BERLIN (AP) — Bayer Leverkusen is struggling to reach the high standards it set for itself last season.
Xabi Alonso’s team has already dropped points in five of its nine Bundesliga games, while Tuesday’s 4-0 loss at Liverpool in the Champions League was already its second defeat of the season.
The late goals that characterized last season’s remarkable Bundesliga and German Cup campaigns — Leverkusen won both without losing a game — seem to have dried up.
Leverkusen has already conceded 15 goals in the Bundesliga. That’s only nine goals fewer than it conceded in the league over the whole of last season.
Though Leverkusen drew with Bayern Munich 1-1 away, it also failed to beat relegation candidates Holstein Kiel and Werder Bremen.
The aura of invincibility that Alonso built around the team has evaporated. But it’s not for want of trying. Before the Liverpool game, Leverkusen had 19 shots at goal in a scoreless draw against Stuttgart, which was second in the Bundesliga last season.
Missed chances have replaced late goals as the recurring issue, while defense is also a concern.
Granit Xhaka was scathing in his criticism of the last three goals his team conceded against Liverpool, suggesting the side’s intensity dropped after conceding the first, though the Swiss midfielder remained confident the team can recover.
“If we keep doing our thing, we’ll start winning games again,” Xhaka said.
Alonso, likewise, does not seem too worried by his team’s results.
“To win against top, top teams, you need to go through tough moments and suffer. We need to learn from this,” Alonso said after the loss in Liverpool.
Alonso opted to stay at Leverkusen despite a host of suitors reportedly keen on acquiring his services in the summer – including former clubs Bayern and Liverpool – and the Spanish coach hasn’t tinkered with or changed his title-winning approach.
The squad from last season remained largely intact over the summer. Central defender Odilon Kossounou left for Atalanta, with Leverkusen bringing Nordi Mukiele from Paris Saint-Germain as his replacement. Mukiele hasn’t played much so far.
It had looked like defensive chief Jonathan Tah was going to join Bayern, but the clubs failed to agree a transfer fee for a player whose Leverkusen contract is up at the end of this season. Tah has played every minute for the team so far.
Leverkusen is already seven points behind unbeaten Bayern in the Bundesliga. It next faces a short trip to Bochum on Saturday, when new Bochum coach Dieter Hecking will hope to coax some improvement from a team that has lost eight of its nine games. Bochum has a point after a draw with Kiel in September.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Leverkusen's head coach Xabi Alonso gestures from the touchline during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield in Liverpool, England, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba was left reeling Thursday after a fierce Category 3 hurricane ripped across the island and knocked out the country’s power grid.
The magnitude of the impact remained unclear through the early hours of the day, but forecasters warned that Hurricane Rafael could bring “life-threatening” storm surges, winds and flash floods to Cuba after ravaging parts of the Cayman Islands and Jamaica.
On Wednesday evening, huge waves lashed at Havana’s shores as sharp winds and rain whipped at the historic cityscape, leaving trees littered on flooded roads. Much of the city was dark and deserted.
As it plowed across Cuba, the storm slowed to a Category 2 hurricane chugging into the Gulf of Mexico near northern Mexico and southern Texas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
On Thursday morning, the hurricane was located about 180 miles (290 kilometers) west-northwest of Havana. It had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 kph) and was moving northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).
Rafael is expected to keep weakening as it spins over open waters and heads toward northern Mexico, although the hurricane center warned there was “significant uncertainty” in the storm's future track.
Meanwhile, many Cubans were left picking up the pieces from Wednesday night, with a strange sense of déjà vu after a rocky few weeks in the Caribbean nation.
In October, the island was hit by a one-two punch. First, Cuba was roiled by stretching island-wide blackouts stretching on for days, a product of the island’s energy crisis. Shortly after, it was slapped by another powerful hurricane that killed at least six people in the eastern part of the island.
It stoked discontent already simmering in Cuba amid an ongoing economic crisis, which has pushed many to migrate from Cuba.
While the State Department issued a travel warning for Cuba because of the story, the Cuban government also raised an alarm, asking citizens to hunker down.
Classes and public transport were suspended on parts of the island and authorities canceled flights in and out of Havana and Varadero. Thousands of people in the west of the island were evacuated as a preventative measure, and many more like Silvia Pérez, a 72-year-old retiree living in a coastal area of Havana, scrambled to prepare.
“This is a night I don’t want to sleep through, between the battering air and the trees,” Pérez said. “I’m scared for my friends and family.”
The concern came after the storm knocked out power in the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, where it also unleased flooding and landslides.
Rafael is the 17th named storm of the season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
Waves break on the beach during the passing of Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man walks through the wind and rain brought by Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man walks through the wind and rain brought by Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People at a bus stop shield themselves with cardboard amid wind and rain during the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man walks through the wind and rain brought by Hurricane Rafael in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A Cuban flag shredded by the winds of Hurricane Rafael flies above the statue of General Calixto Garcia in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
