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BAYERN

Dortmund run riot, but life’s a pitch for Bayern

Third-placed Borussia Dortmund were delighted by their 5-1 romp at Werder Bremen, while run-away Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich were left lamenting the Nuremberg pitch in their quest for perfection.

Published: 9 February 2014 13:50 CET
Dortmund run riot, but life's a pitch for Bayern
Dortmund thrashed Werder Bremen. Photo: DPA

European champions Bayern remained 13 points clear in the Bundesliga as goals by Mario Mandzukic and captain Philipp Lahm sealed the Bavarian giants' 2-0 win with 56 out of a possible 60 points this season.

It was Bayern's 45th unbeaten Bundesliga match, dating back to October 2012, and their 29th unbeaten away league game to extend their records after a rare win in Nuremberg on Saturday.

But Bayern did not have things all their own way leaving coach Pep Guardiola to criticize the pitch at the Grundig Stadium which hampered Munich's dominant passing game.

"I quickly noticed why Bayern had only won once in six years at Nuremberg," said Guardiola.

"Nuremberg were aggressive and played very intensively, they had two or three clear chances.

"After we went 2-0 up, things got easier for us, but the pitch made things difficult and wasn't good for our possession and short passing game.

"That is why we tried to put in more long balls, but our attitude was incredible."

Despite the surface, Bayern still enjoyed more than 60 percent possession – down from the average of 75 they are accustomed to – while defeat dropped Nuremberg back into the bottom three.

"The first-half cost us a lot of strength and the belief wasn't as great there after," admitted Nuremberg coach Gertjan Verbeek.

"It was almost impossible to come back after they went 2-0 up soon after the break."

Bayer Leverkusen enjoyed a 1-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday to stay second, while Dortmund, in third, dismantled Bremen with Poland striker Robert Lewandowski and attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan both scoring twice.

"That was what we want to see every week and, hopefully, we will see again," said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp.

"We were strong as a bear in our pressing and there is very little to complain about."

Having taken just four points in five games before the winter break, Dortmund finally produced the sort of attacking football which carried them to last season's Champions League final.

"The game was huge fun to play in, and if we have fun, then results like that come around," said midfielder Nuri Sahin.

"This big victory is extremely important to us.

"We needed to finally not be nervous and played really confidently.

"This is good for our self-confidence, especially with the tough weeks coming up."

Bayern and Dortmund are in German Cup quarter-final action in midweek with Guardiola's side at Hamburg, who suffered a club record sixth straight defeat at home to Hertha Berlin on Saturday.

Dortmund are at Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday looking to book their place in the semi-finals having won the title in 2012.

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SPACE

Meet the small German space mission that aims to improve life on earth

Holding its own against aerospace giants like pan-European Airbus Space or French-Italian Thales Alenia, Bremen-based minnow OHB has carved out a space as a national champion in satellite building.

Published: 15 July 2020 09:03 CEST
Meet the small German space mission that aims to improve life on earth
Two satellites are manufactured in Bremen. Photo: DPA

Its latest coup was claiming a hefty slice of business from contracts signed in early July by the European Space Agency (ESA) as it builds up its Earth observation programme known as Copernicus.

Among the six new satellites, an OHB-built orbiter will keep an eye on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions stemming from human activity over the coming decades.

The aim: offering policymakers the data they need to find ways of reducing greenhouse gas output.

“Some space missions are mostly relevant to science. At OHB, we like projects that help people in their everyday lives,” chief executive Marco Fuchs told AFP.

Thales Alenia may have secured the lion's share of ESA orders this time around, but OHB is “ideally positioned” to play a role in “permanent observation of the Earth in environmental, climate and security terms”, Fuchs said.

READ ALSO: 10 breathtaking views of Germany from space

Germany's aerospace sector claimed around 30 percent of the “Copernicus 2.0” business, or €800 million.

That shows it is “well equipped to be competitive internationally”, believes Thomas Jarzombek, a lawmaker who tracks aerospace issues for Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party.

The sector has also been abuzz in recent months as Germany signalled ambitions to significantly ramp up the industry.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier raised hopes when he voiced support in October for a proposal from industry federation BDI to develop a space mission launch centre in Germany.

Family first

OHB's success with Copernicus was in part down to the laurels it earned working on Galileo, the ESA's other flagship programme offering satellite navigation to match the American GPS system.

The Bremen-based company with its 2,800 workers built around 20 of the satellites in the network.

Snatching that contract from under the nose of Airbus subsidiary Astrium in 2010 rocketed aerospace also-ran OHB into the ranks of top manufacturers.

When businesswoman Christa Fuchs bought the small company known as Otto Hydraulik Bremen in 1982, it had been repairing ships since its founding a quarter of a century before.

The satellites play a role in monitoring carbon emissions. Photo: obs/©OHB SE

But her husband, aerospace engineer Manfred Fuchs, joined the firm a few years later and piloted it off in a new direction — handing the controls over to his son Marco, a former corporate lawyer, in 2000.

The family holds 70 percent of the firm to this day, with the rest traded on the stock market and valued at a total €740 million.

The coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on OHB, prompting the company to give up on paying out a dividend to shareholders this year as well as performance-related bonuses or pay rises to staff.

But it is pressing on with new projects, including developing its own rocket at a site in the Bavarian city of Augsburg to deliver small satellites into orbit.

'Try something new'

Typical of Germany's industrial backbone of successful small and medium-sized firms, OHB has resisted plans of French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire to bolt it together with France's Arianegroup and Italy's Avio.

“Merging Arianegroup and OHB would not improve the EU's space industry,” CEO Fuchs insists.

OHB itself has meanwhile set its sights on other related projects.

READ ALSO: Meet the Germans who want to move to Mars

Marco Fuchs argues that “the EU should try something new… in the telecommunications space”.

“Europe needs its own network of versatile satellites, like those being built by competitors like Project Starlink of Space X or Kuiper by Blue Origin,” he said.

Billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink programme and Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos' Kuiper aim to deliver connectivity to the remotest locations on land and sea.

Fuchs' plans may well fit the EU's ambitions.

European Commissioner Thierry Breton recently told France's Le Figaro daily that he would “very soon” propose plans for the EU to become more independent in broadband internet.

By Jean-Philippe Lacour

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