s “matchless strategic nuclear attack capability.”
South Korea’s military earlier said that North Korea could have tested a solid-fueled missile but Friday’s KCNA dispatch didn’t say what propellant the Hwasong-19 ICBM uses. Observers say the color of exhaust flames seen in North Korean media photos on the launch still suggest the new ICBM uses solid fuels.
Before Thursday’s test, North Korea’s most advanced ICBM was known as the “Hwasong-18” missile which uses solid fuels. Pre-loaded solid propellants make it easier to move missiles and require much less launch preparation times than liquid propellants that must be fueled before liftoffs. So it’s more difficult for opponents to detect launches by solid-fuel missiles.
In recent years, North Korea has reported steady advancement in its efforts to obtain nuclear-tipped missiles. Many foreign experts believe North Korea likely has missiles that can deliver nuclear strikes on all of South Korea, but it has yet to possess nuclear missiles that can travel to the mainland U.S.
There are questions on whether North Korea has acquired the technology to shield warheads from the high-temperature, high-stress environment of atmospheric reentry. Many foreign analysts say North Korea also must have improved altitude control and guidance systems for missiles. They say North Korea needs an ability to place multiple warheads on a single missile to defeat its rivals’ missile defenses.
All of North Korea’s known ICBM tests, including Thursday’s, have been performed on steep angles to avoid neighboring countries. South Korean military spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said Thursday that a high-angel trajectory launch cannot verify a missile’s re-entry vehicle technology, though North Korea has previously claimed to have acquired that technology.
Observers say that Thursday's launch, the North's first ICBM test in almost a year, was largely meant to grab American attention days before the U.S. presidential election and respond to international condemnation over North Korea's reported dispatch of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
North Korea's reported troop dispatch highlights the expanding military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. South Korea. the U.S. and others worry North Korea might seek high-tech, sensitive Russian technology to perfect its nuclear and missile programs in return for joining the Russian-Ukraine war.
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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
This photo provided by the North Korean government, shows what it says a test launch of new intercontinental ballistic missile "Hwasong-19" at an undisclosed place in North Korea Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
This photo provided by the North Korean government, shows what it says a test launch of new intercontinental ballistic missile "Hwasong-19" at an undisclosed place in North Korea Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
This photo provided by the North Korean government, shows what it says a test launch of new intercontinental ballistic missile "Hwasong-19" at an undisclosed place in North Korea Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
